Die Another Day inspired by Face/Off?

I finally got around to watching Face/Off recently, and I've been wondering it's pretty telling that Tamahori was inspired by Face/Off's facial transplant idea, from the villain masquerading as a good guy, to the the dream machine mask, to the use of lasers (I imagine that's why Graves has such a laser?).

Ordinarily I'd critique the more recent film as lazy given it has copied elements from an earlier one, but since Bond deals with facial transplants throughout the series, I feel a little more forgiving.

Have any of the DAD filmmakers going on record saying they wanted to pay homage to/were inspired by Face/Off?

Die Another Day:



Face/Off

Never thought of that before, but it's certainly possible.

In a 'returning the favour' stylee like to think that Face/Off's very obvious stunt doubles are a loving homage to the last couple of Moore's Bonds .

Ha!

Though, like Bond, I didn't notice any stunt doubles on the first watch (and in Bond's case, on the next few too...).

While I'm not sure story elements of DAD are an intentional lift from FACE/OFF specifically, they definitely were aiming for the type of action films that was prominent in the 90s and early 2000s. In fact, they hired Christian Wagner, an editor known for doing Tony Scott, John Woo, and Bruckheimer productions, which included FACE/OFF. Of course it was also chasing the trends of computerized action seen in THE MATRIX, STAR WARS prequels, SPIDER-MAN, etc.

Thank goodness Bond did not indulge more in that style afterward. Tamahori really believed that DAD was the future of Bond. At least for EON it was just something of an experiment before realizing it was not right for the future of Bond.

Indeed.

The biggest shame about Tamahori's fixation on CGI/stylised editing is that in most non-action scenes/sequences, Tamahori does rather well, i.e. the scene between Bond and Raoul, M and Frost, Bond and Frost by the car, etc.

Though even with the sword fight, for example, while a little extraneous, it felt like an old fashioned duel, and places Bond as someone who actually isn't that skilful in fencing.

Die Another Day inspired by Face/Off?

What? no.

Well I think in order to say it's similar to face off there would have to be a switch, and there is no switch. There is an Asian villain who becomes white, but that's it. There is no white guy who becomes Asian, so I think you need that switch to be compared to Face/Off, don't you?

ironpony wrote:

Well I think in order to say it's similar to face off there would have to be a switch, and there is no switch.  There is an Asian villain who becomes white, but that's it.  There is no white guy who becomes Asian, so I think you need that switch to be compared to Face/Off, don't you?

Wasn't Zao in the process of becoming white? I seem to remember that when Bond discovered him at the Cuban face-change clinic you see a white dude (looked like a Brad or a Chad) on a monitor while Zao has the mask thing on his head.

But that's not really a switch though, because that is two Asians becoming white, as oppose to one doing the opposite, a white guy becoming Asian. Don't you need a guy doing the opposite of the villain to compare to Face/Off?

Fair point.

Maybe when they remake YOLT they can have Bond do the whole becoming Japanese thing again while, at the same time, an Asian guy will drape a cable-knit sweater over his shoulders and complain that mayonnaise is too spicy.

ironpony wrote:

Well I think in order to say it's similar to face off there would have to be a switch, and there is no switch.  There is an Asian villain who becomes white, but that's it.  There is no white guy who becomes Asian, so I think you need that switch to be compared to Face/Off, don't you?

I've just been ironponied.

CJB wrote:

Fair point.

Maybe when they remake YOLT they can have Bond do the whole becoming Japanese thing again while, at the same time, an Asian guy will drape a cable-knit sweater over his shoulders and complain that mayonnaise is too spicy.

Someone wake me up in 2021.