95 replies to this topic

[jeff319]

Alright Bond fans,

I loved Die Another Day. Really, I was totally enthralled during the entire film (aside from the embarrassing CGI sequences) and I intend to see it at least one more time during its theatrical run.

However, one thing grated on me throughout the entire film... worse than the CGI even. That something is Halle Berry.

Perhaps it's not her fault. I shook my head in disgust when she butchered Ursula Andress's 'beach entrance.' I don't know who coached Halle for the scene, but her ridiculous hip movements were just too over the top. Not sexy, not funny, just embarrassingly over done.

We all know that MGM has been touting Halle's character, Jinx, as "The first in a new breed of Bond women." No offense to the geniuses over there, but have they ever seen License To Kill? For Your Eyes Only? Tomorrow Never Dies? The Spy Who Loved Me? All of those films included very self-reliant Bond women who often had to help 007 himself get out of a tight spot. And now, suddenly Jinx is a revelation? The first of her kind? Please.

Let's talk about Halle's performance. Now, I like Halle as an actress. I believe she's very talented and very likeable. But for whatever reason, I hated every word that came out of Jinx's mouth. From her "that's a mouthful" line to the woeful "Yo momma," I kept praying that Bond would leave her behind or something. I guess MGM is trying to be 'down with the kids,' but the character was pretty pathetic. Halle's performance was about as interesting as a floor tile.

So, thus ends my rant. If you agree with my diatribe against Jinx, great. If you don't, that's great too. Thanks for reading, and join me in praying that MGM doesn't bring Jinx back. Ever.

[iceberg]

Don't agree with you completely, Jeff. Because I love Halle Berry, and I thought she was fine as Jinx.

However, I do share your impatience with all the buzz about "Bond finally meeting his match," conveniently forgetting past forceful Bond girls as Pam Bouvier, Anya Amasova, and Wai Lin.

Sure, Jinx is a more fleshed out -- relatively speaking -- version of the Female Bond, but let's not discredit all the strong Bond girls of the past by forgetting about them.

[jeff319]

Exactly - I think MGM's stubborn ignorance of the roles of past Bond girls gets to me the most. Just the hype machine in motion, I guess.

Oh, and I do like Halle Berry, just not as Jinx. My problem doesn't lie with Berry herself, it's just the way the character was written that annoys me.

[Double-0 Six]

Halle Berry was better in DAD than I thought she was going to be, but her delivery of one-liners was terrible. I think the problem may also lie with the dialogue, I found a lot of the innuendo to be childish, rather than witty (especially the final scene) - It's as if they gave a couple of fourteen year olds a word processor and let them type whatever was on their mind.

No, I don't hate Halle Berry as Jinx, I just think the role could have been handled by all concerned much more effectively.

[deth]

I totally agree.

[DLibrasnow]

Yes Jeff, I believe you are the only one.... ;-)

[License To Kill]

I'm with Jeff on this one... Halle Berry ruined Die Another Day, plain and simple.


~LTK~

[iceberg]

Actually, Jeff, I have a good friend who wasn't too thrilled with Halle Berry's portrayal as Jinx, so you're not alone. As mentioned before, I thought she was okay.

It's just almost amusing how every time a Bond film comes out, it's almost obligatory for the actress playing the heroine to say "she's definitely Bond's equal, compared to past Bond girls."

I'm betting ten bucks that at least one of the actresses for Bond 21 will say that.

[solitaire]

Halle Berry was great as Jinx,and she was sexy as hell doing it. Whatever lines she uttered that you all seem to find childish,corny,or whatever,were words written in that drivel called a script.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

Hmmm, well since Halle says herself that she had them change some lines so they'd fit her character better then she's not completely to blame free of their quality. She seems to be a bit self conscious many of the one liners, and Halle admitted she found them the hardest part. And her uneasiness and over emphasis of some of them contrasted quite a bit with Brosnan's wry almost throwaway mastery of them (he even made most of the stinkers funny).

Regardless, I liked her, alot. I thought she was sexy and playful and looked to be having a great time. I loved the way she always said "James" like she was happy to see him. A nice change of pace from Wai Lin being distrustful and competitive and Natalya screeching at him to do something for the 1st half of their scenes together. Most importantly she was fun to watch and had a very nice playful sexual chemistry with Brosnan even amidst many of the groaner lines.

