Review of Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) by Kai82 — 03 Jan 2021

The eighteenth James Bond movie. I think it is decent to good entry in the franchise with an interesting story, good ideas and solid action for franchise standards. The last movie Goldeneye set a good standard and we were quite interested if they can continue.

The intro has James Bond searching for a decoding machine at an airport where illegal arms deals were made. It is decided to use a missile attack to kill all present theorist as it is a unique chance.

Unluckily after launching the attack they notice an airplane that was out of sight with a nuclear warhead. After this the actual story starts when a British marine vessel and a Chinese fighter jet were destroyed in Chinese water and this caused a diplomatic conflict that can erupt into a full scale war.

James Bond is set to investigate the strange occurrences. The story is relatively well done. It delivered and kept me engaged. The set up of a conflict is well done and you see the perpetrators doing a great job on getting even the details right.

The actors did also a good job starting with Pierce Brosnan. He did an excellent job in his first performance and owned his role now. Then we have Michelle Yeoh who I consider a legendary actress as Wai Lin.

A really good performance but I think they could have used her better. The villains are enjoyable. Götz Otto as Stamper is a great henchman and Elliot Carver delivers as evil media mogul. However nothing elevates them to the higher ranks in the franchise.

This means not that they fail. They are a bit unremarkable after everything is over. Many ranted about Terri Hatcher performance in a small role in the movie. I don't think it is that bad or serious even if her acting reminded me to a bit of a fish out of water.

The action sequences are nice and deliver. There are a few remarkable scenes. Soundtrack wise we get a weaker or unremarkable performance. Overall this is a relatively good movie in the franchise. Sadly it is also not good enough to be in a top ranks and will not be remembered long.

Even more sadly the next ones will be worse.