Bond #18: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐  

Pierce Brosnan looks and acts with confidence and suave as agent James Bond in this sophomore outing. He does indeed seem to be born to play this role. Tomorrow Never Dies is nicely paced and has enough action going on throughout the length of its 2 hours run that you will not have the time to stop and scrutinize the ridiculous plot and the even more preposterous motive of the villain played rather blandly by the usually more reliable Jonathan Pryce as a crazy media baron.

Happily this time around, we have our very own Michelle Yeoh doing us proud with her Bond girl role, a spy from China called Wai Lin. She not only looks fabulous here but also have a chance to show off her kung fu skills by kicking the ass of the baddies. I dare say she stole the scenes from Pierce! Teri Hatcher had the more conventional unchaste Bond girl role here as the villain's wife who so happens to be an ex Bond lover. Ho Chi Min city (aka Saigon) in Vietnam provided a colourful backdrop for some of the mandatory chase sequences. Michelle Yeoh and these chase scenes were the standout portions of the film for me.

As the series evolves and approaches the 21st century, we begin to observe some changes in its franchise trademarks. Most apparent is in the technical advancement as evident with the vastly improved sound and visual effects and stunts. The opening gambit involving some dare devil aerial stunts still wow today. The sexual undertones and sexist attitude towards women is still there but at a much reduced level plus we actually have a female lead that can take care of herself and kick ass better than Bond himself! The awful one liner jokes which were so rampant in the Roger Moore Bond movies are still here but thankfully, less prevalent. Pierce Brosnan is far too classy and act to be made to utter such rubbish lines!

The theme song Tomorrow Never Dies delivered by Sheryl Crow is tuneless and one of the worst Bond songs ever composed for the series. I found this immediately forgettable, as was the unimaginative opening credits sequence that accompanied this. This is usually a standard highlight to the series and something to look forward to after the adrenaline pumping opening gambit. However, not this time ...