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Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) More at IMDbPro »

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278 reviews in total

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25 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
"Let's see how she responds to my touch.", 4 November 2007

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

Q demonstrated how to drive the BMW by remote control by moving his finger around a pad inside a special mobile phone…None of Bond's cars can compare for hi-tech gadgetry with the BMW 750 Sedan he drove on this film mission…

"Tomorrow Never Dies" opens with H.M.S Devonshire on a routine patrol from the Philippines to Hong Kong when it was overflown by two Chinese MiGs, whose pilots claimed the ships had veered into Chinese territorial waters… While the captain and the pilots argued the point, the Devonshire shuddered from stern to stern… Something had holed her below the waterline and she was sinking quickly…

Virtually undetectable by radar, the stealth ship (invisible to radar) was Elliot Carver's secret weapon in his plan to cause international conflicts…

The schemes of Carver had brought Britain and China to the edge of war… And the British will think it's a Chinese aerial torpedo… Bond needed to find the wreck of H.M.S Devonshire and discover how and why it had sunk… However a problem remained: how to get to the wreck, and which lay between the Chinese and the British fleets, undetected by the Chinese radar?

Carver's daring bid for communication supremacy involves nothing less than achieving World War III and offering subscribers a ringside seat…

In his attempts to situate and stop Carver, Bond becomes implicated with his former lover Paris – now Carver's wife – and collaborates with resourceful Chinese agent Wai Lin…

In "Tomorrow Never Dies," Pierce Brosnan was seen more confident as Bond… The actors playing Bond's back-up – Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Joe Don Baker and Desmond Llewellyn – all reprise their "GoldenEye" roles…

Former Miss Malaysia Michelle Yeoh was awarded the role of Wai Lin… MI6 was not the only agency interested in Carver… The Chinese government sent one of its top security agents to uncover the secrets of his organization… After initial distrust, she and Bond form an almost telepathic understanding… A martial artist of considerable skills, she preferred to work alone – until she begins to trust 007…

Carver's wife Paris was played by the great beauty, Teri Hatcher… "I always wondered how I'd feel if I ever saw you again," said Bond… He soon had his answer – a stinging slap in the face... He had broken Paris' heart years before, and she had consoled herself by marrying a jealous husband… Yet she still carries an ex-flame for 007… Paris, like Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) in "Goldfinger," has only few minutes on-screen in the film…

Jonathan Pryce plays the villain, 'the emperor of the air,' Elliot Carver who was prepared to go to any length to increase the power of his media empire…

Ricky Jay plays Henry Gupta the eccentric quietly spoken man to Carver's plans… He's the most dangerous of the magnate's followers…

Götz Otto plays Stamper, the loyal psychopath henchman who follows Carver's orders murdering a group of shipwrecked British sailors…

Vincent Schiavelli plays the menacing Dr. Kaufman, a professional hit-man, and a priest of pain…

The 18th Bond movie has it all: Too much action (including an exciting chase through the streets of Saigon on a stylish BMW R1200); an effective girl; and a super car…

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38 out of 58 people found the following review useful:
A good example of what the Bond films have always been- superior escapist entertainment, 15 September 2004

Author: James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England

One of the standard received ideas of film criticism is to say that sequels are almost never as good as the original film. (There are also a few standard exceptions to this rule, such as 'The Godfather Part 2' and the second and third parts of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy). Subject to these exceptions, however, there seems to be a law of diminishing returns to the effect that the more sequels a franchise spawns, the worse they become. The Bond films, however, seem to me to provide the most striking exception to this principle. The franchise started with 'Dr No' in the early sixties, and 'Tomorrow Never Dies' amounts to 'James Bond XVIII', or 'James Bond XIX' if one includes 'Never Say Never Again' in the total. Despite this, one can watch the latest offerings with as much pleasure as the original Sean Connery films from the sixties and seventies.

The Bond films are highly formulaic. They typically start with an action sequence before the opening credits that has little or nothing to do with the film that is to follow. The main story will involve Bond thwarting a dastardly plot by some megalomaniac bent on world domination. It will always involve at least one extended chase sequence, and possibly two or more. The main character, apart from Bond and the villain, will always be a beautiful young woman who helps Bond in his quest and who will end up by falling for him. There will always be at least one other beautiful girl, either as a secondary heroine or as a villainess. The villain will always have a small army of henchmen ready to do battle on his behalf. The story will always end with a shoot-out, normally in the villain's headquarters, in which Bond manages to avert the threatened disaster at the last minute.

