Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathon Pryce, Teri Hatcher, Gotz Otto, Dame Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Desmond Llewellyn, Vincent Schiavelli
Plot: With Great Britain and China sizing each other up for war James Bond is dispatched to investigate media mogul Elliot Carver, who is suspected of masterminding the conflict. With only 48 hours before things escalate Bond teams up with Chinese intelligence agent Wai Lin to stop Carver.
Review: Coming of the back of Goldeneye is quite a challenge. James Bond movies are always going to carry a certain expectation with them, but the shot in the arm that Martin Campbell’s new vision gave the franchise a new audience and a new standard. Now Pierce Brosnan returns with a mission that addresses a growing global concern – media control. Do they meet the expectation? Almost.
Tomorrow Never Dies has some really, really fantastic ideas working in it’s favour, but there’s one thing that ultimately brings it down a notch, which we’ll get to later. First – the good. The action scenes stand out from the very beginning as some of the best that action cinema had to offer at the time. From the outset Bond single handedly takes down a terrorist arms bazaar on a ticking clock before a torpedo fronted by a bunch of razor blades bore through a military vessel. Before long Bond is tearing his new gadget packed Beamer through a multi-story carpark – the best Bond car sequence since Goldfinger. Later we get the hugely imaginative motorbike chase through Saigon with the two main characters steering the bike while handcuffed together, culminating with them jumping a helicopter. Hands down Tomorrow Never Dies features some of the best action put together for the franchise.
We also have Michelle Yeoh playing Col. Wai Lin, a Chinese spy who teams up with Bond through the adventure. Although Terri Hatcher was the actor who was most heavily promoted out of the two Yeoh is the star of the movie (apart from Bond, obviously) and one of the best female characters the series has laid claim to. Avoiding both the damsel in distress AND the tough chick archetype and becomes her own character who can easily hold her own against Bond. Originally introduced as a journalist it isn’t long before Bond discovers that she’s a secret agent, complete with her own array of gadgets and kick-ass fighting skills. Whilst Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean shared great scenes of banter in Goldeneye Bond and Wai Lin form a close Bond and stay on the same page with a minimal amount of communication. Smirks and glances paint an unspoken picture of respect and admiration, and when they hook up at the end it feels unnecessary. It’s a shame that she never re-appeared in a later film with Brosnan.
What lets the movie down in the end is Jonathon Pryce as Elliot Carver, and the direction that the villains was taken in. It’s quite clear who the influences for Carver are. He resembles Rupert Murdoch having been given fashion advice from Steve Jobs, and his various schemes clearly reference real life issues concerning Murdoch and Bill Gates. An original character based on the idea of a media mogul would get the message across just as effectively without these knowing nods to the audience. Pryce does help matters with his hammy performance. Whilst everyone else is playing the film straight he is practically skipping about the set while rubbing his hands together. Mister Burns is more subtle then this.
The best scene easily belongs to the late Vincent Schiavelli. In a one scene appearance he plays professional assassin Professor Kaufman, and damn if he isn’t brilliant. It’s worth cringing through Pryce’s performance just to watch that one scene.
That sound? That’s you being overshadowed.
The action, Brosnan being as cool as ever and Michelle Yeoh make it worthwhile. With such a good set up as a media mogul manipulating the world powers it could’ve been great, but much of the movie hinges of the villain and he comes across as petty and silly.
Score: SEVEN outta TEN