The only times I bought her though as an agent/assasin were in the Cuban scene with the Dr. and in the end scene with Miranda. She didn't have nearly the physical believability of Yeoh's Wai Lin but she was FAR more believable as a top agent than say Barbara Bach as XXX.

I was also surprised given the hype that she seemed to have even less screen time than to the other main Brosnan women who I consider Natalya, Wai Lin, Elektra (no not Cristmas who had and deserved less). But whenever she showed up I was happy to see her, and it looked liked James was too so she worked for me.

[Agent Lee]

Actually, there is only way that I would like to see Jinx return in the next 007 film. I would like to see her get killed. Well, why not? Zukovsky got killed in "The World is not Enough."

That way, Halle can exercise her acclaimed acting talent by performing a death scene. I would definitely pay money to see Wai Lin kill Jinx. After all, the earlier draft script had Michelle Yeoh as the bond leading lady for "Die Another Die". If only...

[License To Kill]

Originally posted by Agent Lee
Actually, there is only way that I would like to see Jinx return in the next 007 film.  I would like to see her get killed.  Well, why not?  Zukovsky got killed in "The World is not Enough."

Ahhhhh...... Only if she bought the farm! THAT WOULD BE THE BEST BOND EVER!


~LTK~

[RevolveR]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Double-0 Six
[B]Halle Berry was better in DAD than I thought she was going to be, but her delivery of one-liners was terrible. I think the problem may also lie with the dialogue, I found a lot of the innuendo to be childish, rather than witty (especially the final scene) - It's as if they gave a couple of fourteen year olds a word processor and let them type whatever was on their mind.


I agree with this. Halle Berry was not given good lines, and her delivery of them was horrible. I don't think that she was a good Bond girl and her character was nothing of what it was built up to be. And yes I'll be praying too that MGM doesn't bring her back for Bond 21!!!!

[SeanValen00V]

Zao "Who sent you?"

Jinx "Your mamma." I laughed at that, Jinx was ok, I mean if she was too good, then its getting in the way of Bond, let her be in the background, make your peace with it, its about Bond first. If she was too good, then we'll be hearing female Bond, getting in the way of Pierce's Bond, but it was a fitting performance, not to be taken seriously.

[MirandaFrost]

I personally just don't like Halle Berry, plain and simple. I hated her in the role of Jinx- they could have found someone much better than her. The Miranda Frost role to Rosamund Pike on the other hand, was an outstanding performance if I may so so.

[BondChick4ever8]

I didn't like Halle Berry as Jinx. I thought her lines were corny, childish, and dripping with inuendo. I mean come on, the end scene was quite over the top. Every time Jinx was on screen she was talking to Bond about pointless one liners. We never really found out anything about her character. If she was supposed to be the dynamic bond girl...why do we know more about Frost. I certainly do not think Jinx character was considered a "revealation" or whatever MGM/EON believe it was. And I hope I do not have to see the Jinx character again.

[JackChase007]

I thought she was effective. Dynamic? Hardly. But Berry did a fine job. I was glad to see that Jinx really played a rather minor role in the film compared with what MGM made us believe.

Nobody can steal the show from Bond...

[Dr. Yes]

Having just seen DAD for the first time last night, I have to say that I was just a bit disappointed by Jinx. She wasn't a bad Bond girl (e.g. Mary Goodnight) but she's not my favorite either. She made a good partner for 007, but by the end of the script what could have been a rather intriguing character was reduced to fairly mediocre one-liners. I have to give credit to Halle Berry, who I think is gorgeous and a great actress, for doing the best she could with the material from about the laser fight onwards. Still, though, nothing could ever make a Bond movie so bad that I couldn't at least like it. Jinx, as portrayed by Halle Berry, was a decent, if serviceable, character.

