Tomorrow Never Dies
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein and
Nicholas Meyer
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Michelle Yeoh, Teri
Hatcher, Jonathan Pryce (The Infiniti Guy)
John's Review
Like any typical Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies opens with a thrilling death defying sequence and then goes into a typical lousy Bond song. (I say lousy because of the 18, technically 19, Bond films I have only ever like 3 songs) From there we have a rather unique storyline. Apparently the head of Carver Media Group, Elliot Carver (Pryce), wants to rule the media world. The only problem is China refuses to allow him to broadcast his signal to their country. So now Carver decides to work out a deal with General Chang of the Chinese military to start a war with Britain and all the while have exclusive broadcast rights to the entire war.
Meanwhile Bond is sent to investigate, he starts by 'pumping' an old girlfriend (Hatcher) for information. Of course she is now the wife of Carver. Bond teams up with an apparent Chinese newspaper reporter, Wai Lin, played by (Yeoh), who of course turns out to be a secret agent as well. If such-and-such looks familiar that's because she routinely stars in films with Jackie Chan.(Supercop)
What happens next is the typical Bond flick, plenty of action, enough intrigue and a little bit of drama. To say that the Bond films are formulamatic would be an understatement. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never seen a Bond flick that I didn't like. And as usual there are parts that are entirely unbelievable, the main one that comes to mind is the helicopter scene, in which a helicopter chasing Bond, has him cornered in an alley-way. So the chopper proceeds to put itself at an almost 90 degree angle, so that it's perpendicular to the ground. First what's keeping the helicopter in the air, because it's lift is created when the propellers are parallel to the ground. Second, why is it standing still? These very same propeelers are what drives the vehicle forward, so if the copter is verticle, it should be flying forward at an incredible rate. Still it's not as blatanly stupid as an 18 wheeler going up on 9 wheels and then 'popping a wheelie'.
The direction, is typical for a Bond film, not too heavy handed but not 'Roger Moore' lite. Pirce Brosnan is still the best Bond since Connery, although I found that whomever coreographed the fight scenes in Goldeneye apparently did not coreograph as well, or was not present at the filming. Most people I have talked to are not that as fond of Goldneeye as I am, I liked this movie, just not wuite as much as the last Bond film. Oh, and not to ruin the film for you, but Bond wins in the end.
Grade: B-
