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6
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9 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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The
shortest 007 film since 1967's You
Only Live Twice and the second to star Pierce
Brosnan, Tomorrow Never
Dies is stuffed to the gills with gunplay,
pyrotechnics and stunt work a collection of
action set-pieces linked together by the flimsiest
of plot threads, more "first person shooter" video
game than movie. A lot of hardcore Bond fans,
not just film critics, had a problem with this.
"Too much action, not enough story" was the common
refrain. I, too, held this opinion when I first
saw the film theatrically. Subsequent screenings
have tempered my perspective, particularly in
light of the distinctly uneven third Brosnan Bond,
The
World Is Not Enough (1999). Compared
to TND's zippy, pulse-charging
mayhem the action scenes in the follow-up film
seem positively listless. After all... what's
wrong with James Bond just kicking a little ass
now and then?
In this 18th chapter of the long-running franchise
007 takes on crazed media baron Elliot Carver
(The Doctor And The
Devils' Jonathan Pryce), a demented cross
between Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates who's fomenting
a shooting war between Britain and Beijing in
the South China Sea. The reason? Ratings. Carver
is launching a new 24-hour satellite news service
and wants to inaugurate it with a bang. He's also
in collusion with the traitorous General Chang
(The Story Of Ricky's
Phillip Kwok in a very brief cameo), a Chinese
army officer plotting a coup d'ιtat. Carver
will wipe out China's Politburo using a stolen
Royal Navy cruise missile; Britain will get the
blame and Chang will conveniently survive the
strike to assume the reins of power. In exchange
Chang will grant the Carver Media Group exclusive
broadcast rights in China for a hundred years
an extremely lucrative deal worth billions.
But the power to shape world opinion interests
Carver much more than money. "Words are the new
weapons," he tells Bond. "Satellites the new artillery."
Carver doesn't reckon that some of the 'old' weapons
a Walther PPK and the ingenious gadgets built
in the lab of trusty ol' Q have a chance to
derail his master plan. In the hands of superhero
James Bond, though, they can't help but succeed.
Teaming up with Wai Lin (Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Michelle Yeoh),
the tough and beautiful Chinese intelligence agent
assigned by Beijing to investigate Carver, Bond
wastes no time in demolishing the media mogul's
empire before the outbreak of war. Just about
every vehicle and structure in the movie is blown
to smithereens... The record of property damage
accrued by these two would send insurance company
execs into fits of apoplexy!
TND rarely slows
down for anything in between the action sequences.
Bond actually has very little spying to do beyond
a little breaking and entering; he's tipped off
almost immediately that Carver's the evil force
behind the gathering war clouds by the news baron's
wife Paris played by Teri Hatcher an ex-lover
of Bond's and the flick's "sacrificial lamb".
From the slam-bang pre-titles sequence (Bond wreaks
havoc at a terrorist base) to the exciting demolition
derby in a Hamburg parking garage (the film's
action high point, showcasing Bond's remote-controlled
BMW sedan), this entry features more explosions
and flying bullets than the previous three 007
epics combined. A motorcycle chase through and
over the streets of Saigon is as thrilling as
it is impossible. It all culminates in a prolonged
commando-style gun battle aboard Carver's stealth
boat. (In fact, the climax reminded me a lot of
the GoldenEye Nintendo game that came out
a few years back. More appropriate for an Arnold
Schwarzennegger flick, it actually gets a bit
tedious.) With its abundance of ker-wanging
machinegun rounds, whooshing missiles and thunderous
detonations this has to be the loudest Bond film
to date. Your subwoofer will get a workout, that's
for sure.
The overemphasis on action does shortchange
other elements in the film. The part of Carver
seems woefully underwritten. The decision to make
the character a Silicon Age media baron who delights
in twisting the news for his own agenda was an
inspired and timely one beyond that, though,
he's a just a mega-rich, lunatic industrialist
in the Max Zorin mold. Former Infiniti pitchman
Pryce is a fine actor but can only do so much
with the material he's given. (Some of his line
readings do, in fact, come off like blurbs from
a car commercial.) Thus, aside from his background,
Carver is one of the least memorable villains
in the Bond pantheon. So it's up to his chief
lieutenants to project real menace. Ricky Jay
is Henry Gupta, Carver's technical wizard; he's
more of an unsavory-looking creep than evil computer
genius. Familiar and usually reliable character
actor Vincent Schiavelli (Ghost)
appears as Dr. Kaufman, Carver's torture expert.
