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Movie Notes: Tomorrow Never Dies

January 1st, 2007

Tomorrow Never Dies

= 2 stars

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

It’s not a good sign when you’re part-way into a movie and realize you’ve seen it before, but forgot. I can’t recall exactly where I first saw Tomorrow Never Dies – probably on cable or an airplane ride. Overall, it’s an entertaining flick, but not anything to write home about – and if my experience is any indication – forgettable.

Pierce Brosnan (James Bond)

Pierce Brosnan (James Bond)

Michelle Yeoh (Wai Lin)

Michelle Yeoh (Wai Lin)

Teri Hatcher (Paris Carver)

Teri Hatcher (Paris Carver)

I find Pierce Brosnan a capable but bland Bond. He’s great looking, but lacks that Sean Connery “heat” (used for female wooing) or Roger Moore’s slightly confused look (added tension as it seems his survival was really in doubt). Brosnan as Bond has all the right moves, but behaves almost too capably for me to worry about his mortality.

That said, many other Bond elements are in decent form. We have an amusing villain, the sinister media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), who controls the world through manipulative lies and fabrications. Judi Dench as “M” lends gravitas, and there’s even the same “Q” from the sixties films, who supplies a great bond gadget – a cell phone controlled automobile. There’s a funny scene where baddies try to damage the extremely tough vehicle without success, and a tense car chase ensues with Bond lying down in the back seat to avoid a hailstorm of bullets, yet still navigating the car via his cell phone wielded like a Game Boy.

As for the Bond women: Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher) is mildly entertaining old Bond flame now married to the villain. Better is Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), fiesty and contrary enough from the typical Bond woman to hold my attention for a while.

Unfortunately, as things move towards an expected battle with Carver aboard a huge ship near Vietnam, things get surprisingly dull fast. I had to stifle a few yawns as the various arrows clearly pointed to expected conclusions.

To sum up, Tomorrow Never Dies is one of those films that’s perfectly enjoyable if happened upon while flipping channels, but I certainly wouldn’t seek it out. It’s decidedly average, and in comparison with the better Bond films, it suffers terribly.

IMDB: Tomorrow Never Dies

Next Bond Movie: The World Is Not Enough
Previous Bond Movie: Goldeneye

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folder Categories: 2 Star Movies, General, James Bond, Movies :: , , , , ::

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  • Slammerworm
    The villain’s role is that of an evil media magnate, and it would have been wise to have underplayed the role and presented a cold, businesslike protagonist; after all, there was a perfect real-life ‘evil tyrant’ role model in Rupert Murdoch. Instead, Jonathan Pryce hams it up and chews the scenery like he’s the Batman villain of the week (as my Bondsesh mate said; ‘a bit Willy Wonka, isn’t he?’). Michelle Yeoh is attractive enough and well versed in chop-socky moves, but is fed some terrible lines and can’t even carry those off convincingly. And Teri Hatcher? What were they thinking? On the plus side, Brosnan (a very good actor) is allowed some room in which to display emotions other than ‘Goldeneye’s one-size-fits-all steely determination. Unfortunately, no-one he interacts with except M, Moneypenny and Q are capable of returning dialogue with equal acting skills, so he ends up wanting for a worthy foil to bounce off. Moreover, there are frustratingly few such ‘quiet’ scenes amid some extremely overblown (but admittedly exciting) stunts; best was the ‘video game’ car chase. Brosnan was better than in ‘Goldeneye’, but yeah, the movie wasn’t quite as much fun.
  • kill1991
    Tomorrow Never Dies is a great Bond Film. For 3 reasons
    1.) Bond gets a cool car that resolves in a cool chase like in Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me.
    2.) There is the tradition of Henchmen who are Tall, Blonde and Dangerous such as Red Grant (From Russia With Love), Hans (You Only Live Twice), Eric Kriegler (For Your Eyes Only) and Necros (The Living Daylights) which then results in a memorable fight.
    3.) Once again resolves in a plot to start World War 3 like in You Only Live Twice, Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
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