Tomorrow Never Dies in Review

The James Bond franchise has become the cinematic equivalent of those stadium-rock tours by mega-successful ‘60s bands: they are bigger and more elaborate than ever before, and they make tons of money from eager ticket-buyers; while critics carp about recycling past glories, new fans get to go out and see something they have previously experienced only on home media, and older fans can relive their favorite hits, performed by a new lead singer.

In this case, the “singer” is actually an actor, Pierce Brosnan, making a new-sounding song out of the same old notes: the supervillain and his lethal sidekick; the woman whose death fuels Bond’s personal vendetta; the female agent who teams up with 007; the banter with Moneypenny; the action, the gadgets, the one-liners. Desmond Llewelyn’s Q even pops up like a former bandmate who walks on stage for a one-song reunion, much to the joy of long time fans.

Tech credits are solid, the script adds a few decorative notes to the old songs, and director Roger Spottiswoode conducts the action well, but his work is fairly impersonal. Perhaps next time the producers should hire a virtuoso who can compose some new tunes, not just variations on the established themes.

(Steve Biodrowski)

Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan's second outing as OO7. Post your reviews of the 18th James Bond film (and the best one ) here.

I was bemoaning the loss of my TND review at MI6, and behold! I had saved it in a word document and had forgotten it!

Voila:

Tomorrow Never Dies is a film that sets out to be a fitting tribute to the series' 35th anniversary. This is evidenced by it's inclusion of many familiar Bond elements and plot devices. Yet instead of seeming weary or bombastic (such as a certain 40th anniversary film I needn't mention) Tomorrow Never Dies largely succeeds in taking these elements and doing something new with them to make them seem nearly as fresh as their original incarnations.

The first example of this “old made new” concept is Elliot’s world domination plan. We’ve seen it before, but this one’s twist of a media take over as opposed to a physical dominance, while a bit outlandish (and what villain’s plot isn’t?), certainly rings with truth in today’s overly commercialized media outlets and even appears to take a few cue from George Orwell’s (Animal Farm, 1984, etc) worst fears.

Other examples of this would be in the car chase via remote control, the gadgets such as a phone that can do anything (seemingly prophetic of today’s smart phones), and a Red Grant/German/Aryan henchman in Stamper. The stunts certainly don’t fail to live up to the Bond standard, either. The HALO jump was an excellent way to refresh the idea of Bond in free fall, something that could have seemed overdone at that point. And while many Bond girls claim their character is "different" I feel that Wai Lin really does deserve that claim.

Where the film suffers is with Pierce Brosnan’s tendency to overact. This is especially evident in the Paris/Bond relationship. While Teri Hatcher’s Paris is beautiful and a wonderful idea for a character (rarely are Bond’s lovers revisited), his reaction to her death make me wish for something more subtle. Fleming’s Bond would have felt something, sure, but he wouldn’t have shown it as Brosnan’s Bond did, I feel.

The films largest strength, however, is its comedy. It’s one of the most quotable of the modern Bond films, and while it has a few eye-rollers, most of its jokes work and succeed to satisfy the need for a few laughs in the Bond films. For me, this comes primarily in the Q scene, which is really one of my personal favorites.

On the whole, Tomorrow Never Dies does meet its goal of being a good anniversary film for the series, but its lack of truly original ideas or wildly stand out moments or characters tends to make it a middle of the pack Bond film when rankings are concerned.

Now.... that's one of many things I should have kept.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - 7/10
After watching Tomorrow Never Dies, I gratefully realized that Pierce Brosnan had improved over the bland character he was in the otherwise near perfect GoldenEye. But Tomorrow Never Dies, despite being mostly enjoyable, is on autopilot for nearly the whole film. The plot of the film takes an old recycled Bond plot and gives it a new, unique twist; a man attempts to start a war (yawn) to increase his cable TV ratings (Interesting!). And main villain, Elliot Carver, is played brilliantly by Jonathan Pryce; he is one of the best recent Bond villains for sure. The film’s Bond girls aren’t particularly memorable, but they get the job done regardless. The first half of Tomorrow Never Dies, which contains a brilliant execution of the quirky Dr. Kaufman by a vengeful Bond and a car chase with Bond in the back seat, is considerably better than the second half, which is small bits of plot followed by constant machine gun fire and explosions. What Tomorrow Never Dies lacked was substance. About halfway through the film, TND seems to ask the audience to turn off dtheir brains and shift attention to the fireballs. It’s a lazy fallback, and Tomorrow Never Dies ultimately ends up in shoot-em up territory. (Granted, the film does the shoot-em up thing as well as that genre can ever be done.) Overall, Tomorrow Never Dies is popcorn munching fun, but I usually expect a little more from a Bond film.

