Tomorrow Never Dies
Cast & Credits
Actor Character
Pierce Brosnan James Bond
Jonathan Pryce Elliot Carver
Michelle Yeoh Wai Lin
Teri Hatcher Paris Carver
Directed by Robert Spottiswoode
Original running time: 1 hour and 57 minutes
After the massive success of GoldenEye, the Bond family suffered a huge loss. Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli had passed away. Cubby had been producer on all of the official Bond films since Dr. No. He had already passed the production reins over to his step-son Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara Broccoli when he got ill during the produaction of GoldenEye, but now they would have to helm the 007 series without any of his advice. Also, they wouldn't be able to use Pinewood Studios like they had for the recent films because it was currently being utilized for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace which was deemed to be a bigger priority. *Shakes fist at George Lucas and Jar Jar Binks* So, how would these obstacles affect the new Bond film? Would Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli be able to keep the series as energetic and fascinating as Cubby did?
After the gunbarrel sequence, the movie opens with us looking in on a massive weapons depot just outside of Russia. M and others are looking in on it with surveillance equipment. A high ranking admiral orders an air strike when it is seen that there is a huge shipment about to be moved off of the base. M disagrees and says that they have to give her man more time to which he replies that she has to tell her man to get out. Of course her man is James Bond. After the air strike is intiated, the cameras pick up two nuclear missiles on a jet fighter. Not good... Next we see James shooting the whole place to kingdom come and throwing a grenade like a girl before getting into the fighter plane which has a pilot in it that he knocks out and throws into the back seat. Kaboom! A massive explosion is where the base used to be and we see Bond in the plane barely outrunning the flames. He is being followed by anothter fighter that launches a couple of heat seeking missiles. After some extremely fancy flying underneath bridges and through ravines, 007 finally shakes the terrors off. Just when things are looking better for everyone's favorite secret agent, the pilot that he knocked out regains consciousness and starts to choke him with a chord from behind. What to do? What to do? James flies directly underneath the other fighter and ejects the attackers seat. This causes it to go completely through the jet above him and stop in it's own back seat. Seconds later the jet explodes. Why? I have no idea and if you can explain this phenomenon to me then by all means be my guest. Overall, this was a good opening sequence if you get rid of the preposterous final part.
This leads into the title sequence which this time is decidedly more high tech than the previous outings. A lot of computer generated images pop up all over the screen. We see things like a woman's diamond necklace vacating her neckline and turning into what resembles a group of satellites orbiting the Earth. Also there are mesmerising images of guns shooting and impressive exploding effects for 1997. While all of this is pretty slick, I personally like the more personal feel of the silhouettes of actual models leaping, dancing, and shooting but do understand that I am commiting the cardinal sin of living in the past so forgive me for this. The theme song by Sheryl Crow is pretty wretched. While she has had some solid pop songs like All I Wanna Do and Strong Enough; this is boring, lifeless, and in this reviewer's opinion the worst Bond theme song up until this point of the series. Oddly, the song Surrender by k.d. Lang that plays over the ending credits is infinitely better and would have been a much better choice. The soundtrack this time is done by David Arnold. Some of it sounds like a tribute to John Barry while other bits are influenced by trance music. Personally, I think that the electronic beeps don't fit in, but once again I am living in the past.
The movie returns with a scene aboard the British's sub - the HMS Devonshire - which is getting a warning saying that it is breaking international laws by entering Chinese territory. A stealth boat is not too far away which has the tall, muscular, and blonde Stamper on board. How many wannabe Red Grants are there in this series? First Hans, then Kriegler, then Necros, and now this guy. I love Red Grant as much as anybody, but come up with something original, guys. Anyhow, he orders a massive remote controlled drill to attack the sub. It drills a hole straight through it and the Devonshire plummets to the ocean floor. Stamper tells the mastermind of the operation - Elliot Carver - that phase one is complete. Phase two consists of all of the survivors being shredded to ribbons with machine guns. All the while Elliot Carver, who happens to be a global media mogul, decides on what headline for the news story will get the proper reaction from the readers of his newspaper Tomorrow.
