Peter Travers, in his review of “Tomorrow Never Dies” wrote “If Connery was Sexy Bond and George Lazenby was One-Shot Bond and Roger Moore was Geezer Bond and Timothy Dalton was Bored Bond, then Brosnan should be Posh Bond.”
This kind of sums up my feelings on Brosnan as well, who was probably the most glittery of all the men to sport the 007 moniker.
This movie is almost entirely paint by the numbers Bond, in a way that makes it more forgettable than most. Maybe it is because not enough time has passed between the 90s and now, and so the product placements and inane plot don’t seem charming like they do in the Moore outings from the 70s, or maybe these late 90s early 2000s Brosnan Bond movies just weren’t all that good?
They were not my cup of tea in any event.
In this movie Bond does battle against a giant media tycoon that many speculated was based upon Rupert Murdoch. Said tycoon wants to start world war three for no other reason than to increase ratings for his news affiliates.
So in this movie, you could say James Bond takes on free speech and gives it a good kick in the nads. Not much is very memorable here.
The Bond girl, Wai Lin, is at least likable but doesn’t have the femme fatale sensibilities of a truly memorable heroine, but alas, this is not a truly memorable movie. Terri Hatcher comes closer in her role as the wife (and also ex lover of Bond, which makes for at least one memorable scene at a launch party event) of the media mogul played by Johnathon Price.
Tomorrow Never Dies is a far cry from Goldeneye and felt in many ways like a return to the Roger Moore era of the series with a generic action movie plot and one liners that were more grating than actually clever… “I hear you are a cunning linguist” and so on.
Thankfully the technical aspects, such as locations and special effects are top notch, and the running time here is thankfully short, so this movie while far from Bond’s best, is far from a chore to sit through.
Tomorrow Never Dies gets two out of five: DECENT.
Vortainment 