Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Following the success of Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan returns as 007 alongside martial arts heroine and former Miss Malaysia Michelle Yeoh. Michelle brings about a new type of Bond Girl as she is a femme fatale she-spy who can rival Bond himself. What I really loved about Tomorrow Never Dies is the villain Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). A cocky, super nerd with delusions of grandeur, Carver is not only hilarious but quite quotable too. Reminiscent of the late Goldfinger from the Connery days. Tomorrow Never Dies brings about some pretty high-tech gadgetry as mr. James Bond drives a BMW using one finger via remote control and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) delivers some gadgetry surprises of her own. Pierce Brosnan is confident in the role of 007 and although the chemistry between he and Michelle isn’t exactly sexual, the pairing of he and Terry Hatcher is all fireworks. for the first time we see emotion in terms of love for old Bond and a tender side to his game is revealed.

Plot: Stemming some misunderstanding between Britain and Hong Kong due to the manipulation of a media giant. MI6 is forced to send James Bond to infiltrate the headquarters of media giant, Elliot Carver. Whilst undercover James runs into a former lover named Paris Carver (Terry Hatcher) who happens to be the wife of the media mogul himself. Upon reuniting with her and rousing the jealousy of Carver, James Bond is sent running for his life alongside a new ally in Chinese spy Wai Lin. Sharing similar missions, Wai starts out ditching James Bond in order to carry out her mission alone. When things seem to be too much for her, she lightens up and allows 007 to help her thwart Elliot Carver. Who then creates a plan to pit the British against the Chinese through attacks sent by an undetectable ship somewhere between the two countries.

With nothing much to the story and the somewhat goofy Kung-fu action, Tommorow Never Dies appears cheesy at a glance but is really a very likeable movie to watch. Carver is pure entertainment and the feeling of classic James Bond can be felt in the dialogue. I recommend picking this up for the collection if you liked Goldeneye. Brosnan shows himself as a solid James Bond in this one and cannot be denied.

Bond-o-meter Score (ranges from 1-10)
James Bond /Story (6): The story was a bit too simple and the plot felt as if it was written within a few minutes. Of all things wrong with this movie, this was easily the clincher.
Bond Girl: Wai Lin (7): Spitfire and all business, even James was hesitant in ravishing this lithe beauty. It all worked out in the end though but she was a far cry from the norm… not sure if I liked that.
Bond Toys (10): Okay the toys owned, from the remote control car with missiles to the ninja stars on Wei’s knees (stereotype much?) I was really happy with the things 007 had to play with… including Terry Hatcher!
The Villain (10): This villain was easily one of my favorites. Elliot Carver is that cocky nerd we all hated in class and at the job… smugly answering questions and being a know-it-all. I really believed the character and he was much more acceptable than some of the cartoon villains of Bond’s past.
Paris Carver Bonus (5): I am docking points because I really wanted to see some of the history between James and Paris. It was quite obvious that she had his heart. Above all things we know James to be for king and country but Paris had that good-good, and you could tell that James would have left everything for her. Unfortunately she is given limited time in the movie and seeing Bond break down for her pissed me off a bit – since I had no frame of reference for his sadness.