Demain ne meurt jamais

You don't review James Bond movies, you evaluate them, rate them according to how well they meet expectations. There are certain things one has come to expect, even demand of a Bond film and each individual effort either delivers or it doesn't. So, here are ten elements that make a Bond film a Bond film and how TOMORROW NEVER DIES rates on a scale of 1 to 10:

Title: TOMORROW NEVER DIES: Poetic pretension aside, the "Tomorrow" in this case is the name of a newspaper. And the film's original title was "Tomorrow Never Lies," a more mundane slogan, but not nearly suitable for a Bond film. 8 points.

Pre-Credit Teaser: Bond interrupts the sale of various illegal weapons and casually stops a nuclear disaster in the bargain. Another elaborate teaser with Bond escaping the bad guys at the last minute, leaving a bunch of explosions in his wake. Nicely done, I suppose, but old hat. 5 points.

Opening Credits: After Daniel Kleinman's debut work on the credits for GOLDENEYE, his graphics here are particularly disappointing. There is almost a generic quality to Kleinman's choice of images, reflecting the worst of Maurice Binder's prototypes. Worse, the disturbing shots of the female body made up of circuits and micro chips is rather creepy re- enforcing the clichéd concept of Bond Girls as mere objects. 2 points.

Theme Song: It may not be the all-time worst Bond theme song, but Sheryl Crowe's "Tomorrow Never Dies," cowritten with Richard Froom, just might be the most sleep-inducing. Perhaps she is trying to imitate the great Shirley Bassey, but Crowe's drowsy rendition is listless and just downright dreary. A second theme song ends the film; k. d. lang's "Surrender" is somewhat better than Crowe's contribution -- but not by much. It's strange, but by this time the producers of the series are picking and choosing from multiple submissions from various noted artists, yet they still end up selecting themes songs that are, at best, mediocre. 2 points.

"Bond, James Bond": As Bond, Pierce Brosnan seems to be trying awfully hard to not crack so much as a smile, thus when he does seem to be enjoying himself it's cause for applause. After the sardonic style he restored to the character in GOLDENEYE, it is disheartening to see him returning to the glum approach that Timothy Dalton took. 4 points.

Bond Babes: Somewhere between being Lois Lane and becoming a Desperate Housewife, Teri Hatcher added "Bond Girl" to her resume. Alas, she brought none of her proved gift for playing spunky heroines with a comic touch to the role; as the villain's depressed ill-fated wife, she may be the most morose Bond Girl of all time. But she is balanced out in glorious style by Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin, a Chinese agent who teams up with 007, both on his mission and on some of the best staged stunts of the series. While sex and sexiness have all but faded from the Bond films, Yeoh personifies the evolution of the Bond Girl to that of a strong and dynamic professional. 10 points.

Bond Villain: Of all the villains James has faced, Elliott Carver just might be the most insipid. Though played by the very talented Jonathan Pryce, the character is a power-mad media mogul who hopes to start World War III, so he can have exclusive rights to cover it with his print and broadcast outlets. That is a lot of effort for such a meager pay back. Though prone to occasional temper tantrums, the owlish Carver is about as threatening as a junior high school principal who is upset about graffiti on the boys room wall. 1 point.

Bond Baddies: Vincent Schiavelli is one of those actors born to play a bad guy. With his sad, droopy Salvadore Dali face, he instantly gave character to any role just by his presence. Here, as assassin Dr. Kaufman, he is rather subdued, but he gives a nice comic twist to the character's dour professionalism. He is assisted by his protégé, Stamper, who unfortunately is played far less memorably by Götz Otto. Stamper is yet another cold, emotionless Ayran killer in the Donald Grant mold and, while he is a formidable opponent in battle, he is a dull character otherwise. 7 points.

Sinister Plot: There are just so many holes in Carver's dastardly plan that even the most far-fetched Bond action stunt is more believable. The idea that a publisher has to create news in order to have something to print is as old as yellow journalism, but there just isn't a whit of common sense in Carver's reckless drive to create a world war that would endanger, not expand his own media empire. Plus, what idiot would place in print stories about his own crimes, even before he committed them. He is just a stupid, stupid man and it is a stupid, stupid plot. 0 points.

