United Artists, Rated PG-13
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Written by Bruce Feirstein

The James Bond movies have long since past being a series, and are now considered a genre. This film, like most of the other official Bond films, sticks with the genre. The last Bond film, 1995's "GoldenEye", introduced a new Bond (and if you ask me, the best since Sean Connery), Pierce Brosnan. He is much more confident as Bond this time, and that is one of a few improvements that "Tomorrow Never Dies" has over "GoldenEye". Yet there are also a few faults. First, let's look at the good parts. This story is a little more interesting than the last, in that a media mogul (Jonathan Pryce, in a role that could've led to overacting but didn't) causes various calamities, biggest of all starting a war between Britain and China, in order to sell more of his newspapers, and get higher ratings on his news channels. If you ask me, monopolizing media moguls like this are probably one of our most threatening real enemies. Of course, 007 is called in to save the day, but not before romancing countless women (one of whom he met before, played by Teri Hatcher, who is now the mogul's wife). This time he meets up with a Chinese secret agent (Michelle Yeoh) who helps him dispatch the villains. Many of us first saw Yeoh teaming up with Jackie Chan in "SuperCop" and she continues to wow us with stunts here. Other elements, such as Sheryl Crow's outstanding theme song, improve on the first Brosnan "Bond". But the opening action sequence is nothing compared to GoldenEye's and neither is the ending. Still, the less we see of Joe Don Baker, the better. ** 1/2

---

Back to the main page