The man in the black suit strides out into the center and looks over his shoulder. He quickly turns around and fires a few shots. This is James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), the highly trained super-spy, with remarkable talents, spontaneous rebukes, and goregous women all up his sleeve. Agent 007, (thats Double-o seven, not just seven), is among the greatest heros of the action genre -- right up there with Indiana Jones, he represents solid morals, ideals, and disguises wrapped into one explosive package. In a moment, we watch him running through an airport, attaching and detaching various bombs, hurriedly scurrying onto the back of a truck, leaping into a plane and shooting into the sky, delayed by another plane's explosion, but making it through all the same. As I watched, I knew that I was going to get what I had been promised -- explosive action, goregous women, and lots of fun. As the film progressed, I started to smile -- the job was being done with style. Brosnan is a good Bond, probably second best (who can forget Sean Connery?). He's charming, funny, and you actually believe that he could perform these stunts, throw himself into the line of fire, seduce these women. The cold-hearted villains shoot with no hesatation (as the center villain, Johnathan Price does a good job -- he wants to start World War III, just to keep his ratings up). The sights are terrific -- the best scene is a break-in where Bond steals a red box (look, its important, don't be skeptical), and races through various halls, jumping over balconies, the whole schtick. He piles on the drinks, shaken not stirred. Gulping them down as he goes along, you start to feel somewhat giddy. There are corny moments ("We seem to have made an attachment to eachother"), and some of the stunts would never happen. No matter, in the context of the film, you will believe. The main song ("Tommorow Never Dies"), is dissapointing, a weak effort, especially after the livelier opening to Goldeneye. Even so, I continued to enjoy the film, never growing skeptical. after agreeing with one of my Internet correspondents (you know who you are), that it looked rather crappy, I went in expecting very little. Instead I enjoyed the crackling mix that added up into a nice vehicle. The Bond-mobile is the best car that anyone has ever dreamed of -- it places high above the Melehan mobile. (Ted Priddge -- I got your MiB joke, but NOBODY will get this). I couldn't help but think that it was carried a little bit out of range. Even so, its hard to grow skeptical. My advice: Get up and go see Tommorow, today.
Grade: B+
- Max Solovitch Scheinin Read more of Max's work -- reviews, essays, theories, links -- @ http://www.garfieldlib.com/yanews/july97/max/max.html To subscribe to Max's work (includes all essays, theories, thoughts) write him @ solo@cruzio.com with the word "subscribe" in the header. You will receive e-mail on an irregular basis, considering that Max is a lazy/busy kid. "Movies are really a kind of dream state, or like taking dope. And the shock of walking out of the theatre into broad daylight can be terrifying. I watch movies all the time, and I am also very bad at waking up." - Martin Scorsese, from Scorsese on Scorsese
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