One must realize that the classic Connery films of the 1960's will never come again. A 1990's Bond film must be judged by fresh criteria. Just as the novels are different from the films, but both are wonderful, so this Bond film is different from the Connery/Bond films. Each is a valid interpretation. After the hiatus following Dalton's LICENCE TO KILL, Bond has been completely re-invented.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES and GOLDENEYE stand alone and succeed on their own merits.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES is a film with a real sweep to it. It spans the globe and carries the viewer from highs to lows, in many ways:

>From the height of society at Elliot Carver's party, to the depths of poverty in the streets of Vietnam.

>From Bond in haute couture tuxedo, to Bond beaten and battered.

>From thousands of feet aloft in the belly of a C130 Hercules transport plane, to several fathoms underwater in the belly of a shipwreck.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES is two hours of solid entertainment. The pace is rapid and you certainly see every penny of the budget up there on the screen. When you analyze it afterward, you start to count up the minor errors and inconsistencies, but while you're watching, the gloss and bravura carry you along in grand style.

This is a film with a lot packed into it. There's enough to please both types of Bond fans. Those who look for action and gadgets, and those who go to see James Bond, the man.

Those who go to see a Bond film just for the stunts, fights, gadgets and chases will find enough here to fill several ordinary action films. I am not one of those Bond fans, so some of the action scenes went on a bit too long for my taste. Editing would have helped here and there.

And although breathtaking, some of the stunts make no sense. They are obviously done just for the sake of a good stunt. For example, Bond and Wai Lin leave a perfectly secure place of concealment just to make a high leap across the street on their motorcycle as the baddie's helicopter flies below them. Completely unnecessary, but it sure looks cool. Later Bond is forced to make an underwater escape through a hole so small that it forces him to remove his air tanks. Bond leaves them behind, which adds tension to the scene. Will Bond drown before reaching the surface? But it's totally unnecessary. Even beginner divers are told if confronted with this problem while cave or wreck diving to remove the tank from their back and simply push it along ahead of them, with the air hose and mouth piece still comfortably in place and providing air to the diver. It's a case of requiring Bond to do something he's too smart to do, just for a better effect in the film.

Director Roger Spottiswoode is of the new school who feels that fight scenes are better conveyed by sticking the camera up into the action, and cutting rapidly. While it is true that this gives a good feeling of being in the fight, it is also, unfortunately, true that this robs the audience of the ability to follow just what the heck is going on. We can't tell how the ebb and flow of the battle is going. I also found the fight choreography to be somewhat dull and unimaginative.

Worst gadget was definitely the BMW's "hood ornament/cable cutter". This device rises out of BMW logo on the hood and has counter-rotating cutter blades. It can only work if the cable blocking the car's progress just happens, by pure coincidence, to be at the right height to hit the exact two inches occupied by the cutter. Of course the cable in this film is at just that right height. My guess is that the sole reason for this device was to offer a chance for a close up of the BMW logo.

Worst moment in the film is when the baddie's helicopter tilts itself forward to about a 60 degree angle and hovers slowly down a crowded market street using the main rotor to slice and dice everything in its path. It is preposterous to suggest that a helicopter could hold itself still with the main rotor tipped forward like that. Unfortunately for the film, this piece of idiocy is repeated.

But these are minor details in the larger scheme of things, and TND rushes along like an out of control freight train taking us all along for the thrill ride of our lives.

Fans for whom the main draw is James Bond, the man, will be pleased with the excellent characterization shown in this film. After all, the core of any good Bond film is Bond himself. In TND Brosnan tops his performance in GE. He's settled into the role and it shows. He's more confident and relaxed. I was concerned that the extra weight he's put on would hurt, but he looks great and the weight may even help.

My only gripe is that he plays Bond perhaps a bit too relaxed when he's in danger, much as Moore used to do. When held at gunpoint Brosnan shows too little worry or fear. Connery made you feel that Bond was in danger. His Bond was more human. Moore didn't. His Bond was a superhero. Brosnan could borrow a bit from Connery in this respect.

Perhaps in a bow to the killing of Prof. Dent in DR. NO, we see Bond kill twice in TND when he needn't have. These killings aren't in cold blood. Bond's blood is quite hot both times. His anger pushes him to it. This shows Bond as a human, not a stiff stereotype of a "Hero". Bond's much more complex.

There's another example of this in TND. Just as in the novel "FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE" when Bond has a chance to escape back to England with the girl and the Lector, but decides to stick around anyway, out of a desire to pit himself against what ever plot has been created against him, so too in TND, Bond has basically completed his assigned mission, but presses forward on his own instead of reporting back to England with the information. Just another example that Bond takes his assignments very personally, to the point of being unprofessional about them. This scripting shows and admirable continuity of the Bond character from original novels, to newest film.

