Tomorrow Never Dies
Sometimes I wonder if Goldeneye should be viewed as a minor miracle. After License to Kill, the franchise seemed lost. I’ve already written how that movie is unfairly blamed for the series’ near demise when the culprits were really a combination of bad luck, legal woes and the fact that many of the principal creative forces either moved onto other projects, retired or passed away. But Goldeneye brought Bond roaring back. The film was a critical and box office hit and got people excited about the character again. With Brosnan a huge hit with audiences and young enough for a good run of films, it looked like smooth sailing was ahead for the iconic franchise.
Unfortunately, I believe a strange period of stagnation was about to kick in. Every film under Brosnan’s tenure was very successful, but time has not been kind to them. It’s sad to say the films never lived up to the potential that Brosnan had, but it's true. And most people I ask look back on those films and say, “Ugh, Brosnan. Those films were terrible…except for Goldeneye, of course.” Which is actually not fair to Tomorrow Never Dies, which is actually not that bad. The cracks are beginning to form, but overall it is a perfectly fine entry to the franchise.
Ambitious media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce, Game of Thrones) is launching a new 24-hour news network, and needs a great hook to snag audiences away from the other networks right out of the gate. What better news story to grab viewers’ attention than a war? He is able to get his hands on tech expert Mr. Gupta who has a ‘Global Positioning System’ and then starts wreaking havoc with Chinese and British military guidance systems in order to increase tensions between the two world powers. For good measure, he sinks a British warship and makes it appear as if the Chinese launched the attack. The ‘Chinese massacre of British sailors’ is a good story that explodes in the press, but British intelligence is immediately suspicious because Carver’s news outlet had the scoop hours before any other station heard about it. Bond is set in to investigate – a search that is at times both helped and hindered by a Chinese agent Wai Lin (the always super cool Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
In general, there isn’t that much to say about this movie. It is mostly perfectly fine. The acting is generally good. Brosnan and Yeoh are both great, and share a fun chemistry together. It is interesting to point out that Agent Wai Lin almost got her own spinoff movie, and I would have welcomed that. Yeoh is a terrific Bond girl – looking comfortable with the spy work and certainly kickass in battle. Some of my friends complained about Jonathan Pryce as the villain, but I thought he was fun as the crazed media mogul. And I am happy the franchise tried something different, poking fun at our obsessive “everything now and all the time” media culture instead of settling for your standard megalomaniacal villain bent on world conquest. The same media obsession that drives Carver in this movie has only grown worse thanks to the explosion of the internet and social media, so let’s give the movie some credit for playing with that idea two decades ago.
The rest of the team does an admirable job. After flirting with a synthesized score in Goldeneye, the producers hired David Arnold (Stargate) who gave us a traditional, brass-blaring, old school Bond score. It's definitely good stuff. The movie looks really good, too, with Oscar-winning Director of Photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood) behind the cameras. Director Roger Spottiswood (The Sixth Day) does a fine job balancing the humor and action, and he actually stages one of the better sequences of the Brosnan years – when Brosnan is trapped by a master assassin named Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli) in a hotel room while a small army of thugs try to break into his car in the neighboring garage. A perfect combination of thrilling, suspenseful and genuinely funny, it is hands down the best sequence of the film.
Unfortunately, there are just as many things to complain about in Tomorrow Never Dies. After the encounter with Dr. Kaufman, the movie heads downhill. It’s not a steep dip, but certainly a steady decline. There is a motorcycle chase through Saigon which is entertaining enough, but should have been much better considering they are being chased by a helicopter. And then the movie continues to get steadily worse and worse until it devolves into your standard fare action movie by the end…and not even really a good one. It’s more like one of those direct-to-video flicks that Steven Seagal and Jean Claude van Damme are churning out these days. It’s just…unremarkable. I’m not opposed to big action finales in the Bond films, but this one just smacks of the “we need to be bigger and louder” mentality that has plagued a lot of action films in the 1990s. I suppose it is another example of Bond changing with the times, which has always been the franchise’s strength. But while the explosions kept the character relevant (and may have put butts in the theaters), I think the films took a creative step backwards. The spy work was becoming more and more subpar (and occasionally even bordering on ridiculous) and was turning into just a means to get to the next explosion.