So Tomorrow Never Dies doesn't directly bring radically new additions to the table. But what it does bring allows it to feel rejuvenated. Instead of a tired narrative that The Spy Who Loved Me reproduced from You Only Live Twice, you get the WWIII rehash, but with a interesting, contemporary slant to stabilise Bond's relevance post Cold War. And well, out of the three WWIII stories, this is most interesting. With the increasing heights technology was reaching in the 90s, Feirstein questions how much power the media actually has. With this premise, it renders it all the more enjoyable, surpassing YOLT and TSLWM.

The acting is relatively better in Tomorrow Never Dies than in TSWLM and YOLT. Teri Hatcher ranks as one of my favourite Bond girls, and Wai Lin is just outisde my top 10 with Domino, Honey and Pussy. The score is one of, if not my favourites (though DAF's and OHMSS rival it mostly).

I can't be bothered writing out more. You all know my tastes. :)

FieldsMan wrote:

With the increasing heights technology was reaching in the 90s, Feirstein questions how much power the media actually has.

What's the answer to that question? "A lot"?

I'm not sure Carver's position as a media baron ever becomes relevant...

Louis Armstrong wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

With the increasing heights technology was reaching in the 90s, Feirstein questions how much power the media actually has.

What's the answer to that question? "A lot"?

I'm not sure Carver's position as a media baron ever becomes relevant...

Indeed, so much potential was wasted. Like pretty much everything about the Brosnan era. Besides the post-title sequence, his boasting and a video tape with Bond's obituary, not a lot of Carver's media influence is displayed.

Carver's karate antics made him a Bond comedian, not villain. And it was kind of hard to keep reminding myself that wasn't Lois Lane. I was disappointed when there wasn't a big action finale....just a lot of running around in a stealth boat and a lot of explosions.

And was there any mention of the internet in this film? There was in GE. It was how Natalya tracked Boooooooooris to Cuba, right?

All this talk about television would have been better suited to the 70's or 80's than 1997.

Oh well. Some of you know that I rank this film dead last in my Bond rankings. Even below TWINE, which at least looks better and at least feels more Bondian than this dumbass American action movie.

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Carver's karate antics made him a Bond comedian, not villain. And it was kind of hard to keep reminding myself that wasn't Lois Lane. I was disappointed when there wasn't a big action finale....just a lot of running around in a stealth boat and a lot of explosions.

I can't think of a more boring climax than that.

Yes Tux, Dumbass American Action Movie it is.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

And was there any mention of the internet in this film? There was in GE. It was how Natalya tracked Boooooooooris to Cuba, right?

All this talk about television would have been better suited to the 70's or 80's than 1997.

Oh well. Some of you know that I rank this film dead last in my Bond rankings. Even below TWINE, which at least looks better and at least feels more Bondian than this dumbass American action movie.

Nah. It has a sense of fun about it. Pryce's scenery chewing alone is enough to put it ahead of TWINE.

Whose action scenes are probably even more uninspired and dumb.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Carver's karate antics made him a Bond comedian, not villain. And it was kind of hard to keep reminding myself that wasn't Lois Lane. I was disappointed when there wasn't a big action finale....just a lot of running around in a stealth boat and a lot of explosions.

I can't think of a more boring climax than that.

Yes Tux, Dumbass American Action Movie it is.

Hey, it's Steven Seagal.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Carver's karate antics made him a Bond comedian, not villain. And it was kind of hard to keep reminding myself that wasn't Lois Lane. I was disappointed when there wasn't a big action finale....just a lot of running around in a stealth boat and a lot of explosions.

I can't think of a more boring climax than that.

Yes Tux, Dumbass American Action Movie it is.

Hey, it's Steven Seagal.

