Devotees of Ian Fleming's James Bond (such as yours truly) must realize and grudgingly admit that Fleming's Bond died with Thunderball, was briefly and stunningly resurrected in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and then laid to rest again. Timothy Dalton made a noble attempt to bring him back through elements of his acting in The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill, but what finally killed him was the American boxoffice. Fleming's Bond is not commercially viable now; and let's face it, movie moguls are not in the business of appeasing purists like me. We therefore had for a number of years what Tom Mankiewicz (whom I held partly responsible for killing Fleming's Bond in his screenplays) called "Bond as created by United Artists".

That said, I must therefore admit I went to the theatre thoroughly prepared not to like Tomorrow Never Dies, the 18th installment in the Eon series. I was pleasantly-and stunningly-surprised.

Bond has had to be reinvented for the current generation of audiences, and this effort succeeds resoundingly, with arguably the best results from start to finish since The Spy Who Loved Me.

The pre-credits sequence is grabbing and authentically tense-it's been a long time since one actually gave me "goose bumps". Daniel Kleinman's title montage is inspired, and demonstrates even more clearly why he remains a perfect successor to Maurice Binder. Feirstein's screenplay holds together well, despite a wretched excess of machine gun fire towards the end, which I guess is now de rigeur in any action picture. This minor quibble is more than offset by the film's positive elements.

Brosnan has finally become Bond. I had no trouble believing him in the role this time around, an achievement which eluded GoldenEye. He plays the pivotal early scenes with Paris and Dr. Kaufman especially well, and delivers the requisite quips perfectly. He seems no longer to be battling Sean Connery's "spectre" (sorry about that), and has really claimed the part for his own.

Jonathan Pryce makes a very good megalomaniac, although his plan seemed ridiculous to me at first. It is more fully explained (but in almost a throwaway fashion) towards the end, and then finally makes sense (as much as can be expected in a Bond film). Pryce leaves a few teeth marks on the scenery, as he should, and makes a memorable villain. Teri Hatcher is surprisingly good, more so than I was led to expect. The subplot of the Paris/Bond relationship gives depth to Bond's character, and gives him a chance to show some real emotion, always a welcome development. The scenes in Bond's hotel are especially good, and Bond's attitude towards Kaufman (well done, Vincent Schiavelli) is evocative of Dr. No's Prof. Dent scene.

Dame Judi Dench gets probably the best scenes written for "M" in any film of the series with the possible exception of OHMSS, and she really shines in them. Samantha Bond proves herself a very satisfactory-and witty-Moneypenny in her second appearance.

Desmond Llewelyn seems rejuvenated as "Q", and is once again on form after a somewhat shaky turn in GoldenEye. The chemistry is there between him and Brosnan, and both succeed in turning this obligatory scene into one of the classic Bond/"Q" scenes of the entire series.

Lovers of British TV will appreciate the good support given by Dame Judi's As Time Goes By co- star Geoffrey Palmer as a "stiffass Brit" admiral, and Colin Salmon of Prime Suspect as Chief of Staff. The only character that left me flat was Stamper (G tz Otto). I don't know why, he just did. Most of these pseudo-Oddjobs do. Sorry, he just didn't work for me.

Michelle Yeoh, on the other hand, did. Not surprisingly, she handles the physicality of the Wai Lin character very well. She also shows herself to be a very good actress, and more than holds her own in both departments. Miss Yeoh can take her place in the upper echelon of Bond women.

No cheesy computer special effects or matte shots mar this film. The computer effects and matte shots are there, but wonderfully executed and believable. The action scenes are also very good, and it's virtually impossible to tell whether you're watching Brosnan or his double; partly due to Brosnan's credibility, partly to some very crisp editing. David Arnold's score delivers the goods, living up to the promise of the CD release and then some. There are some neat touches, such as topical references to selling deliberately bugged software and releasing damaging information about political figures, but a musical one that I thought added just the right wistful note was the playing of "It Had to Be You" in the background when Bond and Paris renew their acquaintance. Also, Thailand doubles for Vietnam in this film, and I'd be prepared to swear Scaramanga's island and the surrounding area (from The Man With The Golden Gun) is used as a location.

Tomorrow Never Dies is a slam-bang exposition of pure Bond in almost every frame, due primarily to Pierce Brosnan's outstanding performance and Bruce Feirstein's witty and cohesive screenplay. With Roger Spottiswoode at the helm, the film achieves the stated goal of the early films-it doesn't really give you a chance to pick holes in it until you are on the way home; anyway, based on one viewing, I didn't see that many. Eon has at last succeeded in reinventing and rejuvenating the franchise. Although the halcyon days of the early films are irretrievably gone, this is the next best thing, and Tomorrow Never Dies beats GoldenEye until its arms fall off.

©1997 by Mike Vincitore