Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Review by Chris Meadows Review Rating: 9 out of 10
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode Written by Bruce Feirstein
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Terri Hatcher, et al.
MPAA: PG-13
>From that first magical moment when the spotlight sweeps across the black screen and James Bond turns and fires, accompanied by that oh-so-familiar musical sting, "Tomorrow Never Dies" delivers the kind of Bondian punch that was sadly lacking in "Goldeneye". The 18th official Bond franchise film, not counting "Never Say Never Again," brings us fully back to the old familiar Bondian formula, a formula which has been sadly lacking in recent Bond movies. And it brings in a few _new_ tricks as well.
As far as the storyline is concerned, TND owes a lot to past Bond films. As in "Moonraker" and "The Spy Who Loved Me," Bond runs into and must work with an agent from a foreign intelligence outfit with whom the British Secret Service normally competes. Also as in "The Spy Who Loved Me," the villain plans to use assaults on naval military vessels to play both Britain and the foreign power du jour, China, off against each other, starting a war by attacking the military forces of both sides. However, in a uniquely '90s twist on the old James Bond formula, the villain, Elliot Carver (played with panache by Jonathan Pryce) doesn't want to rule the world, or kill everyone in it and found an empire based on his eugenically-handpicked select few. He just wants the media rights.
This film, more than any other Bond film in at least the last ten years, is a Bond devotee's delight. There are literally dozens of scenes harking back to Bond movies of the past. The guns. The girls. The gadgets. The vodka martinis. The supercar (a BMW this time, thanks to the magic of product placement, though the old Astin Martin does make a brief appearance). The chase scenes, including the occasional jaw-dropping stunt. The heavily-guarded-and-beweaponed enemy stronghold to be stormed. The pre-credit opening gambit. The venerable Desmond Llewellyn, once again on hand as the venerable Major Boothroyd, more commonly known in the movies simply as Q, who once more gets to tell Bond to "grow up". (Funny how Bond keeps getting younger and younger, and Q keeps getting older and older...) All the things that keep the Bond movies a working franchise are _all there_. Even the good old original Monty Norman James Bond theme makes repeated appearances in the soundtrack, after being absent from the last several films.
Many people are prone to knock films for being "formulaic." In many cases, they're right. Formula can be the deathknell of many a film, due to Hollywood's habit of jumping on a bright new idea and wringing every last penny out of it, and beating the dead horse until it resembles finely-ground chuck. (Witness "Home Alone," and the endless parade of clones and sequels it has inspired.) However, with Bond films, "formula" has meant something else--in the Bond films' heyday at least, it was a near-guarantee of some good, solid entertainment.
When the Bond franchise first began, it broke new ground for both the science-fiction _and_ the action genres. It improved over the years, particularly while Sean Connery was the leading man. Now, however, James Bond is no longer the only spy-action movie game in town. In order to distinguish itself from all the other action movie games in town, Bond has stopped trying to reinvent himself as a strict (and strangely monogamous) action hero, as he had become through the Timothy Dalton Bond films, and has returned to a more traditional Bond formula, suitably updated for the '90s. The appeal of "Tomorrow Never Dies" to fans of past Bond films may be summed up in just one word: _nostalgia_.
However, this is not to say that TND is strictly "same old same old" Bond. There are some interesting new twists, most notably perhaps the first Bond girl ever who can fully take care of herself, and is not simply around to look pretty and be rescued by Bond in time of need. Michelle Yeoh plays Wai Lin as an almost exact reprise of her "Inspector Yang" character from "Supercop"--the Communist Chinese agent who has to work with an agent from the British Empire (in "Supercop," it was Jackie Chan from Hong Kong) to prevent some great threat to China. Michelle even gets a one-on-many fight scene all to herself, which she handles with great grace and poise, thanks in part to the Hong Kong stunt crew she brought in to play the bad guys. When it comes time to storm the enemy stronghold (in this case a stealth ship), Michelle's Wai Lin takes her place as an equal partner to Brosnan's James Bond insofar as ass-kicking and name-taking goes.
