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Tomorrow Never Dies: Special Edition

Tomorrow Never Dies: Special Edition

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It Is Just Plain Awesome!
Review: To start out, I think that Pierce Brosnan is so much better at playing 007 than Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Sean Connery is the best, but Brosnan really shows the suave sophisticated debonair personallity that Bond is known for. And I enjoyed this Bond movie a little more that GoldenEye. He did show that personallity in GoldenEye, but he didn't show it enough. This one really brings it out. And on top of that this movie is one of the best and most action-packed Bond flick ever.

I know that everybody just loved GoldenEye, but for some reason, I didn't love it as much as everybody else did. I mean I liked it a ton, I just didn't love it. I think that it really has alot of the Bond action, but I just don't love it for some crazy reason that I don't know. But Tommorow Never Dies I love, there is a ton of action that doesn't stop. I admit, the plot wasn't as good as GoldenEye, but it the action is too good. Like the opening seen at a terrorist trade-off when he escapes in a jet after a cruise missle has hit, and who can forget the car (which can be remote controlled by his phone) seen. Plus, there was alot of unexpected action (Whis Bond is known for) and undercover action.

So basically, this movie was a gigantic action seen from start to finish. And I am very dissapointed in any Bond fan who hasn't seen it, go right now and go get it!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Weak Bond
Review: I cannot give this entry into the Bond legend any higher than two stars. This rating is despite high production values, more than acceptable villians, great action sequences and some very nice actors (Jonathan Priyce and Michelle Yeoh). My problem is the actor as Bond; Pierce Brosnin simply doesn't work in the role; by definition Bond is a killer...the most dangerous man in an entire nation, and Brosnin completely fails to convey any sense of either strength or threat. Certainly he is suave and well dressed, polite, refined and easy to see as a lady's man...but all of these qualities should be subordinate to his main function which is as a killer...a double o licensed to kill operative of Her Majesty's government...and he simply never comes across as such a dangerous individual. I find it especially embarassing when he is constantly grunting, grimacing and acting tough; these are painfully obvious examples of overcompensation in his character. Connery allows his own good humor to show through without damaging his ruthless persona; he can afford to. Brosnin either can't or at least feels he can't, and this greatly hurts the end product. What is particularly disturbing in the movie is when his fighting abilities are compared to those of Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh impresses one as a coordinated and well trained professional martial artist; Brosnin is intended to be her equal or better, and the script follows that analysis. Unfortunately it is obvious to any viewer that Yeoh is vastly superior to him in terms of physical prowess and expertise, nor does she grunt, grimace or act tough at any point in the entire film. I own this film but only as a completist. It is sad, because so many other parts of the film really are extremely well done, but as I can't accept the protagonist, everything else suffers as well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fast and furious, TND loaded with spectacular action
Review: The best Bond movie money can buy. This film must have cost a bundle. Wall to wall eye popping action. Unfortunately, TND featurees an exceptionally weak plot. The bare skeleton of the plot barely props up the long and elaborate action scenes. The pretitle sequence alone has more action than many of the early Bond's entire movies did. A fully modern Bond for the fully modern action oriented viewer. Don't expect any high quality Goldfinger plot, FRWL suspense, or Thunderball characters. Strictly a show piece for tricky stunts and fancy camera shots. My favorite is the long motorcycle sequence. TND is tremendously enjoyable and it moves at the speed of light; over before you know it. Michelle Yeoh plays a Chinese agent who teams with Bond to bring Elliot Carver to justice. She is wonderful, one of the best Bond girls in the entire series. Also one of the few Bond girls who make me want to see other movies with her in them to see her act and her martial arts. Not just a pretty face by any means. Jonathan Pryce is Carver, an insane media mogul. Pryce cackles and poses for two hours, which is all he needs to do. Watch it for fun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brosnan made a 007 place in my movies!
Review: A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now 007 (Pierce Brosnan) must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good DVD, Fair Bond Movie...
Review: The only reason for 4 stars is the plot is essentially "The Spy Who Loved Me" with new actors and it doesn't seem like Brosnan has more than a few lines during the whole movie. The DVD transfer is great, minus that the subtitles for the locations are seperate subtitles and look poor. The sound is great and the commentaries are interesting if you can sit thru them, plus there is an alternate music only track. Has a "making of" that's mostly about all Bond movies and was originally on CBS. The usual trailers are here and the cool alternate viewing angle that shows storyboards during the movie. A pretty good buy for all Bond fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must-see Bond film with a shaky and exciting plot!
Review: 'Tomorrow Never Dies' might as well be called 'Pierce Brosnan Never Dies'- - in his 2nd of 3 Bond movies, hi is the ultimate James Bond, (next to the original Sean Connery of course!). When a media-mogul (who is bad) threatens to 'take over the world with his company' (oh yay! Something new!) MI6 Agent 007 must save the world once again! See it! Starring : Pierce Brosnan

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Bond flick
Review: A ruthless and meglomaniacal media tycoon - who comparisons to Rupert Murdoch seem less apt than to Bill Gates - uses his seemingly endless wealth to bring England and Red China to the brink of war. The goals of higher ratings that Carver (Jonathan Pryce) would realize for his newspapers and cable channels on the opening of war between Beijing and London are actually the first step and mask even darker ambitions.

