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Tomorrow Never Dies (Special Edition)

Tomorrow Never Dies (Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great all around!
Review: I am an avid Bond movie buff. I have seen them all. I use to not like the songs as much but I do now. The song Tomorrow Never Dies by Sheryl Crow starts this movie out great. I would have to say that I would enjoy seeing Pierce Brosnan do 4 more Bond movies as Connery and Moore did.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best Bond flick, but enjoyable in its own way
Review: I suppose when you get right down to it, the plot here is pretty much the same formulaic story as in any recent Bond flick. Cool gadgets, big explosions, beautiful women who are smart and tough, and some sort of monstrous, yet sadly tragic villain.

Then again, that's what makes these Bond films so great. Still, there is no real passion that connects the characters and the storyline in this particular installment. It kind of seems like Brosnan and the rest of the players are walking through their lines, hardly believing what they are saying half the time.

Nonetheless, this is just good old-fashioned escapism . . . it certainly doesn't need to be over-analyzed. Plus, fabulous brunette extraordinaire Teri Hatcher is featured; so, that alone is reason to watch this one. This movie gets an extra star for that reason alone.

Truth be told, though, "The World is Not Enough" is a better flick overall.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: A pretty good Bond flick with a good villan. The action sequinces arn't as good as Goldeneye. to be honest their isn't anything in this film that wasn't better in Goldeneye.

Brosnan gives a good performance as Bond again and the character Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh, Police Story 3) is one of the best Bond girls. There are plenty of gadgets as well as a new BMW. There are some good shots on the streets of Saigon where a over the top Motor cycle chase happens.

Definatly not one of the best Bond films but not too bad.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Bond movie!
Review: This was a pretty good Bond film. Although, not as good as "GoldenEye", this was still very interesting and entertaining. With a good plot (Bond must stop a man trying to start a war between two countries) and great action scenes (rooftop motorcycle chase), this is a very entertaining movie... rent it today!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best Bond film, but it holds it's own...
Review: This is James Bond versus a media mogul "Ted Turner / Rupert Murdoch" supervillian. The cinematic action is great, but the plot is a bit thin and shallow. However, I think Pierce Brosnan does play a good Bond- no he's not better than Sean Connery.

I just wonder will the Bond legacy live on now that the Cold War has passed? The Soviet supervillians are to Bond as Nazis are to Indiana Jones. The 007 series is going to have to break out some cooler "private-sector" supervillian schemes than this one. Writers should go back to the drawing board and see if they can't hatch another Goldfinger out for us Bondaholics.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A truly embarrassing Bond entry.
Review: "Tomorrow Never Dies" is the absolute lowpoint of the Bond series. A moronic "plot," half-baked action sequences and characters that serve no purpose, this is vastly worse than even "A View to a Kill," "Moonraker" or "Man With the Golden Gun." This film should never have been made. Brosnan is the weakest of the Bonds, and his entire point in making these movies seems to be having an opportunity to strike poses for two hours. The sets and direction of this movie make it seem like it isn't even taking place on Earth; there should be at least SOME semblence of reality, even in a James Bond movie. However, there is none here. A waste.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Building a Better Bond
Review: I took a chance again and bought 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it every bit as much as 'Goldeneye'. Given what a disgrace 'The World Is Not Enough' was, I was very reticent to pony up the dough for another Bond film, but my feeling paid off. This the second of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films, and is a very slick look at the world of international media, but instead of news companies faking events in order to sell papers or get more people watching the news on TV, Carver Media goes to extreme measures to create the news, and in most cases since they know a certain event will happen, they always get the scoop and the exclusive, guaranteeing the high ratings, and of course, revenue generating by those ratings. It's a neat idea, really, and 'Tomorrow Never Dies' does an excellent job in turning it into a story.

I am not a huge Bond fan, but I like Pierce Brosnan, mostly because he fits my image of who I think James Bond should be. It also doesn't hurt that Brosnan is probably the most talented actors to take on the role. I only wish the rumors had been true and he took the reigns in the late eighties after the end of Remington Steele instead of waiting until 1994 to do 'Goldeneye'.

Bond is set up as a banker so that he can infiltrate Carver's big media party where he meets Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher), who is stale toast in a nice evening dress. She and James have a past, and something that upsets Carver to no end, and upon learning that Bond is actually British Secret Service, sets up their demise by killing Paris then having James find her. This is pretty evil, and guarantees that Carver gets to die in a really messy fashion.

One of the most important things in any successful Bond film is the villain, which is why 'The World is Not Enough' is so weak, Robert Carlyle's character was about as threatening as Moneypenny on a bad hair day. Carver (Jonathan Pryce) comes across as an over-excited teenager with too many toys, spoiled and powerful, he is decidedly creepy. As Carver he heads the Carver Cable Media Group, which is sort of the Microsoft of the TV world. A ruthless company with so much money that Carver, with the aid of a Chinese general, build a stealthy ship that they use to sink a British missile frigate and steal one of its nuclear cruise missiles.

