James Bond as a film franchise has been around the sixties and as a franchise on its own since the fifties and yet it has always remained culturally relevant. With the franchise really reinventing itself in the nineties to be more of a modern day blockbuster therefor when Goldeneye came out and really was a smash hit proving that James Bond does still work another film was really very quickly ordered and its that very film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and then join me as I review the film that takes shots at newspapers with the film in question being called simply just "Tomorrow Never Dies" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when an English ship is sunk in the South China Seas believing it to be in international waters James Bond is tasked with finding out what really happened and putting a stop to it once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The films plot whilst it is very much just the basic James Bond film plot with nothing new added to it is still a really fun plot and the fact that it is just the most basic James Bond film plot out there is the very thing that makes the plot all the more enjoyable in the first place as you can have this film on in the background and still know where in the plot that we are at any given moment in the film. Altho to be fair tho it would have helped this film out quite alot tho if the plot was trying to tell a different story and be this more complex James Bond film plot as both Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough did prove that the nineties James Bond films are more then capable of having this more complex plots that whilst they aren't dark persay are still alot of fun to watch in the films themselves, with the plot of this film not being as good as it could have been as there are ideas in this film that would have worked if the plot of the film had been alot more better with the films plot not really getting alot of focus in the film as the film does shove in an action scene every few minuets which is great for lazy afternoon viewing but it is something that does do alot of damage to the film itself with the plot of this film being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Of course starring in this film is Pierce Brosnan as James Bond , Desmond Llewelyn as Q , Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny , Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson and Dame Judi Dench as M. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The acting from all of the MI6 regulars being just as good as it was in the previous film with us being able to able that all of the actors that were introduced in the previous film are now alot more confident in their roles and are alot more comfortable in their roles. With the best actor out of the MI6 regulars being Pierce Brosnan as he does feel alot more cool and confident in the role of James Bond and with him being the films main character it does help the film out quite alot if his alot more cool and confident as that is who James Bond himself is meant to be and while there are other actors in the rest of the film that are just as good in their own right when it comes down to the main MI6 actors Pierce really does get his version of James Bond down perfectly with him being more then able to make the role his own and while it does help that he does some scenes with the more established James Bond actors like Desmond Llewelyn and with him acing in scenes with one of the best female actors in the UK in Dame Judi Dench of course his performance really would be better as he would have to up his game to not only match what they are doing performance wise but really also top what they are doing and that is something that he really does do in his final performance in this film.
Also starring in this film is Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver , Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin and Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver. Also starring in this film is Götz Otto as Richard Stamper , Ricky Jay as Henry Gupta , Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade , Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman and Geoffrey Palmer as Rear Admiral Roebuck. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The acting from the rest of the films actors was just as good as the acting from the films MI6 regulars as you can tell that alot of them are giving us there A game and while that might not mean much for alot of them as we know full well that Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Pryce are going to be good it does mean alot when it comes to someone like Teri Hatcher who barely if ever brings her A game to any of the projects that she's in. With the best actor from the guest actors being Jonathan Pryce as while Michelle is really good in this film it does feel like a cliche to say that she's one of the films best actors where as with Jonathan it does feel kind of fitting as he does chew and then spit out and then chew some more scenery in this film with him clearly having a blast in playing this over the over the top and almost cartoonish villain with him even playing him as such which is something that really does shine through in his final performance. With the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just also good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
This film does technically have two Bond Girls with the first of which being Paris Carver who is played by the stunning Teri Hatcher and the second of which is Wei Lin who is played the seriously stunning Michelle Yeoh. Out of the two bond girls it's pretty easy to say which one is the better of the two as while Paris Carver is a very good idea for a character as she is meant to be someone whom Bond has meant and assumably fallen in love with before now the film doesn't go all the way with that idea as the character herself is just a bland character whom we can work out isn't going to make it to the end of the film and therefor her death isn't as shocking as the makers of this film clearly wanted it to be whereas if they brought back the character of Natalya Simonova from Goldeneye then her death would be all the more shocking as us the audience would have had a longer amount of time to get to know her as a character. With Wei Lin on the other hand she is just so cool as a character as she is quite literally a female version of James Bond even down to her having her own secret base in a nearby village with her character being this cool and confident character that you want to get to know more about and clearly the makers of this film thought so as they did plan to do a spin off film with her character and even bring her back for Die Another Day which is something that would have made that film ten times more better as Wei Lin herself is just such a good character and even tho she does loose some of her smarts in the films third act she is still very much treated like an equal to Bond in every way with alot of the Bond Girls following her have just been poor known off versions, whilst yes granted she isn't a great character as she is a bit on the bland side she is still a fun character to watch and is easily better then what Pars Carver was.
Doing the production design for this film is Allen Cameron with the sets that he created for this film on the most part looking really good. With the darken Carver Media Group set being a really example of this as he did manage to make an already creepy set seem all the more creepier just by turning off a few of the lights and heck one could even argue that the sets that he makes for this film do feel like they are very much in the vain of Sir Ken Adam as they all really large sets and yet at the same time they do still work as the main sets for his film which is something that is hard to pull off as he went to far in doing things like Sir Ken Adam then they would just feel like knock offs of his sets and yet he strayed to far away from the previous sets then they might as well as be the sets for something other then James Bond. However on the flip side of this is the fact that there s quite clearly a reason that he wasn't brought back for the other Bond films as alot of his sets do feel very paint by numbers with there being nothing in them that makes them stand out from each other so much so that you could still confuse them as being sets from other films as they are lacking that extra special something that does set the sets of James Bond films apart as while there is clearly alot of love put into them there's no creativity like for example the main set that we see both M and Moneypenny in which is meant to be this typical Government type of setting and it looks exactly like that but it does also look bland and boring to look at and heck due to it looking very much like the Carver Media Group set you very well could make the case that the two sets are one in the same as there's nothing all that different about them where as if you look at all of the best sets from other James Bond films they all share one thing in common and that's the fact that from a single screenshot you can tell just what set they are and what film they are from whereas here it would be a struggle to work any of that out.
