Tomorrow Never Dies

	Publisher: MGM	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
	Release Date: December 19, 1997	Format: DVD

Following the successful launch of GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan returned in 1997 for another stint as James Bond. Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth in the spy franchise and the second with Brosnan as the lead actor. Even though it is my second favorite of the Brosnan Bond films, it is a marked step down from its predecessor GoldenEye in nearly every way possible.

Tomorrow Never Dies starts off with an explosive opening scene where Bond recovers a Russian jet that is armed with nuclear torpedoes. Most of the story takes place in Hamburg, Germany and in the South China Sea near Vietnam. The HMS Devonshire, a member of the Royal Navy fleet, is patrolling the South China Sea in international waters but is taken off track into Chinese territorial waters by a mysterious satellite signal.

The Chinese dispatch fighters to warn the Devonshire, but the ship and the fighter get destroyed by a stealth ship owned by media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). Carver's interest is in provoking a war between the Chinese and British as he launches his new media network, the Carver Media Group Network (CMGN). Bond gets dispatched to the CMGN headquarters in Hamburg to investigate and prevent war from breaking out.

I feel that the movie has a pretty good pace to it and there is always a lot of action. This feels more like an action movie than a James Bond movie though. It is as if after having a success with GoldenEye the producers went all conservative and decided against taking any risks with the next film. If anything the success of GoldenEye should have taught them that you have to take some risks when making a movie and should never take your audience for granted.

Tomorrow Never Dies does exactly that. They play it safe with a formula that is all too familiar. In many ways Tomorrow Never Dies is sort of a “Greatest Hits” of the James Bond universe. You have a blond henchman in Stamper, a sleek and fast car in the BMW 7 Series, lots of gadgets, sexy women, a plot to send the world into chaos, a stealth ship, basically all of the traits of a Bond film. Unfortunately it all just felt too generic of a Bond film to be anything special. The acting and choice of cast for the villains was poor, particularly for media mogul Carver, who didn't come across as nearly menacing enough for a guy that wants to start a war for ratings. Overall, not a bad action film, but doesn't quite stand out enough in a series of now over 20 films.

Final:	7.5
Written by Kyle	Review Guide

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