Tomorrow Never Dies
For the second outing of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond 007, the producers decided to take a storyline ripped right from the headlines: Having Bond take on a insane, super-rich media mogul who seems to be a combination of Ted Turner, George Soros, and Bill Gates, and certainly the action and pacing here are well done by new Bond director Roger Spottiswoode (albeit for a few out of place slow motion shots). Brosnan again does fine in the part, bringing the combination of ladies man and action hero together well. As for the aforementioned villain, we get Jonathan Pryce, who sadly employs the hammy, over the top theatrics of some past bad guys, but in playing a character who’s based a little more in reality than usual (and is a public figure himself no less), it comes across as woefully unrealistic (who could take him seriously?), not to mention that his ultimate goal is not to literally take over the world, but to initiate a fake war between China and the U.K. so as to wipe out China’s leadership with his own handpicked mole so that he may have exclusive broadcast rights in the Communist country from there on out (really?). Fortunately we are compensated with a very good Bond girl in Michelle Yeoh, as a Chinese agent who teams with Bond to foil the plot. Given Yeoh herself is something of a living legend in the Hong Kong action market, she gets to show off her own fighting ability while also making an appealing match with Brosnan himself. On the other hand, in the role of the secondary “bad” Bond girl, we have Teri Hatcher as Pryce’s wife and old Bond flame who has to go down as one of the weaker characters of this type when it comes to the writing, particularly the fact that she would betray her husband so quickly and readily for Bond while knowing full well the consequences, plus (even worse) it marks the first time in the series that Bond has had a sexual relationship with a MARRIED woman, an idea that just leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth. On the plus side, we get a fine array of henchmen for Bond to deal with, including sleazeball type Ricky Jay as a radical leftist computer expert, Gotz Otto as an imposing German bodybuilder, and best of all the legendary Vincent Schiavelli as a doctor who specializes in forensics and torture. The usual crew is back as well, including Judi Dench as M and Desmond Llewelyn (getting long in the tooth) as Q along with Joe Don Baker acting goofy and overly jolly again as Bond’s CIA liaison. The action sequences, which include the opening scene, a thrilling car chase through a hotel garage, and a chopper pursuing our heroes through the streets of Saigon are all very exciting along with the climax itself. Overall, a well done film in the series that could have used better writing and character motivation…
7/10