Speaking with one of the worst German accents
I've ever heard in a major film, he's fortunately
killed by Bond after only a few minutes' screen
time. (Using the term "Herr" instead of "Mister"
would've helped.) Thankfully Carver does have
a hulking, super-strong henchman for 007 to tangle
with: Stamper (Gotz Otto), a Teutonic blond killer
with a penchant for sadism. The hand-to-hand battle
between him and Bond atop the missile launcher
at film's end provides a sense of satisfaction
for the audience that Carver's demise does not.
Brosnan is fine here as 007; he'd slipped
very comfortably into the superspy's shoulder
holster in his very first outing, GoldenEye
(1995). His take on the character is something
of a hybrid of Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton's,
with the emphasis fortunately on the latter. (He's
able to play humor better than his predecessor
and, unlike Moore, is at least believable in the
action scenes.) Judi Densch, returning as 007's
secret service boss M, is a welcome presence;
Q (the late Desmond Llewelyn) gets a nice, genuinely
humorous scene that's superior to his poorly written
send off in The World Is
Not Enough. Yeoh, of course, is a major
asset to the film, stealing much of Bond's thunder.
Her Colonel Lin is as tough and resourceful as
007 is... This is one Bond Girl you definitely
won't hear screaming for "James!" to get her out
of a pickle.
Rounding out the plus column is the excellent
Barry-esque music score by David Arnold. Aside
from The Living Daylights
it's the best of the series since OHMSS
great to hear the Bond theme once more arranged
with plenty of brass and twangy guitar! The end
credits song by k.d. lang, "Surrender", is also
an old-fashioned stunner... With all due respect
to Sheryl Crow (who warbles the much less interesting
main title theme), lang's powerful pipes harken
back to the salad days of Shirley Bassey. "Surrender"
should definitely have been used over the opening
credits instead.
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MGM's
"Special Edition" of Tomorrow
Never Dies fits in nicely with it superb
collection of James Bond DVDs. The fact that the
film is a relatively recent entry to the series
has both positive and negative consequences. Understandably,
sound and picture quality are absolutely first-rate.
What we miss out on is a "Making Of" documentary
like those included with the older Bond movie
discs. Those featurettes gave 007 fanatics plenty
to drool over. On the TND
disc we have the standard Entertainment Tonight-style
puff piece that doesn't tell us very much. It's
totally skippable. The animated menus are a step
down from the other titles as well.
Not that there aren't plenty of goodies on
hand, though. In addition to the standard trailers
and the obligatory Sheryl Crow music video, two
separate audio commentaries are included: one
with director Roger Spottiswoode (whose most successful
film prior to TND
was Turner And Hooch!),
the other featuring 2nd Unit Director Vic Armstrong
and producer Michael G. Wilson, heir to the Cubby
Broccoli throne (and who makes a cameo in the
film "Consider him slimed!"). The neat Digital
Effects Reel highlights the role of CGI in
realizing some of the flick's locations and special
effects. A second technical supplement allows
the viewer to superimpose storyboard drawings
of various scenes onto the screen while watching
the finished product.
My favorite item among the extras is the isolated
music score track, which in a sense also functions
as a third commentary. One can listen to Arnold's
terrific score sans dialog and sound effects,
with the composer himself popping in now and then
with the occasional comment. Give Chapter 15 ("Beamer
Screamer") a whirl to see what I mean. 9/08/02
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| UPDATE
OOP for a couple of years, Tomorrow
Never Dies was reissued in December 2006
by MGM. This completely remastered 2-disc edition
with new, additional bonus features is a part
of The James Bond Ultimate
Collection Vol. 4. |
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