After we find out that Bond is a cunning linguist, he meets up with M in the back of a limo and they discuss the situation. Bond correctly concludes that the newspaper Tomorrow is getting the headlines faster than anyone else and that it's time to investigate since Carver's global media network coincidentally is opening later that week with a televised meeting in Hamburg. Also, M says that she's aware that James had a relationship with Carver's wife, Paris, before they were married and that he should try to use this to his advantage. Before setting off for Hamburg, James gets his new ride from Q. It is a BMW. Again I ask, why would the British Secret Service issue a German car to one of their agents? That's right! They wouldn't. The car has all kinds of cool gadgets and can be controlled by a touch pad that Q has trouble with, but Bond handles with ease. As usual, the Q scene is one of the best in the movie. What a joy these scenes were to watch! I especially like the part where Bond is getting insurance. Man, do I miss Desmond Llewelyn. By the way, in case you missed it... Bond was given a BMW. Don't worry. You'll see some close ups of the logo later to remind you that it's a BMW.
Bond shows up at Carver's party and immediately starts a conversation with Paris (Teri Hatcher) who slaps the taste out of his mouth in approxiamtely five seconds. It turns out that he walked out on her the last time that they spoke. She asks if he still sleeps with a gun under his pillow. Yep, the dialogue is really that bad. They order drinks and we see the labels for Smirnov vodka and Bollinger champagne. Wait! Was that guy in the background carrying a Heineken? I think that he was. So Bond goes to talk to Elliot Carver and poses as British banker James Bond. He immediately lets Carver know that he's on to him. Why? To speed up the plot. Also, a young Asian lady named Wai Lin who claims that she works for the New China News also converses with him. Soon Bond is told that he has a telephone call and is led into a sound proof room with a bunch of thugs. He dispatches of them quickly and notices that a switchboard is in the room as Carver is giving a speech to launch his global network. In the soundproof is the one switchboard that will turn off the enitre network? Yeah... I guess so. Time for a one liner.
Later, Paris goes to a drunk James' hotel room and makes love to him. The acting in this scene is soap opera bad. Both Brosnan and Hatcher speak emotionless and in monotone voices which makes me wonder if they don't get along in real life. No chemistry whatsoever. Apparently, no acting lessons for Ms. Hatcher either. She let's Bond know the secret entrance from the roof into Elliot Carver's presses. After sneaking in, 007 sees know computer terrorist Gupta and finds a device that can send a ship off course.. Hmmm. Bond get's into a fight with some more random thugs (one gets thrown into the printing machine) and sees Wai Lin before he escapes.
After Bond returns to his room, he finds Paris dead and a Dr. Kaufman who happens to be an expert marksman and master of torture. Is it time for a gritty, dark, Flemingesque torture scene? That would be pretty awesome and turn the proceedings on it's head. Meanwhile, some of Kaufman's lackeys are trying to open Bond's BMW with no success and give the Doctor a telephone call. He asks Bond how to open the car and he says that it's with his phone. Cue closeup of his Ericsson Phone. Wait, that's also a pretty nice Omega watch that he's wearing. As Bond is about to open the car with his phone, Kaufman stops him and asks him for the code. He punches it in and gets an electric shock while tear gas comes out of the car. After taking care of the Doctor, Bond drives his car up to him by remote control and jumps in the back window. We get to see a lot of cool gadgets in action while his is chased by several goons through a parking garage. Missiles, deflated tires inflate, etc. The single strangest part of thids scene is when a steel wire is strung in front of the car and duel saws come out from underneath the BMW logo at the exact right level to cut the wire. I know that I'm supposed to suspend my belief in these movies, but come on... Bond covertly jumps out of the Beamer and it makes it's way to the roof of the garage. It flies off of the top into the Avis Car Rentals place across the street. Good thing he honked the horn. That has to be a record for product placements within a few minutes. One last thing about this scene. I know a lot of people love this sequence, but I felt that Bond hanging out in the back seat and not actually being behind the wheel made it feel like he was almost disconnected from the scene in an awkward way and it didn't work for me in that sense.