Production values: The film's saving grace is the remarkable stunt work featuring Bond and Wai Lin handcuffed together and escaping via motorcycle from the villain's helicopter, through the slums of Saigon. Obviously influenced by the over-the-top stunts work of Asian cinema, it provides quite a kick to an otherwise lackluster film. 8 points.

Bonus Points: I don't know if it is social commentary or just motion picture showmanship, but once again we are treated to the mindless destruction of a poor Third World community. Though expertly done, the chase that runs amok in a crowded, impoverished Saigon neighborhood, terrorizing the poor and destroying their meager homes, all without a second thought, paints a vivid portrait of Super Power arrogance. We'll pretend it is meant as social commentary and add 5 points.

Summary: What this film does best, it does very well. But it's negatives far outweigh its positives. TOMORROW doesn't die; it's already DOA.

Bond-o-meter Rating: 52 points out of 100.

Elloit Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is a megalomaniac and selfish media baron. Carver has the power to reach every person on the planet through his Carver Media Group Network- except for the People's Republic of Chinese who refuse his presence in their nation . The mogul is tied to the disappearance of a British battleship in the South China Sea . James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) heads to stop the media mogul's plan to induce war between China and the UK in order to obtain exclusive global media coverage and whose tentacles reach around the world . Carver, whose spouse (Teri Hatcher) was a former flame of 007 , is supported by a computer genius (Ricky Jay) and a nasty hunk man (Gotz Otto) . Along the way Bond join forces with a Chinese secret agent (Michelle Yeoh) , expert on martial arts . In addition , there appears the usuals , such as M (Judi Dench), Q (Desmond Llewelin) , Lois Maxwell, ¨MoneyPenny¨ (Samantha Bond) , Minister of Defense (Julian Fellowes) and Jake Wade (Joe Don Baker) . But not counting the regular characters of Bond, Q, M and Moneypenny, this is the first Bond movie to contain absolutely no Ian Fleming references .

Likable Pierce Brosnan in an amazing adventure set on wonderful outdoors located mostly on Vietnam , being actually shot in Thailand . The original title of the film was "Tomorrow Never Lies", which makes sense when you consider media mogul Elliot Carver was creating the next day's headlines in advance, then causing those events to happen , but a typo on an early script draft was adopted by the producers, and ¨Tomorrow never dies¨ was used instead . This is a Bond's good outing in which faces dangerous adventures around the globe . Brosnan's outing with overwhelming action and spectacular scenarios , the film teams Bond with Michelle Yeoh as endearing ally in an effort to stop a technological communication mogul . After his first introduction in ¨Golden eye¨ as tough and attractive James Bond of the Ian Fleming's famous creation , Pierce Brosnan went on playing various 007 , as ¨Die Another Day ¨ and this ¨Tomorrow never dies¨ . The picture starts with an overblown opening and following other impressive action set pieces . This solid , slick thriller with magic mix of action-packed , dazzling stunts, gadgetry, and romance provided by sexy company as Teri Hatcher and Michelle Yeoh . Pierce Brosnan as James Bond is fine , he does remarkably well , he earns in irony, humor ,suavity and sympathy, however also has coldness ,cunning , intelligence and toughness . Here Bond is an efficient , relentless agent trying to chase obstinately the criminals , traveling around the world as always , as this globe-trotting story is set in Pucket, Bangkok, Thailand (Saigon, Vietnam) , Hamburg , London and many other places . Because the second half of the film is set in Vietnam, the production negotiated for some time for permission to film there ; although it appeared close, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information eventually refused to allow it , the production decided to use Thailand as Vietnam, with Bangkok substituting for Saigon . Bond to achieve his aims , along the way uses violent means even pulling off brutal killings against enemies who wreak all sorts of havoc . As always Bond will use fantastic gadgets and spectacular cars (here 15 BMW 750's were destroyed in the making of the film) provided by ¨Q¨ (Desmond Llewelyn) . The stealth ship is not a fictional invention , Lockheed secretly constructed and demonstrated one in the early 1980s, but the US Navy finally decided they didn't want any ; the prototype, called the Sea Shadow, was 160 feet long . The picture contains comic-strip adventure , sensational pursuits , silly set pieces , great stunts , tongue-in check humor, automovile chase, frantic unstopped action , a breathtaking tour around the world , amazing gimmicks and stimulating images like are the happenings on the spectacular pursuits on the motorcycle and helicopter . As is like a roller-coaster , as is fast-paced , light , excitement, funny and entertaining ; it's a winner for oo7 fans and non-fans alike . The chase and suspense formula wears strong in this entry .

