With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a over a month, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the eighteenth entry, with a full review of Tomorrow Never Dies. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it. But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should. Without further ado...Tomorrow Never Dies
When you remove Mr.Bond’s heart, there should be just enough time for him to watch it stopbeating.
STATS
GoldenEye’s followup film, Tomorrow Never Dies, was astudio rush job in trying to cash in the restored success of the 007 series. The production seemed to be a mess, startingoff with an incomplete script. It’ssurprising as none of that seems to translate to the final product. It’s not the best of the series, but seems tofloat on the better side of the middle ground like For Your Eyes Only. Tomorrow Never Diesfeatures media mogul Elliot Carver trying to start WWIII between China and theUK. He has a stealth ship in which heinitially uses to sink a British battleship. James Bond is sent in to investigate Carver, looking to gatherinformation from his ex-flame and wife of Carver, Paris. Bond also stumbles upon a Chinese agent, WaiLin who is also investigating Carver. The two team up to uncover and stop Carver.
This is a much different approach to Bond than the previousentry. I don’t know if it had anythingto do with Martin Campbell not returning. He was offered, but passed, citing that he didn’t want to do 2 Bondmovies in a row. There were somecomplaints that GoldenEye wasn’t asslick and gadget driven as past 007 features. So this film ups that department. Bond is in a tuxedo or suit for a lot of the film and many high tech,fun gadgets are infused into the plot. Bond also throws out the quips at a rapid pace. All this is done while attempting to maintain the sameintegrity of the prior film. Tomorrow Never Dies lifts from the LewisGilbert template of the “how to” approach to James Bond and feels very close toa modernized retelling of The Spy WhoLoved Me. Believe it or not, for theyoungins reading this, this was something the people of the 90s were askingfor. Cinema going audiences were wantingto the less espionage-driven, big, boisterous, over the top action that was acommonplace in the Roger Moore era. The90s blockbusters were full of fun over the top spectacles that once you sitdown to nit pick, sound like the some of the worst movies ever. TomorrowNever Dies is better than most of those, I must add.
The film’s villain, Elliot Carver, is the last of histype. His scheme is rather ludicrous,but is a more 90s version of a Hugo Drax or Carl Stromberg. He’s a villain that is physically not matchedfor Bond, but has other means and henchmen to take care of that. Jonathan Pryce absolutely devours the roleand delivers his dialogue beautifully. The quote I used at the top of the article I have loved mainly becauseof his delivery, since the trailer first debuted. Teri Hatcher’s Paris Carver brings yet another interestingdynamic to Brosnan’s Bond character. Anold flame he left from the past because she got too close (or that’s what Jamestells her). In an earlier article, Istated that a more interesting turn would have been to make this characterSylvia Trench, but this is fine. I’msure not many people remember her too well anyway. Her death scene in the film (featuring thelate, always great, character actor Vincent Schiavelli) is one of the bestscenes in the entire series. Bond isactually shown to be truly devastated by the loss for once. This film, while not of the best, does havesome great material in it.
Michelle Yeoh’s Wai Lin also classes up the film a bit. This character was very popular upon the timeof release and after that she was almost brought back for Die Another Day. Luckily forher, it didn’t happen. This is a veryfun character of the Agent XXX/Goodhead mold, but much more able to handleherself in a fight. Having seen her in afew martial arts films, I feel they could have had a bit more fun displayingher skills. Its great to see in thefirst two Brosnan films that the females used are absolutely relevant and wellrounded characters who help to drive and enhance the story being told. Sadly, this right here, is the end of thatsuccess. The opening credits are pretty good as well. They fit the film’s theme and do not at alllook like a retread of the previous film. I am also very high on Sheryl Crow’s theme song. I find it to be criminally underrated amongstthe internet rankings of the songs. Maybe time will eventually be kind to this one. K d Lang has an alternate version that playsduring the credits. It sounds as if itstrying to be a Shirley Bassey tune, and its good, I just think Crow’s originalsong is the kind of “original take” or “freshness’ the series should go forsometimes.
Tomorrow Never Dieswas the only Brosnan Bond film and the only 007 film in the last six to not openat #1 at the box office. The film’slegacy is probably stronger as a trivia night answer because of who it lost to. Opening up the same weekend as Titanic, Tomorrow Never Dies fell just $3million short of the #1 spot. Iremember, this being in the heyday of my extreme 007 fanboy era, I wasdisappointed and pissed. However thefilm amassed less than GoldenEye worldwide ($333 million vs $350 million), butmanaged to make some good money (with $126 million vs Goldeneye's $106 million, it was the series's biggest domestic earner). I was initially not looking too forward to this one goinginto this retrospective. While I’m notcompletely swayed around on it, I do think it’s much better than I gave itcredit. The villain’s whole plan is abit painfully bad, but not unlike that of a 70s Bond nemesis. Its highs are very good. But at times it can drag and has somestaleness to it. Like I said before, itis a very “in the middle” Bond film. Ifyou’re into the Lewis Gilbert era of Bond, this is definitely for you.
Brandon Peters will return in The World Is Not Enough (only once this year, though)
Follow me on Twitter – www.twitter.com/@btpeters
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