There are a few other things to complain about – Teri Hatcher is wasted as the second Bond girl, Carver’s wife Paris, and the super big thug of the film, Stamper (Gotz Otto) is about as bland a super thug as you can get. But all in all, I don’t want to sound too negative. I really should emphasize that Tomorrow Never Dies is actually fairly entertaining; but we are beginning to see the cracks that are about to form into the earthquakes that are The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Ugh, I hate those movies.
Oh, I can't end the review without mentioning one of my favorite things!!! I need to comment on how the film dates itself. I love that Mr. Gupta's secret weapon is a Global Positioning System...as in a GPS. Every time he unlocks his special box and pulls out this cumbersome device, I look over at my phone and think, "wow, with my phone, I can reroute the guidance systems on Chinese jets. Who knew my iPhone had that much power! This isn't a criticism of the movie, and I am sure that in 1997, we were all in awe of this magical GPS device. But damn, if it doesn't date the film when we're watching it now. It's actually pretty funny!
RANKINGS:
This is a bit tricky, actually. And full disclosure, I think nostalgia is going to interfere with an objective opinion on this one. I know that this movie belongs in the middle of the pack, but where is the question. Is Tomorrow Never Dies a better film than Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only and Live and Let Die? Yeah, it very well could be. But I would definitely watch those three before I put in Tomorrow Never Dies, so that makes the ranking tricky. I think in the end, I will put it right above Live and Let Die. There are so many things I love about Roger Moore's debut, but unfortunately there is also so much stupidity in there that I could not in good conscience put it above Tomorrow Never Dies, whose sins are less...well, let's call them painful. So Brosnan's second effort will come in at #10.
1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Goldeneye
6. The Living Daylights
7. Dr. No
8. Octopussy
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Tomorrow Never Dies
11. Live and Let Die
12. License to Kill
13. Man with the Golden Gun
14. Diamonds are Forever
15. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
16. Moonraker
17. You Only Live Twice
18. A View to a Kill
MVP:
This is an easy one. While I really liked the addition of Wai Lin to the franchise and wished she had joined Bond in a few more adventures, this is still Brosnan’s party. As I mentioned in my Goldeneye review, he is really the first Bond since Connery who is believable in all the character traits that personify the character. The man was simply born to play Bond. And he is terrific here. It's an easy pick for MVP.
BEST LINE:
Miss Moneypenny: You always were a cunning linguist, James.
TRIVIA:
I couldn't pick just one! Tomorrow Never Dies has a bunch of fun trivia connected to it, and I really couldn't decide between these three.
1. Did you know Anthony Hopkins was actually cast as Elliot Carver? But the production was so chaotic, with script rewrites happening daily, that he walked after only a few days on the production. He opted to make Mask of Zorro instead, directed ironically by Goldeneye's helmer, Martin Campbell. Good choice, too. I love Mask of Zorro and think Hopkins is fantastic in that role!
2. Before filming the motorcycle chase, the director pulled Pierce Brosnan aside and told him he was supposed to drive the bike. He then pulled Michelle Yeoh aside and told her the same thing. The result can be seen on camera, as both agents run to the motorcycle and try to climb on at the same time. Their bumbling confusion is real, and reinforced the idea of Agents Bond and Mai Lin always trying to outdo each other. It also ended up being one of the more amusing parts of the movie.
3. For the first time in movie history, a film made its budget back entirely in product placements! There were so many sponsorships in Tomorrow Never Dies that the producers made a profit before the film even hit theaters. That's pretty fascinating, and shows the power of the Bond Brand. Can you believe the franchise was this powerful when less than 10 years earlier the industry was ready to declare it dead?