The film made particularly heavy use of gadgetry because some fans thought there was too little of it in GoldenEye . Enjoyable title song by Sheryl Crow and stirring musical score fitting to action by David Arnold , following the John Barry's classic style . Riveting and fancy main titles , furthermore eye-popping production design by Allan Cameron . It's brimming with colorful and fascinating cinematography by cameraman Robert Elswit . The motion picture produced by habitual producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson and dedicated to the memory of long-time Bond-film producer Albert R. Broccoli ; being professionally made by Robert Spottiswoode who filmed other successes such as ¨the 6th day¨, ¨Turner and Hooch¨, ¨Air America¨ , Shoot to kill¨and Under fire¨ . Robert keeps this moving at an incredibly fast pace and this story about every's favorite super-spy facing off dangerous mogul . The film will appeal to James Bond series's buffs but good for fans only ; because this one goes on far too long and has provoked so much debate among 007 followers . Rating : 6'5 , well worth watching .

I first saw this in the early 2k on cable tv.

Revisited it recently.

This is the eighteenth in the Bond series and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

After the sinking of HMS Devonshire in the Chinese-occupied waters in the South China Sea and the killings of Devonshire's survivors with weaponry loaded with Chinese ammunition, Bond has only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a conflict between the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom.

This one doesn't have a good pre credit scene but it has an awesome motorcycle chase sequence.

There is not sufficient action towards the end.

The villain Elliot Carver ain't that good.

This time Bond faces a psychopathic media mogul, Elliot Carver, hell bent on securing exclusive broadcasting rights in China for hundred years.

Bond also faces Dr. Kaufman and his student Stamper.

Bond gets to cool off with Cecilie Thomsen, Michelle Yeoh n Teri Hatcher.

We have idiot henchmen in this movie.

They try to break the car's windshield by hammer n other stuff but to no avail, they cud have tried shooting guns cos later when Bond flees with the car, the windshield breaks due to shooting.

The car chase sequence is silly cos Bond manages to evade everything including a bazooka by just remote controlling the car.

Some info on the great Dr. Kaufman : a professional assassin and a professor of forensic medicine (way before Dexter).

Kaufman loves bragging about his professionalism and how his services as an assassin are in demand all over the world. Of all the methods at his disposal, apparently his specialty is the celebrity overdose.

It is more like a remake of the overused formula plot of old Bond movies where a megalomaniac steals and strikes the superpowers from a hideout to create a misunderstanding and start WWIII and become the principal bargainer in the process. It lacked intrigue, suspense, twists, not that many of Bond movies have that, but was far too straightforward, predictable and cliche. I always liked Brosnan , he is one of the better Bonds I felt, hope he had something more play to with in the opportunities he got to play this iconic character. 6/10

One of the standard received ideas of film criticism is to say that sequels are almost never as good as the original film. (There are also a few standard exceptions to this rule, such as 'The Godfather Part 2' and the second and third parts of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy). Subject to these exceptions, however, there seems to be a law of diminishing returns to the effect that the more sequels a franchise spawns, the worse they become. The Bond films, however, seem to me to provide the most striking exception to this principle. The franchise started with 'Dr No' in the early sixties, and 'Tomorrow Never Dies' amounts to 'James Bond XVIII', or 'James Bond XIX' if one includes 'Never Say Never Again' in the total. Despite this, one can watch the latest offerings with as much pleasure as the original Sean Connery films from the sixties and seventies.