On the other hand I was disappointed at the way the death of Paris was handled. Bond isn't given proper time to grieve, and the film follows Bond's discovery of her dead body with a somewhat comedic episode that rang false to the emotions the scene demanded. It was clumsy and disappointing.

Much better was the decision to slow the film down and allow Bond a quiet, reflective scene. After Bond has humiliated Carver at his premier, Bond returns to his hotel and waits for the response he knows must come. This scene is wonderful. Bond has removed his tuxedo jacket, untied his tie, and undone his top button. He sits in an easy chair with a view of the door. Beside him on a small table is a bottle of vodka and a shot glass. He downs a shot, then takes out his Walther PPK and threads a suppressor onto it and places the gun within reach on the table, pours himself another shot and then just waits. A wonderful quiet moment in what is otherwise a roller coaster of a film. I hear that Brosnan himself argued to retain this scene. Hurrah for him. This is my favorite moment in the film.

My second favorite moment comes when Bond has just escaped from guards in a rooftop chase. He collects himself and swaggers along with just a hint of a smirk on his face. Backing him up at this moment is the James Bond theme, played much as it sounded in DR.NO. A great "Bond film" moment. It is reminiscent of Connery down at the Kobe docks after escaping the rooftop chase in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

Dame Judi Dench debuted impressively in GE. In TND she easily tops her previous performance. This film has M's best scenes in any 007 film. Interestingly, they "open up" the film by having the usual Bond/M briefing scene held, not in M's office, but in a speeding Daimler limousine flanked by security motorcycles. This also helps to keep the film cooking along at a breakneck pace.

Poor Desmond Llewelyn as Q, doesn't fare as well as Dame Judi. Placed undercover as the world's only octogenarian Rent-A-Car agent he looks wildly out of place. That aside, it's a fun scene and he and Pierce have a good chemistry together. Unlike in GE, Desmond isn't obviously reading cue-cards.

Jonathan Pryce is a bit of a disappointment as the megalomaniacal media mogul, Elliot Carver. He starts well, with lots of energy and a fun, somewhat over-the-top chewing of his lines, but then he just coasts, and even has a rather startling (some have said "silly") eruption of physicality when he derisively mimics Wai Lin's martial arts.

Michelle Yeoh as Red Chinese Agent Wai Lin is a delight, and damn near steals the show from Bond. She turns up at the oddest times, usually leaving Bond holding the bag. She also gets her own solo fight scene where she takes out a host of assassins by using her Kung Fu skills. The approach to her character seems to have been to script another Bond, and then make that character female and Chinese. This woman takes a back seat to no one. Well, actually she literally takes one to Bond when they share a motorcycle, but she does so only after a struggle.

Teri Hatcher is decorative and speaks her lines better than I'd expected, but then I wasn't expecting much. She plays Paris Carver, Elliot's wife, and a former lover of Bond's. But her character should have been more richly textured. The thinness shows. The shame is that her character was better in the final script, but somehow things changed, and for the worse. In the final script Elliot is a wife beater. So when Paris is unexpectedly reunited with Bond, she flees to him, and Carver goes after her. But in the movie, there's no suggestion of trouble in the marriage. It seems odd that Carver should send Paris to see Bond, and then send a killer after her. It makes less sense this way.

Jack Wade, played by Joe Don Baker, makes his second appearance in as many films. His scene is a good one, and not played too broadly. Jack Wade is rapidly becoming the new comedic relief, where before Q pulled solo duty in that area.

Look for producer Michael Wilson in his regular "Hitchcockian" on-screen appearance. He first appeared on screen as long ago as 1964's GOLDFINGER. In TND he's one of the faces on a huge series of projection screens in a scene early on where we first see Elliot Carver in a mass teleconference session.

David Arnold's score wonderfully supports every scene it is used in. I'm looking forward to Arnold's next score, where, I'm confident, he'll assert a little more of his own personal style, rather than parroting the earlier scores. Though I must say it is wonderful to hear some of John Barry's classic 007 music from the sixties, backing up 1990's imagery. It makes this long-term Bond fan's heart beat faster with joy and brings a grin to my face.

I predict TOMORROW NEVER DIES will be a blockbuster hit with real staying power. The only cloud on its horizon is TITANIC. I saw it last week and it is a quality film with a heart.

But TND beats out TITANIC at it's own game. Viewers of TITANIC will see only one ship sink. Viewers of TOMORROW NEVER DIES get to see two!

© 1997 by James McMahon