Day 18 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Film Review

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh & Teri Hatcher

Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein

Directed By: Roger Spottiswoode

Certificate: 12

Onto Pierce Brosnan's second Bond film, 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. After using stolen technology to send a British frigate off-course and into Chinese-occupied waters, media mogul Elliot Carver uses his own stealth vessel to destroy the ship, stealing one of its missiles in the process. Believing the Chinese to behind the attack, the British Defence Minister orders the admiralty to deploy a fleet to investigate the sinking. With just 48 hours to avert a possible outbreak of global conflict, Bond is sent to investigate Carver after his company released news articles about the attack before even MI6 knew about it.

Following a pretty solid opening with Bond swiftly putting an end to a terrorist arms bazaar, I must admit I was left a little bit cold by Sheryl Crow's theme song during the opening titles. Despite it receiving several awards nominations, I'm not sure if Crow is really suited to this kind of song and isn't great at getting across the kind of slow and sultry tone it demands. The accompanying visuals were pretty good though. The CGI hasn't aged too badly and I like how just like the last film, it incorporates aspects of the plot. Last time it was the dissolution of the Soviet Union, whereas this time 'Tomorrow Never Dies' is more focused on technology and the potential threats that it poses in the contemporary world.

It's this focus on technology that sets the film apart. While media mogul Elliot Carver's plan isn't exactly entering any new territory for the series (manipulate events and bump multiple countries off each other to provoke war - we're all very familiar with that by now), the key is in how and why he goes about achieving it. While reception was mixed at the time of its release, a lot of reflective reviews of 'Tomorrow Never Dies' have been kinder to it and pointed out the many parallels we're seeing between Carver and world events today. Whilst likely starting out as a satire of Rupert Murdoch and his media empire (whose shadow still unfortunately looms over us to this day), there are yet more powerful people like politicians, tech gurus, and even more media moguls who instigate division, will lie and screw people over for their own gain. It's an all too familiar reality. I'm aware that no sentence that ever contains these words is a fun time... but look at Brexit. The ongoing nightmare of the UK doing its best to throw itself off a cliff and argue for several years about whether it wants a rope to hang on to, is a situation that's been allowed to develop not purely because so many people have an overinflated view of the UK's position in the world today, but because the people in power who wanted it to happen were able to wilfully lie and mislead them.

Carver and his media empire in this film are a great distillation of this kind of behaviour, and Jonathan Pryce is clearly loving this role. Pryce's performance is one of those that I feel is easy to attack as being a bit all over the place, a little too hammy in parts and overly buzzing with excitement at his own words. But to be honest, for me that just adds to the role and makes him more plausible as both a public figure as well as an evil mastermind. I also love the added detail that throughout Carver's HQ, there are massive images of himself displayed that look like something out of '1984' - yes I know that comparison is way too over-used, but hey it is true. And as with many great Bond villains, Carver has plenty of henchmen working for him. For one of those henchmen, Stamper, I spent almost the entire film thinking that he looked familiar. Then it finally clicked: hang on, is that the guy who played Gunsche in 'Downfall'? Lo and behold it was, and it was nice to recognize him in such a different role... eventually.

The characters are probably the greatest strength of 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. Pretty much everyone makes a strong impression, not just Carver. Also investigating the staged attack in the South China sea is Wai Lin, another spy sent by the Chinese government, and wow she is among the very best characters in this franchise. Rather like Agent Triple X in 'The Spy Who Loved Me', I gravitated towards Lin from the get-go and the character is a perfect mix of playful and, for lack of a better word, badass. Lin is brought to life by Michelle Yeoh and like everything else I've seen Yeoh in, she is one of the very best things about the film. Lin's popularity with fans was so great that a spin-off film centred on her was briefly considered, and yes before you ask I would watch the hell out of that. The chemistry is 100% there between Lin and Bond - the motorbike chase in Vietnam isn't just an incredible action set-piece, it also puts on full display how well these two characters work together. The action in general is very strong throughout the film, with one scene making full use of a car that can be driven remotely - it's brilliant stuff. And just as the action kicks things up a notch, so to does Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. Maybe this is just a personal thing, but Brosnan felt a lot more comfortable here than in his first outing. He's firmly grasped the role by now and is able to spit off brutal one-liners and face off against Carver with no worries at all.

So there we have our eighteenth Bond film... and I really, really enjoyed this one. I could see why some reviews especially at the time might've been more apprehensive, but for me it's a very solid action film that has already and will likely continue to age like a fine wine. I was stunned at how quick it passed by too, especially the first half which zips by at one hell of a pace. While not the majority, a few people do hold up 'Tomorrow Never Dies' as one of the best entries into the Bond roster, and as far as I'm concerned they have good reason to. So yeah sue me if you want, but I even preferred this to 'GoldenEye'.

8/10

NEXT TIME - The World Is Not Enough