The Bond films are highly formulaic. They typically start with an action sequence before the opening credits that has little or nothing to do with the film that is to follow. The main story will involve Bond thwarting a dastardly plot by some megalomaniac bent on world domination. It will always involve at least one extended chase sequence, and possibly two or more. The main character, apart from Bond and the villain, will always be a beautiful young woman who helps Bond in his quest and who will end up by falling for him. There will always be at least one other beautiful girl, either as a secondary heroine or as a villainess. The villain will always have a small army of henchmen ready to do battle on his behalf. The story will always end with a shoot-out, normally in the villain's headquarters, in which Bond manages to avert the threatened disaster at the last minute.

'Tomorrow Never Dies' contains all these formulaic elements. It is, nevertheless, in my view one of the better entries in the Bond canon, for a number of reasons beyond the fact that Pierce Brosnan is the best Bond since Connery. These can be summarised as follows:-

1. The Villain. Jonathan Pryce plays Elliott Carver, a newspaper and media tycoon intent on whipping up a war between Britain and China. The reason is to facilitate the accession to power of his ally, a renegade Chinese general who has promised to give his organisation exclusive broadcasting rights in China. Bond villains have always provided scope for some splendidly over-the-top displays of acting, going back to Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb and Gert Frobe's Goldfinger. Although Pryce's Carver is more restrained than some, it falls within this tradition. At first sight the silver-haired bespectacled Carver seems mild-mannered and soft spoken, but soon reveals the raving megalomania which is the hallmark of the Bond villain. Particularly noteworthy is the speech where Carver states his ambitions as being 'power' and 'world domination'. Although he puts a liberal, metaphorical interpretation on these two concepts, the audience is left in no doubt that he means what he says quite literally. There is also a good performance from Gotz Otto as Carver's brutal German henchman, Stamper.

2. The Girl. Admittedly, Teri Hatcher is rather wasted as the secondary Bond girl Paris Carver, Elliott's wife and a former girlfriend of Bond. Michelle Yeoh, however, is superb as the main female lead, the Chinese secret agent Wai Lin. (That's how it's spelled, although the pronunciation used in the film suggests that the name should actually be transliterated as Wei Lin). Apart from Michelle's striking looks, she is also an accomplished martial arts performer, and her skills are put to good use in this film. (Part of a trend of giving Bond girls a more active role, in contrast to the earlier films in the series where they were required to do little other than look decorative.) 3. The Chase Sequence. The main one, in which Bond and Wai Lin escape on a motorbike through the streets of Hanoi from the villains in a helicopter, is excellent. 4. The Opening Sequence. As usual, this has little to do with the main plot line. It does, however, fit in with a growing tendency in the Bond films, that of mocking or undermining the militaristic, macho values which the series was once accused of promoting. This film introduces a new comic character, the gung-ho, blustering Admiral Roebuck, a sort of naval equivalent of Colonel Blimp, who clashes with the more liberal 'M', the female chief of the British Secret Service. (I was interested to learn that the actors who play them, Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench, are husband and wife in real life). In the opening sequence, Bond narrowly prevents Roebuck's blundering attempt to bomb a gathering of international terrorists from setting off a nuclear explosion. The more active roles for female characters are also part of the trend towards a politically correct Bond, as is, perhaps, his remark that smoking is a 'filthy habit'. (The earlier films were often criticised for glamorising the habit by making Bond himself a smoker).

As with all the Bond films, one can probably pull holes in the plot of 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. (The scene where Carver sinks a British warship by cutting a hole in the side with what looks like a giant chainsaw struck me as particularly implausible. What's wrong with a torpedo?) Nevertheless, the Bond films are not meant to be works of social realism and unlike, say, the novels of John Le Carre, have never purported to give an accurate picture of life in the British Secret Service. 'Tomorrow Never Dies' is a good example of what the Bond films have always been- superior escapist entertainment. 7/10