The sinking of a British warship - apparently by the Chinese - offers hints of Carver's machinations. Unconvinced, British admirals press for immeidate retaliation against China. Only the one-time relationship between Carver's wife and agent James Bond offers M (Judi Dench) a way out that doesn't require volleys of cruise missiles.

Picking up the trail in Germany, and with a nifty remote control and bullet proof BMW, Bond finds clues to the extent of Carver's treachery. He also meets up with a wily rival - Michelle Yeoh as high-kicking Chinese agent following the same clues.

I actually enjoyed "Tomorrow" better than "The World is Not Enough" - the direction seems better paced, with action scenes that don't seem to take even the directoirs by suprprise. Too much is kept to the end - like how much fun Jonathan Pryce should have as the baddie (are we supposed to not hate a media bigwig) or how much fun Michelle Yeoh is. As his counterpart, Yeoh is probably the biggest challenge Bond has faced in the d'amour department since Barbara Bach in "Spy Who Loved Me" (she was the one who wanted to kill him). The plot seems to come to gether too comnfortably otheriwse, with the expected showdown in Carver's stealth-catamaramn, but is otheriwse too mcuh fun to miss.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A drop in quality after "Goldeneye"
Review: If "Goldeneye" was the James Bond franchise's return to greatness, Pierce Brosnan's sophomore outing as James Bond doesn't succeed nearly so well. Granted, it has the incomparable Michelle Yeoh (who's given the opportunity to show why she's a superstar in much of the world), but it's hampered by a plot straight out of the Roger Moore era.

The moronic set pieces in the South China Sea are bad enough -- recycling ideas that were lame in "Dr. No" makes it look like they weren't even trying -- but Jonathan Pryce and the increasingly irritating Teri Hatcher are arguably the worst supporting cast in Bond's decades-long history and every moment they're on screen -- or nattering over their secret lair's PA system -- is just plain painful.

Fortunately, Yeoh and Brosnan soldier on (wo)manfully, and their scenes, together and seperately, give "Tomorrow Never Dies" what luster it still has.

This is a renter. Purchase up the superior "Goldeneye" instead, or any of the Sean Connery Bonds.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but not the best Bond movie.
Review: This movie was very good in many ways. There was a great variety of gadgets, weapons, and villains. The car scene was also excellent. Although this Bond may have been good, it just doesn't seem to hit the spot. The Bond Girls weren't so great and the villain was very so-so. The plot was up to speed with the franchise and it is chocked full of Bond goodness, but something just struck me as awkward about this installment that I can't quite put my finger on. Nevertheless, the movie is good, and so is the DVD. Great picture and sound on this DVD with some very enticing Special Features. This movie is ideal for the Bond fan, but if you're looking for an introduction to the series or maybe to the new 90's Bonds, I suggest Goldeneye.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Action And Humor Never Dies
Review: With a strong debut in "Goldeneye," Pierce Brosnan proved to fans around the world that he, in fact, was the next James Bond, and an impressive one at that. The stakes would be a bit higher for him with his sophomore effort, "Tomorrow Never Dies", as to see if he would be able to continue his appeal to the role. Did anyone really have a doubt? Tomorrow Never Dies comes through phenomenally well, with everything you've come to expect from a Bond movie. With an impressive opening sequence that takes place half at a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border and the other half with the British Intelligence monitoring the location. Bond is sent in to observe the area and the situation. When it is prematurely decided to use a Naval option by firing a single, powerful, exploding missile at the site in order to destroy it, it is realized that a Russian jet carrying 2 Soviet SB-5 nuclear torpedoes is sitting right in the middle of this area and that if destroyed, "it would make Chernobyl look like a picnic." James Bond, being James Bond, goes in to steal the Russian jet carrying the torpedoes. There's a nice scene of him lighting a terrorist's cigarette and then punching him out, declaring, "Filthy Habit." That's very amusing considering Bond smoked more than occasionally in earlier films, but now is becoming more "PC." The sequence of him getting in the plane and destroying the area with machine gun and missile fire explosions is a feast for the eyes. So is the next scene when Bond gets in the air only to be strangled by the copilot behind him, while being attacked by another Russian jet. It's a great opening, that goes up there with the other great openings to a James Bond movie (Goldfinger, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, and yes, The World Is Not Enough). The main story bares a bit of a resemblance to 1977s "The Spy Who Loved Me"and 1967s "You Only Live Twice." We are introduced to world wide media baron, Elliot Carver, whose catch phrase is, "There's no news like bad news." Played quite ruthlessly by Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), Carver is bent on a new kind of world domination....through the manipulation of the media, with Stamper (Otto Goetz), as his evil henchmen. With the use of a stealth ship, a sort of underwater sub that cannot be detected by sonar (like The Hunt For Red October, in a way), the sub attacks the H.M.S. Devonshire (a British battleship) which is stationed in the middle of the South China Sea. By doing this, Carver makes it look like the Chinese are responsible and war could break out as a result. And why wouldn't British Intelligence be able to spot the location of the wreckage? Because, thanks to American terrorist Henry Gupta (played by Ricky Jay) an American encoder has been stolen, one that is used to control the American's navigation satellites (The G.P.S. system, as it is referred) and with this encoder the Devonshire unknowingly was in the wrong area when it blew up (manipulated by the encoder). All in all, a huge, bloody mess.

