I can’t claim that I’m a diehard James Bond fan, nor am I willing to accept just anything with 007 in the title. I think I’ve seen five of the Bond flicks at the most. But the latest film, "Tomorrow Never Dies," with Pierce Brosnan as 007, truly makes me want to go back over the collection and check them all out.

There are several things one accepts going into a James Bond film: Realism doesn’t exist in the fictional world of 007; Bond is quite sexist, or to put it nicely: quite the ladies’ man; and enemies are terrible shots. Putting these three things aside, "Tomorrow Never Dies" is a great entry into the action genre, overflowing with explosions, constant energy and endless creative chases and action.

From the moment the film starts, Bond is a true genius of espionage and technology. The opening depicts him spying on a black-market bazaar of weapons and vehicles which he promptly destroys, with a cruise missile on its way in. Since it’s only two minutes into the film and also you know the nature of action films, you know Bond will persevere. Yet, simultaneously, there’s a constant scream within the mind telling him to hurry up. Although we’re not talking academy award stuff here, we’re talking entertainment that complete enthralls the viewer, losing track of elapsed time.

It’s amazing that action films can still allow one to lose themselves, as it seems action can do only so much, but “Tomorrow Never Dies” is creative in this respect. Rather than having the usual helicopter gunman shooting at a motorcycle, the film adds little twists such as the fact that Bond and Wai Lin (played by Michelle Yeoh, also seen in Jackie Chan’s “Supercop”) are handcuffed together, making maneuvering and dodging the enemy on a motorcycle that much tougher.

Another aspect that makes the film better than the others I’ve seen is Yeoh, whose character teams up with Bond to thwart the plans of media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). He plans to start war between Britain and China so that he can cover it and have exclusive rights to the coverage through his global satellite news network. Although it’s doubtful Ted Turner is plotting such devious acts, in a lot of ways, it seems more of a possibility than some villain looking to take over the world.

Yeoh, though, is just amazing, with her display of martial arts. The way Wai Lin and Bond play off each other and work as a team to defeat Carver is amazing, while at the same time, isn’t completely the tired buddy-buddy team butt-kicking.

Also, though it isn’t a major part of the film, the introduction of the film deserves compliments. The combination of computer animation of combinations of female and technology was amazing and smooth. X-ray-like displays showed the innards of guns firing and silhouettes of women dancing from within bullet casings. The whole display is very surreal and reminds me slightly of computer animation found in “The Lawnmower Man.”

Probably the weakest link of the film was Teri Hatcher. She plays an old flame of Bond and the wife of the current antagonist. Her performance is fairly flat and really adds nothing to the film, save an extra credit at the beginning and end of the movie.

Also, while I noted that realism has to be ignored in this genre, one thing just completely bugged me. Bond’s super BMW is remote-controlled by his digital phone, using a pad not that different from a laptop’s touchpad. Bond controls the vehicle from the car’s backseat, swerving and dodging bullets using this control device. Personally, I have trouble navigating a touchpad in a word processor and can’t even imagine using the pad to control a bike, much less a super-charged BMW.

Aside from nit-picking things like this, “Tomorrow Never Dies&” is an amazing thrill to see on the big screen. If “Tomorrow Never Dies” is representative of the rest of the series, I’m going to be hooked completely. Any Bond fan will be completely satisfied with this film, and any action fan will find it enthralling as well.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 1997 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Film, Movie Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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