'Tomorrow Never Dies' contains all these formulaic elements. It is, nevertheless, in my view one of the better entries in the Bond canon, for a number of reasons beyond the fact that Pierce Brosnan is the best Bond since Connery. These can be summarised as follows:-

1. The Villain. Jonathan Pryce plays Elliott Carver, a newspaper and media tycoon intent on whipping up a war between Britain and China. The reason is to facilitate the accession to power of his ally, a renegade Chinese general who has promised to give his organisation exclusive broadcasting rights in China. Bond villains have always provided scope for some splendidly over-the-top displays of acting, going back to Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb and Gert Frobe's Goldfinger. Although Pryce's Carver is more restrained than some, it falls within this tradition. At first sight the silver-haired bespectacled Carver seems mild-mannered and soft spoken, but soon reveals the raving megalomania which is the hallmark of the Bond villain. Particularly noteworthy is the speech where Carver states his ambitions as being 'power' and 'world domination'. Although he puts a liberal, metaphorical interpretation on these two concepts, the audience is left in no doubt that he means what he says quite literally. There is also a good performance from Gotz Otto as Carver's brutal German henchman, Stamper.

2. The Girl. Admittedly, Teri Hatcher is rather wasted as the secondary Bond girl Paris Carver, Elliott's wife and a former girlfriend of Bond. Michelle Yeoh, however, is superb as the main female lead, the Chinese secret agent Wai Lin. (That's how it's spelled, although the pronunciation used in the film suggests that the name should actually be transliterated as Wei Lin). Apart from Michelle's striking looks, she is also an accomplished martial arts performer, and her skills are put to good use in this film. (Part of a trend of giving Bond girls a more active role, in contrast to the earlier films in the series where they were required to do little other than look decorative.) 3. The Chase Sequence. The main one, in which Bond and Wai Lin escape on a motorbike through the streets of Hanoi from the villains in a helicopter, is excellent. 4. The Opening Sequence. As usual, this has little to do with the main plot line. It does, however, fit in with a growing tendency in the Bond films, that of mocking or undermining the militaristic, macho values which the series was once accused of promoting. This film introduces a new comic character, the gung-ho, blustering Admiral Roebuck, a sort of naval equivalent of Colonel Blimp, who clashes with the more liberal 'M', the female chief of the British Secret Service. (I was interested to learn that the actors who play them, Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench, are husband and wife in real life). In the opening sequence, Bond narrowly prevents Roebuck's blundering attempt to bomb a gathering of international terrorists from setting off a nuclear explosion. The more active roles for female characters are also part of the trend towards a politically correct Bond, as is, perhaps, his remark that smoking is a 'filthy habit'. (The earlier films were often criticised for glamorising the habit by making Bond himself a smoker).

As with all the Bond films, one can probably pull holes in the plot of 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. (The scene where Carver sinks a British warship by cutting a hole in the side with what looks like a giant chainsaw struck me as particularly implausible. What's wrong with a torpedo?) Nevertheless, the Bond films are not meant to be works of social realism and unlike, say, the novels of John Le Carre, have never purported to give an accurate picture of life in the British Secret Service. 'Tomorrow Never Dies' is a good example of what the Bond films have always been- superior escapist entertainment. 7/10

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23 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
James Bond-Still saving the world after all these years, 19 March 2005

Author: crowrobot

'Tomorrow Never Dies' is a superb Bond film, and if you're not looking for anything else, it provides some great entertainment.

The story: Bond (Pierce Brosnan) has the save the world from a megalomaniac again, but this time, the threat is Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce, clearly having the time of his life), a worldwide media baron who wants to start a war in order to get higher ratings. All the Bond regulars are here: Q (Desmond Llewelyn), who gives Bond a new BMW complete with rocket launchers, machine guns, and a remote control (there's a fun chase sequence in a high-rise garage where Bond sits in the backseat and drives the car by remote); M (Judi Dench), still frosty and unamused with some of Bond's... questionable tactics; and Miss Moneypenny, who gets one of the best lines in the film.

The Bond girl this time around is Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese agent who has also been sent to find out what Carver's up to. Lin and Bond team up in the last part of the film, and their chemistry is impeccable. Lin also gets to kick some butt, which is always fun to see.

Overall, if you're looking for some good IL' action and adventure, you can't go wrong with James Bond. 10/10

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32 out of 52 people found the following review useful:
Tomorrow has the power!, 19 April 2005

Author: Kyle007 from Buenos Aires, Argentina

OK, this is what i call an action movie, a great one, it has everything you need to make your adrenaline flow. And of course it also does it for a Bond movie, it has funny lines, clichés, gadgets, and it deliver us a movie that is pure action and danger without losing the sense of humour (like all Bond movies).

James Bond had always fought to the powerful, but this is the first time, i think, that he deals to a press magnate like Elliot Carver, who cares nothing about an informed world as he says, but to get all the power and money that he can. In WW2, the men who took advantage of the war were those who manufactured weapons, in the 90's, the medias gain as much money as them, so Elliot decides to begin a war to have the complete coverage of the deed, so our fellow agent 007 must stoop this crazy guy from beginning a war just for economic reasons.... So, we can say the plot is quite good and original as well, nobody can say no.