M recruits Bond to go in and get information on Carver, who has been sited as a possible culprit, by pumping information out of his wife, Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher [Lois And Clark (TV)]), whom James had been in a relationship with years earlier. Hatcher is good in the role, but unfortunately, she is killed off much too early in the film to make much of an impression on us. But Bond's sadness for her death really helps, thanks to Brosnan's wonderful acting, another reminder why James Bond cannot have a successful intimate relationship with a woman.

For most of the film we find Bond going here and there to find clues as to what happened to the Devonshire as well as what else Carver is up to. We are also introduced to the second Bond girl, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh [Supercop 2]), working for Chinese Intelligence, who is also looking for clues. The two eventually team up in some very action packed sequences, most notebly the motor cycle ride thru Vietnam. Some have said that Yeoh's presence makes the film become more of a Hong Kong auctioneer, but their critique's are unwarranted. Bond films have never strayed away from any action that can entertain audiences and Yeoh fits in quite nicely here.

The ultimate gadget of the film is 007s new BMW 750, "with all the usual refinements--machine guns, rockets, the G.P.S. tracking system," as well as a clever remote control device added to Bond's cell phone that enables him to drive the car, without being in the drivers seat. In fact a great scene is just that, as we find Bond in the backseat of the car, being chased by Carver's men, driving the BMW 750 with the cell phone remote control (and having a good time with it too).

Most entertaining.

I'm not a big fan of Sheryl Crow (or K. D. Lang for that matter), so when I heard she was hired to do the title song for the movie I feared the worst. But I give credit where credit is due and Crowe does a great job here. Her vocals give the tune just what it needs. I'd even go as far to say that this is the best title song out of the Brosnan Bond films so far and that K. D. Lang's end titles song, "Surrender," is very good too (better than Eric Serra's end title for Goldeneye, "The Experience Of Love"). Also, composer David Arnold is proving to me more and more that he's the best man for the job when it comes to composing scores for Bond movies. Whereas Eric Serra's work on Goldeneye was much too modern, Arnold gives the Bond fans what they want...a nice mixture of the old with the new (though I'm still waiting for him to use the second Bond theme, entitled "007" in a score or two down the line). Though critics bashed him by saying "He's no John Barry," just when was the last time you really listened to what critics had to say about composers anyway? Plus, Moby's rendition of the James Bond Theme rocks!

This was the first James Bond DVD to become a "Special Edition," originally released with a gray cover. It's quite cool really..you're asked to "Please press Select button" as a fingerprint and retina identification screen comes up and you hear a female voice say, "Welcome 007. This navigation system has been specially prepared for your mission. You have unlimited access." The special features are very impressive, including 2 audio commentaries, the first by Director Roger Spottiswoode and the second by Second Unit Director Vic Armstrong and Producer Michael G. Wilson. You also get a Third track with composer David Arnold, which also includes the entire score, isolated for your listening pleasure. They're all quite interesting, but I found myself listening to David Arnold and the Isolated Score the most. There's a cute feature that lets you look at storyboards for key action scenes while you watch the film. It's fun and doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of the movie too much. As with all Bond DVDs you get a "making of" featurette. This one is entitled "Secrets of 007," which was actually shown on TV before the film premiered in theaters. About 45 minutes long, it focuses mainly on the cool gadgets of past films as well as the best villains, and of course, also discusses Tomorrow Never Dies too. With a nice Digital Effects Reel, the original Teaser and Theatrical Trailers, the Sheryl Crowe Music Video for Tomorrow Never Dies, as well as the film itself shown in the Widescreen Format (2.35:1), you couldn't ask for more cool stuff! A movie with plenty of action and excitement, Tomorrow Never Dies more than delivers the goods to 007 fans everywhere.


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