Surprisingly one of the better Bond intros in a long while. The film opens with Bond infiltrating a secret weapons base and then turning the entire area to ruble. After narrowly escaping by commandeering a jet Bond has to fight for his life in mid air, and a wonderful co-pilot eject scene sends this film into the introduction credits.
Title Song: 9/10
Not a bad theme song, this Bond film definitely gives a successful opening, too bad the acting and storyline can't rise to the occasion of this rare stellar opening for a Bond film. Tomorrow Never Dies is performed by Sheryl Crow:
Darling, I'm killed. I'm in a puddle on the floor. Waiting for you to return. Oh, what a thrill. Fascinations galore. How you tease, how you leave me to burn. It's so deadly, my dear, the power of having you near. Until that day. Until the world goes away. Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes. I see it in your eyes. Tomorrow never dies.
Darling you've won, it's no fun. Martini's, girls and guns, it's murder on our love affair. But you bet your life every night while your chasing the morning light. You're not the only spy out there. It's so deadly my dear. The power of wanting you near. Until that day. Until the world falls away. Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes. I see it in your eyes. Tomorrow never dies.
Until that day. Until the world goes away. Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes. I see it in your eyes.
Until that day. Until that day. Until that day.
Bond: 7/10
Brosnan manages to be more believable as Bond this time around. Maybe it takes a film or so to get used to him or I was just correct in my comment that he wasn't convincing in Goldeneye. Still Brosnan has a lot of work to do to reach Sean Connery status but surpassing the other actors who filled the agent's shoes shouldn't be that hard. Had the plot-line of this film been better I would be giving Brosnan a higher rating this time around but the poor story definitely has some effect on the actor's presentation, just look at You Only Live Twice (the only Bond film where I rated Sean Connery at a low 7) Tomorrow Never Dies is Brosnan's, You Only Live Twice.
Brosnan manages to be more believable as Bond this time around. Maybe it takes a film or so to get used to him or I was just correct in my comment that he wasn't convincing in Goldeneye. Still Brosnan has a lot of work to do to reach Sean Connery status but surpassing the other actors who filled the agent's shoes shouldn't be that hard. Had the plot-line of this film been better I would be giving Brosnan a higher rating this time around but the poor story definitely has some effect on the actor's presentation, just look at You Only Live Twice (the only Bond film where I rated Sean Connery at a low 7) Tomorrow Never Dies is Brosnan's, You Only Live Twice.
Bond Girls:
A Red Chinese agent for The People's External Security Force, Lin is sent on a mission similar to Bond's, to investigate Carver and his connection with the incident between the British and Chinese. Midway through the film Lin partners up with Bond and the two work together to take down Carver. Wai Lin breaks the mold in terms of typical Bond girls, honestly I didn't find her attractive in the least and I thought it was a strange combination of her and Bond. Michelle Yeoh (Lin) just felt out of place in the film to me and became one of many strange casting decisions in this installment. Is it just me or would anyone else have loved to have seen Lucy Liu in this role!?! Definitely would have been a better pick.
Paris Carver: 4/10
Quite possibly the worst Bond girl ever. Paris is the wife of Elliot Carver, and former one night fling of Bond's. Paris has a quite limited role in the film and her expend-ability is proven quite soon as she meets an untimely demise. I loved Teri Hatcher in Lois and Clark, but that's about it, Bond girl is a little too great of a stretch for her, luckily she’s not in the film very long.
The Villains:
Quite possibly the worst Bond girl ever. Paris is the wife of Elliot Carver, and former one night fling of Bond's. Paris has a quite limited role in the film and her expend-ability is proven quite soon as she meets an untimely demise. I loved Teri Hatcher in Lois and Clark, but that's about it, Bond girl is a little too great of a stretch for her, luckily she’s not in the film very long.
The Villains:
Elliot Carver: 5/10
Carver is basically the Bill Gates equivalent of media news broadcasting. Carver's goal is to make Carver Media Group the only news worthy distributor in the world, and he'll do just about anything to make that possible even if it means causing the horrific events he reports on. Carver was another poorly cast character and a role I would have liked to of seen someone like Malcolm McDowell in, he would have done a better job of making Carver a little more fierce, instead Carver comes across as quite the loser. The problem is you set the villain up as a Bill Gates equivalent and that's pretty much what you get, Bill Gates as the villain, too corny for me.
Carver is basically the Bill Gates equivalent of media news broadcasting. Carver's goal is to make Carver Media Group the only news worthy distributor in the world, and he'll do just about anything to make that possible even if it means causing the horrific events he reports on. Carver was another poorly cast character and a role I would have liked to of seen someone like Malcolm McDowell in, he would have done a better job of making Carver a little more fierce, instead Carver comes across as quite the loser. The problem is you set the villain up as a Bill Gates equivalent and that's pretty much what you get, Bill Gates as the villain, too corny for me.
Stamper: 6/10
The right hand man of Carver and your typical Nazi type villain, sort of albino and keen on torture. A better villain than Carver but still nothing remotely special. The scene where Bond kills his mentor is quite entertaining.
The right hand man of Carver and your typical Nazi type villain, sort of albino and keen on torture. A better villain than Carver but still nothing remotely special. The scene where Bond kills his mentor is quite entertaining.
Total Rating : 6.5/10
Overall (Including Film Rating) : 6.8/10
7/10
Besides the action my favorite part of this movie was Michelle Yeoh. Though you have to remember Lucy Liu didn't break through in the entertainment world until she did Alley McBeal, the year after this movie came out. Yeoh was already a star in Asia.
ReplyDeleteI will definitely agree on Carver though. Her two minutes in this movie still leaves me scratching my head at the point of her being in it at all.
BTW not sure if you got my DM or not, but I've nominated your blog for a Kreativ Blogger award (check out my blog to see what that is all about).
ReplyDeleteEven so I feel Tomorrow Never Dies had no real Bond girl. I don't remember much of a connection between Yeoh's character and Bond. Then with Paris Carver hardly in the film (which isn't a bad thing) this Bond film is pretty Bond girless (made that up). But it looks like we can agree that the action pretty much saved the film.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Kreativ Blogger nod, now you've given me more work to do! Haha, I might borrow some of the bullet points from your post for my own.