007 meets up with Jack Wade (not Felix Leiter, grrr) and shows him the device that he lifted from Carver's HQ. It turns out that a CIA expert on such equipment can show him exactly where the HMS Devonshire crashed by how it was put off course. This leads to James doing a halo jump into Vietnamese waters to dive into the wreckage of the submerged vessel. Bond bumps into Wai Lin underwater who has the exact same idea and they find that there are two guided missiles absent from the debris. They surface and shortly after Wai Lin tells Bond that she's a Chinese agent, Stamper and his men are waiting on the surface for him. What are the odds that all of them would be there at the exact same time? That's right. Not very good. Both agents are taken to meet Elliot Carter in his office in a massive skyscraper and Stamper takes out Dr. Kaufman's torture devices. He explains that he was his apprentice in this art. Rupert Murdoch - I mean Elliot Carver- goes on about what headlines he's going to write and says that he wants Stamper to show Bond his heart before it stops beating. Bond responds with the best line in the film. Now it's time for a Flemingesque torture scene, right? No, I guess not. With a little quick thinking and a lot of hand to hand stuff, Bond and Wai Lin escape to the outside of the skyscraper and make their way down it using a banner while still handcuffed. This leads to a really good chase scene through the street of Vietnam on a motorcycle while they are being followed by a helicopter.
After narrowly escaping, Bond is handcuffed to a pipe by Wai Lin and she goes to her hideout where she meets up with several enemies and take care of them all. All but one. Bond arrives just in time and pulls a gun on him. Soon Bond realizes that Wai Lin's entire hideout is pretty much like her own personal Q branch. Also, we find out that he can't type in Chinese even though Sean Connery's Bond said that he took first in Oriental languages in Cambridge in the movie You Only Live Twice. This here is proof that Connery's Bond was better than Brosnan's if you actually need some proof. The Chinese agent uses the keyboard to get in contact with her superiors and they get a lead on were the stealth boat may be.
After surreptitiously boarding Carver's boat, the HMS Bedford, the agents soon are located. This leads to about 100 million rounds of ammunition fired. If you ever wanted to see a Bond movie where he carries a machine gun in one hand, a pistol in the other, and blows away an army of villains than this is the one for you. Wai Lin has a machine gun in both hands doing the same thing. She also uses her wits by shooting hoses. Shooting everything is the solution in this film. Unfortunately, Wai Lin is eventually captured but Bond grabs Gupta. He and Carver have a standoff. Carver shoots Gupta himself and before shooting Wai Lin he explains what his plans are like every dumb Bond villain in history. He has the two missing missile from the HMS Devonshire. Surprise! Surprise! He plans on shooting one into China in order to cause a war. His media group will get exclusive broadcasting rights in China. His secret partner in China, General Chang will take control of the Chinese and miraculously end the conflict. This has to be the lamest scheme for a villain in the entire series. Will Carver get away with it? Will Bond shoot off 100 million more rounds of ammo? Will this start to resemble a Bond movie?
In the end I have to say that I didn't really care for this movie nearly as much as most of the entries in the series. It just seemed like a really loud and typical action movie that happened to just have a star that was really well dressed. I'll give it...
2 out of 5 - Below average for a Bond movie. It seemed like when they decided to make a follow up to GoldenEye, they decided to make a follow up to the video game and not the movie. There is enough shooting in this movie for ten Bond movies and I felt like I was watching Rambo in a tux or something. The villain's plan is incredibly lame and his henchman Stamper wouldn't be a good enough actor to rise above mid-card status in the WWE. The whole movie is cartoonish and never felt real to me. It's like they had a few really good action scenes in mind and decided to try to write a plot around it. Teri Hatcher is really bad and Pierce Brosnan seems lost when it comes to what kind of movie this should be. The product placement is also ridiculous. I only give it a 2 instead of a 1 because Michelle Yeoh is great as Wai Lin. She's so good in the action scenes that it kind of shows how not good the star is in this sense and that's a shame. Also, there are some very well directed action sequences. The motorcycle scene comes immediately to mind.
Cool thing thing know: The movie was originally going to be called Tomorrow Never Lies, but when someone accidentally typed Tomorrow Never Dies on the script it was decided that it sounded better.
James Bond will return next Monday in The World Is Not Enough.
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