If Brosnan was erased from my memory and I was told that pic was from a movie called "Tomorrow Never Dies" I'd probably think it was from one of those straight-to-video Seagal crapfests. Bloody hell.

Bump.

Am making my way through Ebert's Bond reviews. His one for TND is positive enough:

Quote :

James Bond has battled evil commies and megalomaniac madmen; perhaps it was only a matter of time until he faced off against a media baron -- the only sort of figure in today's world that actually does seek global domination. His enemy in "Tomorrow Never Dies'' wants to start a war in order to create headlines for the launch of his latest news channel. Just imagine what Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner would like to do to each other and imagine either one of them doing it to the Chinese, and you'll get the idea.

Bond, played confidently and with a minimum of fuss by Pierce Brosnan, stumbles into the middle of the plot, masterminded by Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), who owns newspapers, TV stations and a gigantic Stealth warship that's invisible to radar. Carver's plan is ingenious: He'll use his satellites to draw a British warship off course, sink it with the Stealth ship, steal its nuclear warheads, and fire one at China, which will think it is under attack from the West. The only flaw in this plan, as far as I can see, is the likely nuclear destruction of most of Carver's biggest markets.

Bond films traditionally open with an elaborate scene built of stunts and special effects, and "Tomorrow Never Dies'' doesn't break with custom: We see British military officials monitoring a "Terrorist Arms Bazaar on the Russian Border'' (which border? who cares?). A hothead British general gives an order that leads to the likely detonation of nuclear weapons. Then Bond appears, steals the plane containing the warheads, uses its missiles to destroy all of his enemies, and takes off in it before ...

But I dare not reveal too much. The plot has a lot of fun with the Carver character, played by Pryce in a platinum crew-cut. He likes to write headlines and design front pages in advance of big news events, and then make them happen, although more than once he's premature in reporting the death of Bond. His wife, Paris (Teri Hatcher), happens to be a former lover of 007, and M (Judi Dench), head of British secret service, makes a few tart suggestions about how Bond might make use of the connection.

The other Bond woman this time is a departure from many of 007's former teammates. She's Wai Lin, an agent for the "Chinese External Security Force,'' and she's played by Michelle Yeoh as a karate expert with formidable fighting and intelligence skills. Yeoh, of course, is a star in her own right, having toplined many Asian martial arts movies, and her presence in the movie is so effective that she'd be a natural to add to the other regulars, like M, Q and Miss Moneypenny.

In its 35th year, the long-running Bond series has settled into a dependable formula, based on gimmicks, high-tech toys, chases, elaborate stunts, and the battle to foil the madman's evil schemes. The toys this time are a couple of BMW products: A motorcycle, used during an incredible chase scene over rooftops, and a car, which is remote-controlled by a hand-held device with a touch pad. In one ingenious chase scene, Bond crouches in the back seat of the car while guiding it with the remote control.

All Bond movies include at least one Fruit Cart Scene, in which market stalls are overturned in a chase, and this one sets some kind of a record by having the carts destroyed by the blades of a helicopter that's chasing Bond and Wai Lin. There is also the obligatory Talking Killer scene, in which the madman explains his plans when he should simply be killing Bond as quickly as possible (``Caesar had his legions, Napoleon had his armies, and I have my divisions--TV, newspapers ... '').

Is Pierce Brosnan better or worse as Bond than Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton? This is one of those questions (like why doesn't tomorrow ever die?) that can be debated but never answered. Basically, you have Connery, and then you have all of the rest. I enjoyed Brosnan in the role, although this time I noticed fewer Bondian moments in which the trademarks of the series are relished.

Yes, we have the usual double entendres and product placements (I find product placement distracting in most movies, but sort of anticipate them as part of the Bond formula). There's a high gloss and some nice payoffs, but not quite as much humor as usual; Bond seems to be straying from his tongue-in-cheek origins into the realm of conventional techno-thrillers.

Still, ``Tomorrow Never Dies'' gets the job done, sometimes excitingly, often with style. The villain, slightly more contemporary and plausible than usual, brings some subtler-than-usual satire into the film, and I liked the chemistry between Bond and Wai Lin (all the more convincing because the plot doesn't force it). The look of the film is authoritative; the scenes involving warships and airplanes seem sleek and plausible. There's gorgeous photography as a junk sails in a sea filled with peaks, and astonishing action choreography in the rooftop motorcycle chase.