And this movie was a great follow up to the blockbuster mega hit that was Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan shining as the British agent, as he always did in his 007 period. Michelle Yeoh was great too, and she portrayed perfectly good the woman of the 90's: Independent, fighting side by side with men, even defeating them, smart, pretty, well the 90's woman......

The music by Sheryl Crow is lovely and sweet, and fits great into the atmosphere of the movie, something on what the producers of the Bond movies always lay stress on. A good Bond movie needs a good song, and a good car too, ja.

"The difference between craze and greatness is measured only by success" "There's no news, like bad news" This is an example of Carver's "philosophy" of life, funny thing to hear, you realize he is a crazy that believes what he says....

So, if you are an action lover this movie is for you, and if you are a Bond lover this movie will like you too.

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18 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Fine follow-up to "Goldeneye", 14 May 2000

Author: jhaggardjr from Chicago, Illinois

"Tomorrow Never Dies" is the 18th James Bond film, with Pierce Brosnan back as 007. This is a very good follow-up to Brosnan's first Bond movie "Goldeneye". "Tomorrow Never Dies" had the unfortunate task of opening on the exact same day as "Titanic" (December 19, 1997). Even though "Titanic" went on to break box office records, "Tomorrow Never Dies" was not left in the dust. It surpassed "Goldeneye" domestically with a box office gross of $125 million ("Goldeneye" grossed $106 million). There are two major assets that make "Tomorrow Never Dies" really work, a great Bond villain and a great Bond woman. Jonathan Pryce is a major standout as Elliot Carver, the megalomaniacal media magnate Bond faces off against. The other standout: Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin, Bond's female sidekick who makes a fine companion for Bond. Brosnan is fine as 007 as he was in "Goldeneye", and also returning for the second time are Joe Don Baker as CIA agent Jack Wade, Judi Dench as "M", Samantha Bond as "Miss Moneypenny", and Desmond Llewelyn as "Q". As for the other familiar face in the cast, Teri Hatcher from TV's "Lois & Clark" is just adequate as Elliot Carver's wife Paris. "Tomorrow Never Dies" is just as good as "Goldeneye"

***1/2 (out of four)

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27 out of 48 people found the following review useful:
Welcome back Bond!, 1 November 2000

Author: kenandraf from Honolulu, Hawaii

This movie has made up for all the recent bad Bond movies made.Brosnan changed his look for this one and leared from his mistakes in Goldeneye.Very well done with regards to action and special effects.The direction and cinematography was also splendid.The producers have also finally found a proper 90's atmosphere for Bond.This film has set the standard for the new Bond formula.Complaints about the unrealistic storyline is unfounded.Wake up nay sayers.How realistic can DR. No and Goldfinger be?Both mentioned films being considered model Bond movies.The unrealism must be eclipsed by great entertainment and innovative fim making.The Bond movies are a great vehicle for innovative action film making and given this,Tomorrow Never Dies delivers.Another annoying complaint by others is that the villain here was not menacing.Once again,in other Bond classics,the big boss is not required to be a physical specimen.Many versions of Blofeld and even Goldfinger himself were menacing in other ways.One more comlaint I did not like was that there was too much Rambo like shooting.In other classic Bond films,there are a lot of shootings galore.The difference is that in this film,the shooting scenes were more graphic and there is nothing wrong with that becouse it is time the Bond films took it to the next level in these scenes.Why should the Bond films get left behind in this area when it is the pinnacle of all action films?Yup!Brosnan was lighting it up with that rapid fire weapon and it was done the right way!James was never handled this way when he was given a weapon like that before and it was about time he was portrayed with little compromise this way.This film is not better than the best of Connery and Moore but this one rates among the best Bond films all time.I'm so happy Brosnan grew into it.I hated his weak portrayal in Goldeneye but I still knew adjustments here and there would fix it.Tomorrow Never Dies realised my desire for Brosnan's Bond.I knew he could do it this way ever since I saw him in the old Remington Steele TV series back in 1983.I knew he had to toughen up physically and get a haircut.He did both and became Bond.

d

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The let down of the Pierce Brosnan, James Bond films., 26 February 2008

Author: jmjhora from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

First and foremost, I am a hard core James Bond 007 fan, starting from Doctor No in the early 1960's, all the way to Casino Royale in late 2006. Many of the Bond films introduce items and enemies that no action movie has ever had before, or could possibly dream of having. I enjoyed watching Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton play in the older films, but even though I really enjoy watching these movies, I still have to say that Sean Connery and George Ian are my least favorite for the James Bond movies.

