Review of Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) by Chardr69 — 21 May 2011

The eighteenth James Bond film, and second for Pierce Brosnan as 007. This is also the only Bond film directed by Roger Spottiswoode.

When worldwide media magnate Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) instigates international catastrophes across the world, so that his new media company will be the first to report the news, including the sinking of a British navel frigate in Vietnamese territorial waters, supposedly by the Chinese, but instead by his stealth ship, bringing the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war. 007 must race against time to find out what Carver knows and is planning, before World War III breaks out. Along with Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), Bond must follow Carver to his headquarters in Vietnam in order to thwart his plan to monopolize the worldwide news market.

Brosnan is perfect as usual as 007, and Michelle Yeoh is very good as his Chinese counterpart. Teri Hatcher is very sexy and displays a lot of chemistry with Brosnan as Carver's wife Paris, a former lover of Bond's, that got too close to him in the past, before he broke her heart. Jonathan Pryce is a strong main villain along with his henchman, Stamper (Gotz Otto, who is very much a throwback to Robert Shaw's Grant in "From Russia With Love"). All the regular supporting cast is back, Dame Judi Dench's "M", Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, and Joe Don Baker reprising his role as amusing CIA agent Jack Wade. This film also includes a very amusing and memorable villain in Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli), a world famous assassin that kills Paris Carver and brags to Bond about his prowess as a murderer and his hobby as a torturer.

Overall, this is a very good follow-up to "GoldedEye", with exciting action sequences, and great characters.