How do all the Bond regulars do? Pierce Brosnan seems to have settled into the role of Bond, playing him with a kind of spirited panache not seen since Connery's portrayal of the agent. Judi Dench plays M in a dry-witted manner much after the fashion of Bernard Lee's portrayal of Bond's old boss. Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is a witty foil to Bond in the scenes they share, and gets one of the best lines in the entire film, about James Bond's linguistic skills. Desmond Llewellyn is inimitably Q, though at his age, surely he won't be for very much longer. Even Joe Don Baker is back for two scenes, reprising his Felix Leiterish role of Wade, Bond's liason with the CIA.
As for the villains and the bit players, they are mostly also to the film's credit. Elliot Carver (played by Jonathan Pryce) is a wonderful evil mastermind, harking back to the Blofeld/Goldfinger school of villains--the kind who are megolomaniacal and aren't afraid to show it while explaining precisely what they plan to do and how they plan to do it. He chews the scenery in grand style, and carries off the villain's part with a wonderfully evil flair. Gotz Otto plays Stamper, the consummate henchman, who is more than up to the task of giving Bond a hard time.
The bit players are mostly unremarkable; they come on screen, they speak their parts, they (for the most part) die. Vincent Schiavelli renders a brief but interesting turn as Dr. Kaufman, a hit man who just happens also to be a forensic doctor and pistol marksman. Terri Hatcher, the film's "other" Bond girl, is the only bad part in the film; supposedly an old flame of Bond's, she is nonetheless so flat that we the audience have a hard time figuring out just how James Bond could have fallen for such an uninteresting person. This also seems to conflict with the established history of Bond as having only ever loved one woman in his entire life (from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Fortunately, Miss Hatcher's role in the film is rather abbreviated compared to the far more interesting and vital Michelle Yeoh's.
It seems that director Roger Spottiswoode, or someone on the film's production staff, is a fan of Hong Kong movies. Michelle Yeoh's inclusion as a very similar character to her "Supercop" portrayal is one clue, but there are other little borrowed touches of note. At one point, Bond dives onto a mechanic's creeper and lets it carry him through a door, keeping him low to avoid enemy fire--rather like Chow Yun-Fat did in "A Better Tomorrow." At several points, Bond and Wai-Lin fire simultaneously from guns held in both hands, another Hong Kong film trademark. These little touches are just another example of how Hong Kong cinema, the latest new wave to sweep across the western cinematic horizon, is revitalizing western action movies in general. TND also benefits from a nicely satirical wit, taking the opportunity to poke fun at a variety of subjects, from Microsoft to cable deregulation to President Clinton to car commercials to the media.
The storyline of "Tomorrow Never Dies," as stated before, borrows from prior Bond films. There are also scenes that are _very_ familiar, also being prior Bond retreads. We've seen Bond scuba-swim through a sunken ship filled with dead bodies in "For Your Eyes Only." We've seen him play with gadgets and make witty one-liners about them in _many_ Bond films, and the assault on the villain's floating fortress of doom is familiar as well. We've seen many of these things before.
Bond detractors will sneer and say, "So? Why watch them again, then?" For Bond fans, however, I suspect this will be much like meeting a long-lost friend after a long time of separation. It's the _formula_ that makes Bond movies Bond movies, and the minor variations that make them worth watching individually. Forget the line at the end of the credits crawl that says "JAMES BOND WILL RETURN." He has already, and he was _long_ overdue.
My review rating: 9 out of 10
(This review is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows. Permission granted for Usenet distribution and associated archival, including the Internet Movie Database, but other distribution rights reserved to the author.) -- Chris Meadows aka | ICQ UIN: 5477383 Robotech_Master | http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html robotech@eyrie.org | ----------------------------------------- robotech@jurai.net | Co-moderator, rec.games.mecha
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