# Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

### reviewed by
Curtis Edmonds

by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org

By it's very nature, Tomorrow Never Dies is a film that invites comparisons. The film itself with earlier Bond pictures, Pierce Brosnan with Sean Connery and Roger Moore, the Bond car and gadgets of today with those of yesteryear... the list goes on. And I think it's a fun game to play, if you're into that sort of thing.

But if we're going to make comparisons...

Is Tomorrow Never Dies a better film than The Peacemaker?

I think that's a fair question. All of the Bond heritage aside, we still have to judge Tomorrow Never Dies on its merits rather than on its illustrious predecesors. By that standard, Tomorrow Never Dies is a middle-rung action movie, nothing more.

Tomorrow Never Dies employs the same basic plot foundation as The Peacemaker -- an irresponsible madman has control of a nuclear device and plans to explode it to further an irrational agenda. (Given the relative stability of geopolitics nowadays, this seems to be the most popular plotline going. Mission: Impossible and True Lies used similar nuclear plots, and it's even used, in a backhanded, satirical way, in the current Wag The Dog.) However, the villian in Tomorrow Never Dies is a megolamaniacal news tycoon (Jonathan Pryce) whose true enemy is, in fact, CNN. His ultimate weapon is a "stealth boat" which can't be seen on radar, has video teleconference capability, and is much bigger on the inside than the outside. And he's trying to start a war between Great Britain and China to increase TV ratings. And...

I'm sorry, the plot is just too ridiculous for words. It really is. There's just so much about it that's implausible and quite a bit that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It just ambles along with motorcycle chases and car chases and whatnot until the final confrontation between Bond and this Rupert Murdoch guy. (I won't tell you who wins.)

Tomorrow Never Dies is a formula movie. And there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, mind you. It's just that if you're going to make a formula movie, it needs to have something extra to differentiate it from the other formula movies out there -- and by itself, vodka-martini-shaken-not-stirred dialogue and Pierce Brosnan's suave performance don't cut it. To its credit, Tomorrow Never Dies does try to shake up the formula by adding Michelle Yeoh, best known in the States as a Jackie Chan sidekick. (Or "sidechick"?) Unfortunately, she's not given nearly enough opportunity to flex her kung-fu muscles, and the one scene where she does get to stomp some bad guys looks tacked-on.

All that aside, though, this is still a James Bond movie, which means that things are done with class. Brosnan's 007 has made everyone forget about Timothy Dalton -- and maybe even Roger Moore. The chase scenes are well-done, although they're not compelling. The plot is nonsense, but it's well-photographed and well-staged nonsense. The Bond support team (M, Q, Moneypenny) do a workmanlike job, as does Teri Hatcher in a brief role.

So, to answer my question, is Tomorrow Never Dies better than The Peacemaker? Let's put it this way: does anybody want to see George Clooney in seventeen sequels?

    Rating:  B

    --
    Curtis "BlueDuck" Edmonds
    blueduck@hsbr.org

The Hollywood Stock Brokerage and Resource http://www.hsbr.org/brokers/blueduck/

"I don't want to study law," she said with the same tone as if she had been saying, "I don't want to turn into a cockroach."

      --  Mark Helprin, "A Soldier of the Great War"

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