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Film review by Kevin Patterson
Tomorrow Never Dies **1/2 (out of four) PG-13, 1997 Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. Written by Bruce Feirstein. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh.
In a way I almost feel unqualified to write this review since I had never actually seen an entire James Bond movie until now. Still, I had heard enough about the series that I had a pretty good idea what to expect here - a suave British secret agent, with the assistance of lots of high-tech gadgets, blows away dozens of bad guys, pulls off numerous death-defying stunts, saves the world, delivers sarcastic one-liners, still finds time to sleep with several attractive women, and acts like he doesn't notice.
And for the most part, that's what I got when I went to see "Tomorrow Never Dies." The gadgets and stunts are by and large the best aspects of the movie; my personal favorite was the cellular phone which also served as a remote control for Bond's car. This led to the most notable action sequence, in which Bond manages to conduct a car chase from the floor of the back seat. Brosnan appropriately manages to make the whole thing look like second nature, except for one moment when he lets slip a childish grin, like a kid who is delighted to be playing with his new toys.
The plot, if it matters, is this: media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) tries to provoke a war between Britain and China because it will make for great headlines to coincide with the launching of his new international satellite network. Both countries' governments sense that something is fishy, and thus Bond and Chinese spy Wei Lin (Michelle Yeoh) are dispatched to investigate. Carver, like every other evil genius who aspires to world domination, has a personal security force the size of a small army and thus proves to be a formidable adversary for both super-spies. Along the way there are car chases, motorcycle chases, fights, shootouts, sky dives, etc.
The one problem I had with the movie is that it sometimes didn't push things far enough. Most of the action sequences were suitably over-the-top, but a few of them (most notably the final one) are really nothing different than what you might find in any action movie. There are also too many instances in which one of Carver's assistants could easily have killed Bond but, for some reason, waited. Note that I don't object when the primary villain acts like this and uses the moment to deliver a goofy "I shall rule the entire world!" speech while the hero cooks up a scheme to escape - some cliches make for good campy fun, but having a generic thug just stand there with a gun while staring blankly isn't one of them.
I went to "Tomorrow Never Dies" expecting to see a light-hearted, funny, and entertaining action movie and to give it three stars. Since some of the action sequences turned out to be fairly mundane, and a number of the one-liners fell flat, I have decided to give it two and a half. I wouldn't advise paying full price for it in a theater, but at rush hour or on video, it's good for a couple hours of mindless entertainment.
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