Elliot Carver himself whilst he is clearly not the best Bond villain out there due to the fact that he is so over the top and so much like a cartoon pantomime villain he is a lot of fun to watch. With the character being someone who is always chasing where the highest ratings are going to be even if it means causing them himself and yet this is the very thing that does stop the character from being a great villain as while he does make for a fun one time villain he's also a character that your going to forget about the second that the film finishes as the character does leave very little of an impression on you as much like with Paris he does feel like a waste of a good ides as the idea of having this media mogul who in his own way has taken the world as he control alot of what goes into the press he does come off as spoilt person who has just been told no for the first time. Whereas if the makers of this film had dedicated more time to him not so much that he essentially becomes the main character but enough so that us the audience can get a better grip on him as a character then he would end up being a better character and heck even his end goal just feels very petty as he's only trying to cause World War 3 because of the fact that the Chinese government refused him broadcasting rights and that's literally it which for him does sound right but in the grand scheme of things is a pretty petty plan to have with it not even making sense as to why he chose to the British to go up against them maybe he chose the English because he thought it would make for good newspaper headlines but by doing that he's dragging another country into it and there are more then likely to look into his schemes and that's exactly what happens here in this film, the character himself tho is a really fun character with all of this scenes in the film being really creepy which does go to show you that the makers of this film were at the very least trying to make a good James Bond villain.
The opening titles for this film where done by Daniel Kleinman with the films title song being called "Tomorrow Never Dies" which was sung by Sheryl Crow. The opening titles where really well done with them having the theme of technology and what it's doing to us planted all throughout it which is something that does play heavily into the main film with Elliot himself being the head of a huge media group but at the same time tho the films opening titles do feel like they should have had a more faster paced almost rock like song to them whereas the films title song is more of a pop song and is alot more slower paced. This is not to say that the song is bad by any means because its really not that bad of a song its just that its not the right song for this films opening titles where as the song "Surrender" by k.d. lang does seem like the more better fit for this films opening titles as while "Surrender" isn't a rock song it is alot more faster paced where as this song does feel like that it's taking its time in getting going and when your a James Bond theme song you pretty much have to get going right away as you only have a few minuets to tell an entire story in the films opening titles and therefor when the song is more slower paced the opening title have to be paced slower to fit in the whole song, which is something that really doesn't work in this film as this is a film that does deserve a more faster paced song and to be fair to this song Sheryl Crow does sing it really well but it doesn't feel like her type of song with her feeling almost uncomfortable singing it and yet the song does somewhat match up with the visuals of the films opening titles as while the first half of the opening titles might as well be something completely different to the song when we are over half way through the opening titles that is when they do somewhat start to mesh together and become something that should have been right at the very start and that's a true work of art.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and fifty nine minuets and twenty seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running tom for the James Bond films at this point in time and to be fair to this film this film really did need alot of that running time as the film does have alot of plot to cover and given the fact that the film does have alot of long action scenes to fit in the film as well there would have been no way that the film would have been able to do all of that and still a good story in a much more shorter amount of running time as something would have fallen threw the cracks and the film would end up being a mess of a film with the film having more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. The film also doesn't use its running time all that wisely either as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot which granted is something that could also be true for alot of the other James Bond films as well but here it is more of an issue due to the fact that this is film is the second James Bond film with new actors in the leads roles and therefor the makers of this film should have taken the time to give this film a more fully developed plot instead of just making it up as they go along which is how it feels like alot of the time in this film as nothing that is set up in the first act o0f the film is payed off in the third with it feeling like that the makers of this film cared alot more about having Elliott Carver mugging to the camera then they did in giving us a more fully developed plot. This is something that does also effect the films characters development as while we expect James Bond not to get any kind of character development as he is meant to be a male power fantasy character we do expect his main Bond Girl to get something in the way of character development and yet Wei Lin gets nothing interms of character development as the only thing that she gets is forced romance near the end of the film with Bond himself with none of the films characters getting any kind of character development with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film cared alot more about giving us lots of action scenes then they did in giving us character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. This films action is where the film does shone it's best and brightest as the film does have alot of action scenes in it all of which are really good with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into the action scenes then they really did anything in the else as the rest of the film just feel like a stereotypical James Bind film but then we'll get Kung Fu movie inspired action that reminds us of just how awsome that this film really could be. With the films best action scene being the short martial arts based action scene as while it doesn't feature Bond in it until right at the very end when he does come to rescue Wei Lin alot of it is just Michelle Yeoh showing us just why she is so awsome in the place as she gets to beat up alot of her own stunt crew in this one tiny set which does allow for her to get pretty creative not Jackie Chan levels of creative but we still do get to see Wei Lin be forced to use her brains and not just her brawns as she kicks as punches down alot of guys all by herself with this one scene being more then enough to make the character of Wei Lin a fan favorite character and heck you don't even miss Bond in the scene as we are having such a fun time seeing Michelle Yeoh do what she does best, heck its no wonder that they wanted to to do a spin off film with her character as this one action scene alone does prove that her character would have been more then able to hold the film when it comes to the action scenes with the rest of the films action scenes being just as good as this one was in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst yes there are more James Bond films out there heck there's more better Pierce Brosnan James Bond films out there this film is one that is still alot of fun to watch as it gives you exactly what you would expect to see in a James Bond film and really nothing more then that in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Blogger , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being Google Images just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on Google Images are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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