[JimmyBond]

Well, I liked her. I like Halle Berry, and I liked Jinx, I thought she was the perfect contrast to Bond's suave secret agent. My favorite bit of hers is where she has accepted her fate on board the plane "Well, looks like we're going down together"

They saved the world, and she's ready to die for her country, great character

[Citizen Bond]

The problem that I had was the way the character was written. Just a bunch of innuendos and nothing there to really develop the character. But that's exactly why I praise Halle Berry; she does with the role what couldn't be done through scripting. Kind of an "actions speak louder than words" kind of thing. Well, then of course, you know, it IS Halle Berry. Mmmmmmm....Halle Berry (*follow with gurgling sound in style of Homer Simpson).

[Won Ton]

im no psycho bond fan like some people here, but from what ive seen, halle did no worse then many of the past bond girls. she certaintly didn't ruin the movie. the problem if found was with the character. when you first meet her, she kills the docter without any emotion and gracefully escapes from the island. then later at the green house scene, she does stupid things like leave her rappelling line hanging around and not checking her surrondings before she rushes to the gene machine. it doesn't make sense that such a well trained agent would make such mistakes. they just did it so bond could save her.

[JackChase007]

What other purpose would she serve, Won Ton?

[JackChase007]

And lay off of the "psycho" talk, will ya? The only "psycho" around here would be YOU, pal!

[Won Ton]

won ton say "course i am psycho, else why would i have name like won ton?"

[JackChase007]

Enough of your damn fortune cookies...

[ShakeNotStirred]

First of all, Jinx's character sucked and Miranda Frost did a much better job. Thats all I have to say.

[White Persian]

As I said on another thread, I think the principal problem is that Halle Berry, like a lot of admittedly capable American actresses, doesn't have the requisite sense of irony to play a character on two levels, whereas Rosamund Pike does (perhaps it's the classical background).

Bond roles are larger than life and fun, but they have to be played straight on the surface, yet with an underlying tongue-in-cheek quality lurking beneath the surface. Wink too obviously at the audience, and the effect is ruined. Connery knew this (except for the literal wink at the end of NSNA), and so does Brosnan.

Halle Berry plays the comedy too broadly. She performs as though she knows she's in a non-serious role, and wants us to know she knows it, thus undercutting the believability of the character.

Purvis and Wade say they wrote Jinx because they thought it would be fun to make her seem as if she'd wandered in from some other movie. Well, I like my Bond characters to seem as if they belong in Bond movies. When they wander in from a Burt Reynolds good ol' boy flick like Sheriff Pepper, or from a Pink Panther film like Aubergine, or some valley girl comedy like Christmas Jones, it jars badly.

[Dmitri Mishkin]

Some very good points there, WP, and I agree with most of them.

Halle Berry is a likeable, personable and of course attractive woman - but Jinx for me was mediocre at best. The character development just wasn't there. Jinx's dialogue was very poor, and made cringeworthy, by Berry's delivery.

The problem, as White Persian said, was that Halle failed to play the role straight. MBE said this as well I believe, but the one-liners are delivered best when they are delivered straight. Brosnan is much more adept at this, as most of the time he's able to pull off the humour because he maintains a straight face.

There was also no credibility given to her character. Only during Zao's escape from the clinic, with Jinx darting up the steps gun in hand and suitably determined expression on face, did I actually believe she could be an agent. Otherwise, she seems to stand in only to *look* dangerous in Iceland, but being captured twice (both times rather ridiculously) doesn't make her very convincing. Where's the intelligence of her character? Michelle Yeoh seemed to be much more of an intellectual, competitive and plausible match for 007, not Jinx by any means.

[ShockTroop22]

Originally posted by solitaire
Halle Berry was great as Jinx,and she was sexy as hell doing it.

I normally find your words quite controversial to my own, but this time solitaire im going to have to side with you. I think Halle is a fantastic actress (hence the oscar), she's a great person, absoloutley gorgeous and perfect for a role in Bond. In Pierces world's "Halle is dynamite!"

I think her and Pierce lit up the screen together, and i'd love to see her return to the series at some point in the future, its great to see someone else (well, lots of u i suppose) agress with me here. Halle stole the show.

[Bondboy71789]

I dont exactly know how you cant like her. There is not much to think about. Bond girls are supposed to look good (which she does). They are supposed to be okay actors (her oscar should explain that). I do admit the one liners were a little stupid. But overall an A rating. Good job Halle