Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9638 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: DTS Surround Sound, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Greek, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, English, Danish, Swedish, Hindi
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 114 minutes

Synopsis
British super spy James Bond goes after a ruthless media baron--an amalgam of Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates, played with feisty aplomb by Pryce--whose diabolical plans include instigating World War III so that his empire can obtain an exclusive. This time, 007 discovers sorrow in a love lost and a worthwhile partner in a female Chinese counterpart, played by Hong Kong action diva Michelle Yeoh. Digitally restored.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant Brosnan in exciting but not best Bond
James Bond (Brosnan) investigates a TV media man who is linked to a possible war brewing in the Chinese sea between the Chinese and British.

Pierce Brosnan reprises his role as the famous British agent after a great start in the critically acclaimed Goldeneye. Expectation was high and Brosnan doesn't disappoint as once again he dons the suit and tie as James Bond in another classic action thriller, if not the strongest in the series.

With a fantastic opening surrounding the criminals in the weapon market, Tomorrow Never Dies sets the tone for a high octane adventure and the hero enters, delivering another great opening line, punching a smoker and giving viewers that wonderful pun that only Bond can do.

Unlike many Bond films, the villain is revealed almost instantly and the film centres around Bond trying to unravel the case and find out what media man Elliot Carver is up to.

As good an actor as Jonathan Pryce is, there is hardly any doubt that his character Carver is one of the worst villains of all time. Unscary, too relaxed and easy to watch the Newspaper man does simply have that ruthlessness to create that essence of evil that has created so many good Bond villains in the past. Blofeld with his cat, Goldfinger with his laser and so on. Carver with his newspapers simply does not match up and the film falls short because of him.

Teri Hatcher is very good as Bond's former lover but Michelle Yeoh is disappointing as Chinese agent Wai Lin. Yeoh's kicking action as the agent is good and fun to watch but the character does not contain that exciting and different prospect that other Bond girls have had and the ending feels almost completely clichéd because of it.

Despite that faults in supporting characters the plot with it's terrific action sequences make for a gripping watch. From driving a car with a remote control to driving a motorbike over a helicopter, this film has created some astonishing and memorable moments in the action genre. The remote control car is an ultimate fantasy and is action packed adrenaline not to mention humorous at points as well.

The plot is consistently intriguing with its issues on foreign pride and war, not to mention the different cultures between the Chinese and British government.

Tomorrow never dies fills Bond fans dreams with top notch action sequences and an entertaining and issue driven plot.

8/10

"Let the mayhem begin!"
"Let the mayhem begin." So says Elliot Carver, world media baron with an eye for not just writing headlines, but for creating them for his newspaper `Tomorrow'. But did Jonathan Pryce, who played the part, realise just how apposite his words were in relation to the film as a whole?

This is the eighteenth film (1997) in the Bond franchise and was Brosnan's second film in the starring role. What a comedown from the freshness that seemed to infuse `Goldeneye'. In this film Bond seems to revert to a Roger Moore-ish parody with an emphasis on plain silliness. The Bond team had often pushed credibility to the limit, but this time they excelled themselves. Whereas the stealth boat was entirely credible, the adolescent boy-racer stunts involving the remote-driven BMW in the car park was ludicrous for a host of reasons, not least in that fifteen of the eighteen BMWs supplied were wrecked. (By-the-way, did BMW insist that the baddies drive a Mercedes?)

And there's a return to a certain misogyny. I thought Timothy Dalton had finally knocked this nail on the head, and in `Goldeneye' it took over an hour for Brosnan to get his first kiss. But in `Tomorrow Never Dies', he's at it already within twenty minutes. The producers might say, just like Elliot Carver does in the film, "Give them [the public] what they want", but the public would still come to see Bond at the cinema even if he showed more respect to the female gender. And the gags - oh how I loath Bond's predictable and weak attempts at wit - now verge on the truly embarrassing, whether Bond is truly a "cunning linguist" or not. The heart sinks when Michael Wilson (producer) in his commentary says "great line" to all of Bond's double-entendres.

Having said that, what can we say that is positive about this movie? As usual, the special effects and miniatures departments excel themselves. I was particularly impressed with the helicopter scenes in Saigon (Bangkok). The model of HMS Devonshire was an amazing 55 feet long.

The acting is competent. Only Michelle Yeoh and Teri Hatcher shine in their parts, and I suppose we should say the same about Jonathan Pryce, but I have a suspicion that he deliberately hammed his role in accordance with the premise of the part he had to play.

There are two commentaries, the first with Michael Wilson (producer) and Vic Armstrong (second unit director), full of the usual backslapping largesse and often patronising to the female stars. Wilson talks to Armstrong rather than the audience, and Armstrong is just there to agree everything whatever his boss says.

The second (and better) commentary is with Roger Spottiswoode (director) and Dan Petrie, who is referred to as a colleague but really acts the part of an interviewer. Spottiswoode can talk about the actors both male and female without patronising them and can praise without it appearing as backslapping. His commentary is more concerned with the practicalities of making the movie. Here we also learn that it was originally intended to base the story in Hong Kong, but that this was too risky given the handover to China at the time. Spottiswoode says he wanted to include more humour in the film (alas!) and he wanted a more realistic villain, more realism than fantasy. He was also after a smart and able woman who would be Bond's equal (hurrah). But I think he is on dangerous ground when he says that he wanted the violence to be comic.

Other extras on this two-disc `ultimate edition' set includes a music-only track; deleted/extended scenes; expanded angles; a very good `Making of ...' hosted by Desmond Llewelyn; Moby's version of the 007 theme; and a 45-minute 35th anniversary TV show, `The Secrets of 007'.

Brosnan's best Bond adventure
I was never very keen on Brosnan as James Bond. He always seemed like he was trying to be a smart-ass instead of a hard-ass. I remember when Goldeneye came out back in November 1995 the media were raving about it being a new Bond for a new era but to me it actually felt quite regressive.

After the angry, extremely tough Dalton Bond we went back to big, dumb set-pieces, maniacal villains bent on world domination and crude sex jokes. Thankfully Tomorrow Never Dies was significantly better, though it's far from being brilliant.

The main problem with TND is that it's clearly just a bunch of action scenes with a thin plot concocted to string them together. I guess this is acceptable since not every Bond movie has to be a 2-hour+ affair and it does feel very fast-paced in contrast to the slow, lumbering dinosaur that was The World Is Not Enough which followed two years later.

Teri Hatcher gets to look pretty as Bond's former squeeze now married to Elliot Carver, a man who is very much insane and plans to take over the world with his tabloid newspaper that is so sleazy it would make the Daily Sport look like Dickens. Unfortunately, she's not got much to do after her husband finds out and has her killed. Then we're left with Wai Lin, a clumsy Chinese agent who isn't the kind of woman who instantly throws her helpless self into Bond's arms. I like tough women and there's a lot of fun to be had in watching her beat up random bad guys.

It's a shame that Brosnan's scripts got even worse after TWINE. Die Another Day is affront to the franchise and among the rubble of three dull movies ol' Pierce only got to shine in this one.

Dante's Peak was good though.

The DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS 5.1 sound and loads of extras.