Upon hearing that Academy-Award winning actor Pierce Brosnan was going to portray the role of James Bond in at least four movies, I hurriedly had my parents take me to see Goldeneye which appeared in theaters in the later months of 1995. This was the first Pierce Brosnan Bond film. Goldeneye soared through the roof with intensity, well-acted out performances, and it did the James Bond title real justice.

Then in 1997, Pierce Brosnan starred as James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies which explained about a worldwide media group that was involved in terrorism, having Jonathan Pryce portray the role of Elliot Carver, a bent and brutal newspaper editor and chief. I have to say this as a James Bond fan. This movie just wasn't that good.

The action scenes were realistic and interesting, but let's face it, it just didn't have that great of a story behind it. Pierce was awesome as Bond, naturally, and Michelle Yeoh did alright as a hard-core fighting Chinese undercover agent. But, all in all, this was probably the worst Bond film that Pierce has made.

Sorry, but it just didn't work for me.

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6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Best Bond Movie with Pierce Brosnan, 5 December 2002

Author: emfern13 from Baltimore

I had written a review earlier saying it was the best Bond Movie but I should have said with Pierce Brosnan in it. This is by far the best of his Bond movies. Most People think Goldeneye is the best because of its more complex plot. I think that may have made a problem because the movie was very slow paced in areas. Tomorrow has a much more simple plot and it has two great Bond Girls. Teri Hatcher who plays Bonds ex-girlfriend is extremely sexy. Michelle Yeoh who plays Wai Lin is not as sexy as Teri hatcher but she is a lethal bitch (She is Bond's equal).Tommorow features some of the best action scenes and the best gadgets in a Bond Movie. Also, the best car since the Aston Martin in Goldfinger. Overall, TND is a well paced, well planned Bond movie and its Brosnan's best. The other two dont come close to it, well TWINE is very good and also well paced but D.A.D. is just a ripoff of I dont know how many classic Bond movies.

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15 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
It was great... I don't understand the backlash, 9 September 2006

Author: mattrochman from Australia

For some reason, Bond loyalists and sometimes Bond fans didn't rate this installment. However, I believe it was one of the best Bond's ever made.

The villain (Pryce) was terrific, even though the nature of his character was a bit overdone. The women were both stunning and were not denied some character development of their own (as is the case in many other Bonds).

The gadgets delivered by Q and the gadgets in Lin's secret office in China were extremely impressive - including that magnificent 7-series BMW.

But probably the stand out aspect of this Bond, above all others, were the terrific comedy and double entendre. After all, this was the film that gave rise to the now often used "cunning linguist." But there were many others that were absolutely hilarious - including "I'm brushing up on a little Danish", "I've always been a fan of Chinese technology" and Bond returning his car to Avis.

That said, the film did not get bogged down in the comedy. Furthermore, it didn't get bogged down in boring, drawn-out plot divergences that other Bonds (especially the older ones) tend to do. It was thrilling and engaging from start to finish and avoid the boring periods that crop up in other bond films. Brosnan is terrific and this was certainly his best effort.

I regard this is one of the best Bond's of all time.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Spoilers, 15 July 2004

Author: 98nurdinm from Gravesend, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

WARNING: There may be some spoilers in this review!

As a die-hard Bond fan i am often criticised about the choice of my favourite Bond film ever. Some will say 'Dr. No', and then there are others who claim that 'Goldfinger' is the best. However as far as i am concerned, this is the best Bond film. This does get lot of stick from many fans and critics, but i will try and place all the really good points within this review.

Firstly, Brosnan is far more at home in this movie in the role of Bond then in 'GoldenEye'.

Secondly, Jonathan Pryce is fantastic as the villain. This is a new type of baddie for the Bond series, and is a very clever character. Pryce plays it well in all of the scenes, whether he is Bwa-ha-haing down Bond's ear or ordering the execution of his wife.

Thirdly, Teri Hatcher is wonderfully tragic as Paris Carver, the doomed sacrificial lamb of the film, and also very attractive. The scenes between her and Bond are also very well written and shot.

Fouthly, the music. David Arnold does a good job in scoring the film in a very John Barry style, starting with Classic Bond, followed by Techno Bond, and finally by Asian Bond.

Fiftly, the final shoot-em-up on the Stealth Boat is exciting and memorable. The action is well-filmed, and the final deaths of Carver and his German heavy, Stamper, justly disgusting!

There are a few minor problems. I'm not really a big fan of Michelle Yeoh, though she does kick bottom in several scenes. Joe Don Baker's character, though funny in 'GoldenEye', is not really necessary in this film. Finally, maybe there is a bit too much action in the last few moments of the film.

Still, this is a worthy and brilliant entry in the series, and my favourite of all!!

9/10

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