On the basis of this installment, the longest-running movies series seems fit for the 21st century.

Found a great review of TND on the net. Sings lots of praise to Paris Carver!

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/tomorrow-never-dies/249213/james-bond-007-revisiting-tomorrow-never-dies

I really liked this film, though some of the dialogue could have been tightened up. The beginning scene where he has to steal the nuclear warhead was great. I loved the hotel room scene where he kills the Assassin after seeing and hearing on the news tape the death of his former lover. Brosnan shows us the character's dark side in killing the "professor", it is also evident earlier in the film where we see him drinking in isolation, shots of vodka, before Mrs Carver walks in.

Eliot Carver was a baddie in my opinion ahead of its time. A madman media mogul who wants his legacy to dominate the global media. His "by curious quirk of fate" speech was excellent. This is a villain that isn't hidden away in an underwater lair but amongst society that he is trying to manipulate. For me it is believable that newspaper/media tycoons can start a war in which they can profit from.

Overall 7/10

Always good to see more love for TND! I love a lot of Carver's dialogue, it's a perfect marriage between the writing and Pryce's performance. The scene you point out is a great take on the villain meeting scene that began with TB. The fact that not everyone is in the same room shows how far reaching Carver's power is immediately. 

On the writing, I do think it's perhaps the most quotable of recent Bond films, so I'm not sure the dialogue needs tightening. Except for maybe Bond and Wai Lin's short, expositional exchange as they board the stealth boat ("That will give us enough time for it to get out"/"Even if we don't, it will still show on radar").

The dialogue is mainly with Bond and the two female characters. What do you think of Moneypenny in this film compared to earlier Connery/Moore films. She seems to hate him despite getting on quite well with Bond in those films. The Queen and country quote was such a put down lol.

Perfect_Spy wrote:

The dialogue is mainly with Bond and the two female characters. What do you think of Moneypenny in this film compared to earlier Connery/Moore films. She seems to hate him despite getting on quite well with Bond in those films. The Queen and country quote was such a put down lol.

I see it as a return to the early Connery/Maxwell years where the playfulness was rife. The "Queen and country" line, followed by her smirk as she turns away heightens this, but it's especially apparent in the 'cunning linguist" and "you'll just have to decide how much pumping is needed James"/"If only that were true of you and I, Moneypenny" lines. As for the dialogue with the Bond girls, I particularly like the lead up to Bond and Paris' love scene, and Bond and Wai Lin on the boat before boarding the stealth ship. What issues do you have with Bond and the female characters?

I think the dialogue was a bit cheesy with Wai Lin in the romance part. There is an example in Die Another Day at the end. TND is a great film, the build up scene with Paris and Bond was good.

A great film? No, but it is very rewatchable and there's a lot to be said for that.

Carver is rooted in the real world and I particularly like the briefing in the Daimler. Somehow it captures the absurd traditions and energy of modern Britain.

Perfect_Spy wrote:

I think the dialogue was a bit cheesy with Wai Lin in the romance part. There is an example in Die Another Day at the end. TND is a great film, the build up scene with Paris and Bond was good.

Die Another Day is its own entity and Feirstein's one liners are incomparable to Tamahori's drivel in the romantic scenes. 

But I agree, TND: great film. 

Ambler wrote:

Subject: Re: Tomorrow Never Dies in Review   Today at 10:26 pm
Carver is rooted in the real world and I particularly like the briefing in the Daimler. Somehow it captures the absurd traditions and energy of modern Britain.

The briefing in the Daimler is one of the best briefings in the series, up there with DN, FRWL and GF equivalents.

So TND was the first Bond from my newly-acquired Blu-Ray boxset that I decided to watch.

It's a lot of fun up until just after Bond and Wai-Lin's dive on the Devonshire, from which point it's hard to shake the feeling that things have gone slightly awry ... neither the overlong bike chase or 'TerminatorBond' on the stealth boat are as enjoyable as the pre-credits sequence or the Q-Branch Beamer-assisted escape from the hotel, for instance. And having the villain die before his henchman is a very odd decision.

It's ... pretty good overall, I guess. But I still prefer Goldeneye.