James Bond is back (again) to save the world (again) and sleep with more women (again). While Die Another Day proves to be the best Bond outing since 1995's Goldeneye, it fails to leave a lasting impression, by taking a surprisingly intriguing and realistic plot and undermining it with cartoony effects of almost science-fiction proportions.

007's 20th silver screen adventure (and Pierce Brosnan's fourth) starts off uniquely enough: North Koreans take everyone's favorite British spy hostage after an unknown traitor blows Bond's cover. Fourteen months pass during the traditionally sexy title sequence (sung by Madonna, who also makes a small appearance later in the film), and Bond is released and ready to find who sold him out.

From there, typical Bondness ensues. His adventure leads him from North Korea to Hong Kong to Cuba to London to Iceland and back to North Korea. He skysurfs on a tidal wave, drives his invisible Aston Martin across glaciers and shatters bulletproof glass with a touch of his ring.

All of this is great eye candy, don't get me wrong, but I realized something was amiss after I stepped out of the theater and couldn't recall much of the film. It's not that the plot was too convoluted, but rather the story's most interesting elements were underplayed, leaving the audience with thoughtless "oooohs" rather than thoughtful "ahhhhs."

Revolving a story around the perennially tense relations between the Koreas and that tension's impact on the rest of the world is an excellent idea for any spy film. Throw in subplots of DNA replacement therapy and a giant earth-scorching satellite, which has been seen in similar form in The Man with the Golden Gun, and the film loses a chance at being a real sophisticated spy thriller.

The supporting cast does a solid job; Halle Berry truly seems to have fun in her role as American secret agent Jinx, but is upstaged by super-sexy newcomer Rosamund Pike. Pike plays the appropriately named Miranda Frost. Dame Judy Dench reprises her part as the perennially sour M, and with the death of Desmond Llewelyn, John Cleese has taken on the full-time role of Q with the same wit and banter as his predecessor.

The action sequences are admittedly quite spectacular, as usual, but rely too heavily on computer-generated effects. One moment we're watching a great-looking scene in which two cars duel it out with missiles on a glacier, and the next we see a cartoony-looking laser beam melting a similarly faux-looking palace of ice.

Beyond all the nitpicking a reviewer can dole out for this film, it's still a Bond movie, which ultimately means it's a fun movie. Leave your brain at home and prepare to be shaken and stirred in the lightest sense of the term. Grade: B-