In a curious coincidence, the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day, is opening on the anniversary of the day John F. Kennedy died in Dallas in 1963, the victim of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. It was Kennedy who reportedly gave the original Ian Fleming novels their biggest boost when he was asked at a news conference early on what books he liked to read. He replied that his favorites were the James Bond series. The books, which were only modestly popular at the time, suddenly became a sensation and eventually led to the film series in 1962. Today's movie critics, many of them at any rate, clearly believe that Bond has never outgrown the '60s. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer calls the movie "prefab and formulaic all the way." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal observes that Bond fans have proved loyal, even while the films themselves have entered "a steep downward trend." Nevertheless, he adds, "another dud like this would test that loyalty's limits." John Anderson in Newsday remarks that the new film "contains much of the same Neanderthal gender politics that have marked the series since Dr. No." Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post says that the Bond franchise "is beginning to creak ... with age." Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe refers to Another Day as the "world-weariest James Bond picture yet." Marc Caro in the Chicago Tribune finds little to like about all the "sound and fury" in the movie and concludes: "You leave feeling like you've endured a long workout without your pulse ever racing. The exercise ultimately is product placement, with Bond the biggest product of them all." On the other hand, Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News writes that the film "fits today's video-game, virtual-reality, extreme sports mentality." And Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times concludes that the film demonstrates that the Bond movies will continue to be "the most durable series in movie history. ... There is no reason to believe this franchise will ever die." And to the naysayers who maintain that the franchise seems dated, A. O. Scott in the New York Times responds: "Don't we go to these movies precisely to savor the familiar: the sports cars, the shaken vodka martinis, the knowingly stale elbow-in-the-ribs sexual innuendo, the pop song during the opening credits? And isn't our taste for Bondage built around a desire for immediate gratification?"