Bond Never Dies
TND Reasserts Bond's Immortality
Following in the wake of the Cold War and two less-than-enthusiastic outings by Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan made his debut as James Bond in the 1995 movie Goldeneye. The movie raked in over $300M worldwide, proving that Bond is by no means a casualty of the Cold War. In a world filled with terrorists, drug dealers, and puppet governments there will always be a need for a super spy. Now Bond is back, and he's taking on the most powerful force on Earth: the media.
Written by: Bruce Feirstein, based on characters by Ian Fleming
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Ricky Jay, Joe Don Baker, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn
Rated
(for
intense sequences of action violence, sexuality and innuendo)Running time: 118 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 7 out of 10.
In Tomorrow Never Dies, a megalomaniac media magnate (say that three times fast) named Elliot Carver (played by Jonathan Pryce) has decided to make news an interactive venture and sets out to create tomorrow's headlines. Using a stealth boat and a stolen GPS satellite encoder, he creates an international incident by luring a British battleship into Chinese waters. He then destroys the boat, murders the survivors, and makes the Chinese look responsible. In short, he has started his own little war.
The British have no recourse but to send in their fleet. It will be 48 hours before they can arrive in the South China Sea, so Her Majesty's Secret Service sends in Agent 007 to find out what has happened and help avert a war. Bond is sent to Hamburg to investigate the source of a strange signal which originated from Carver's communication satellite.
Carver is a ego-maniacal madman of the classic James Bond type. The walls of his factories, offices, and headquarters are adorned with gigantic banners bearing his likeness. If I were to go for a job interview there, I would have serious misgivings. It just looks insane. Of course, Carver is insane and that's the point.
Reappearing in their various roles are Dame Judi Dench as M, Desmond Llewelyn as Q, Samantha Bond (no relation) as Moneypenny, and Joe Don Baker as Bond's connection to the American CIA, Jack Wade. Dench is spectacular as the tough as nails M who refuses to be railroaded by the military. Her wit proves to be as sharp as her tongue. Baker's portrayal of Wade is almost a parody of how the British see Americans; with his loud, ugly clothes and his outrageous, Southern, good-ol'-boy drawl.
Rounding out the cast are some familiar and some new faces. Teri Hatcher (from television's "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman") plays Carver's lovely wife, Paris. Bond's Chinese counterpart Wai Lin (played by Michelle Yeoh) adds a great deal of physical action to the story with martial arts moves straight out of a John Woo film. Vincent Schiavelli offers a brief, but memorable, appearance as Dr. Kaufman (a killer and master of torture -- "More of a hobby really," he says) who is sent to kill Bond.
Taking into account the number of clichés and ironies in any James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies never fails to be a Bond movie. There are obligatory sex scenes (very modestly done), sexual innuendos, martinis, and spy gadgets which have become staples of Bond lore. Nevertheless, at no time does Tomorrow feel redone or hackneyed. In fact, Brosnan and company have breathed life into the declining series making it entertaining for a new generation of moviegoers.
The special effects in TND are spectacular, even if they are sometimes overblown. Action movies often sacrifice exposition for explosions, and Bond is no exception. There are more moments of awesome, jaw-dropping action than attention to the behind-the-scenes politics of the international crisis. But this isn't a Tom Clancy novel. This is Bond, James Bond. If you're expecting more, you just don't get it.
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