The theft is staged in such a fashion that it will be blamed on the Chinese and ensuring the British will get involved. James has 48 hours to uncover all of this and put a stop to it. By the end of that time the British Navy will be off China's coast, at which point Carver plans to launch the stolen missile into Peaking and make it look as though the British have launched a nuclear strike on China and starting what will almost certainly become the third world war. CCMG will of course be there to get the exclusive on the story, just like they did when the British frigate sank. It's a contrived plot, but it has a nice intricacy to it that nicely delineates Carver's insanity and the lengths he's willing to go to in order to make news.

The other of the so-called 'Bond Women' is Michelle Yeoh, who makes up for Hatcher in more ways than I can count. This charming, almost elfin woman is one of the bigger female Hong Kong cinema stars, and plays perky and aggressive Chinese operative Mai Lei (Uh-huh). With the grace of a cat she routinely stays with Bond, and occasionally one step ahead of him even though they are essentially on the same mission. And while she is of course attracted to Mr. Bond, she would rather tease and leave him handcuffed to a metal pipe than let him know. She also single handedly beats up a bunch of thugs, finishing just before Bond arrives to rescue her, (You go, girl!).

So, of the Brosnan Bond movies, 'Goldeneye' and 'Tomorrow Never Dies' are well worth your attention, 'The World Is Not Enough', the film that tells us weapons grade plutonium can be carried in one's hands and you can fight next to an open reactor without suffering the ill effects of both intense heat and hard radiation, isn't worth the celluloid it was shot on. 'Tomorrow Never Dies' also has some of the best action sequences that I have ever seen in a Bond film, a decent villain, and in the case of Michelle Yeoh, a dynamite leading lady. Go for it, you know you want to.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great begining- weak ending.
Review: Let me start off by saying that I think this is one of the coolest, most entertaining Bond films in the series. It's not as good as GoldenEye, but it's certainly better than the dissapointing Bond-soap opera The World Is Not Enough. This time Agent 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is out to stop media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathon Pryce) from starting World War III between China and Great Britian. He teams up with China Secret Service Agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) while he travels from Hamburg, Thailand, and to the South China Sea.

I should note I do realize Tomorrow Never Dies is only a remake of The Spy Who Loved Me; or really more of an update. TND, in my opinion is better than the dreadfully tacky TSWLM. There are many similarities between the two which I wont go into detail to, but Stamper is a modern-day Jaws.

Now to why I gave Tomorrow Never Dies four stars. Like the title of my review says "great begining-weak ending. The first hour and a half of this film is really good. It has great characters-good and bad, and a great villian. Jonathan Pryce is absolutely wonderful as media mogul Elliot Carver. He is the founder and chairman of CMGN (Carver Media Group Network). CMGN- like CNN, get it? Carver can topple entire governments with a single broadcast. It's actually quite funny how he discusses blackmaleing the President Of The United States by threatning to release video of him with an eightteen year-old chearleader in Chicago (that's TND producer Micheal Wilson who says "consider him slimed"). What makes this humourous is the fact that this film was released only weeks before- well you know what happened. Anyway, Carver manipulates China and Great Britian to start a conflict between the two nations so that he can get a firm media foot hold in China. The end fight on Carver's stealthboat resembles more of a Bruce Willis flick than a Bond film. Despite it's few- very few- drawbacks, Tomorrow Never Dies is great fun and a must see for any Bond fan.

One last thing about the DVD. It has a VERY corny menu and wish it were like the other Bond DVD menus.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why oh why Brosnan
Review: This movie is BAD.The acting is even WORSE then TWINE.michell yeo is the WORST bond girl ever.If there was an award show called The Worst Bond Girl Ever she would win first place.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Tommorrow's News Today!
Review: The best way to judge "Tomorrow Never Dies" is by looking at the film's two halves as seperate entities. The first one is very good, the other is not. The film starts out great with an interesting plot that is both tense and intriguing. There are many good Bondian moments to be found here, particularly the scene in which 007 (Pierce Brosnan) sips shots of vodka as he waits for an assassin in his hotel room (which is very reminiscent of "Dr. No"). The villain, media mogul Elliott Carver is also a good one, played with excuisite delight by Jonathan Pryce. There is also an extrememly inovative car chase in which Bond drives his vehicle from the backseat, via remote control. It's nice to know that the Bond films can still be original. Unfortunately, all goes up in smoke once we arrive in Thailand, and the climax on the stealth boat looks like it fits more comfortably in "Die Hard" than in a James Bond movie. These films have distinguished themselves because their action scenes, although numerous, have always been done with style and elegance. In this case, those elements seem to have been replaced by sheer body count. Another of the film's problems is that it spends two much time introducing Michelle Yeoh as a martial arts expert, thus taking away from Bond himself. The bike chase that they both share, although elaborately staged, seems dull at times because by then, the story is chaotic. On a positive note however, David Arnold's Barryesque score is terrific, and Vincent Schiavelli is quite memorable is a trick-shot assassin. This particular DVD is excellently designed and includes some nifty features.


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