Tomorrow Never Dies *** (1997, Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn, Samantha Bond, Geoffrey Palmer, Joe Don Baker) – Classic Movie Review 406

Cool-as-a-cucumber Pierce Brosnan returns in 1997 for his second 007 film in this flashy, fast-moving if predictable series entry, Tomorrow Never Dies. It is greatly enlivened by a gutsy turn from Michelle Yeoh as Bond beauty Wai Lin.

Jonathan Pryce enjoys himself extravagantly as the main villain Elliot Carver, a Rupert Murdoch-style media mogul who wants to take over the world. His devilish – not to say unlikely – plot is to induce a war between China and the UK so that he can obtain exclusive global media coverage.

It is James Bond’s mission to stop him, of course, with the help of Wai Lin. On his way, Bond meets up with his former lover, Paris Carver, who is now the media mogul’s wife.

Teri Hatcher  gives a feisty turn as Paris Carver but disappears far too early, while Judi Dench (M), Desmond Llewelyn (Q), Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny), Geoffrey Palmer (Admiral Roebuck) and Joe Don Baker (Jack Wade) are all good and deserve more to do.

There are several other notable appearances too. Ricky Jay plays Henry Gupta, Götz Otto plays Stamper and Vincent Schiavelli plays Dr Kaufman, with Colin Salmon as Robinson, Julian Fellowes as the Minister of Defence and Terence Rigby as General Bukharin.

The ideas in Bruce Feirstein’s original screenplay are sometimes a little weary and over-familiar. But, with stunts and action and Roger Spottiswoode’s direction all well up to par, this 18th Bond movie is at least as good as Brosnan’s first outing, GoldenEye (1995).

Sheryl Crow and Mitchell Froom were Golden Globe nominated for Best Original Song – Motion Picture for the song ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.

The next film in the series is The World Is Not Enough (1999), also with Brosnan as 007.

Geoffrey Palmer (1927–2020).

RIP Geoffrey Palmer, who died on 6 November 2020, aged 93. He said about his close friend and frequent co-star Judi Dench: ‘She would say that she doesn’t enjoy being a national treasure, which would be an absolute bloody lie! She loves it!’ But he was a national treasure, too. They were also in Mrs Brown (1997) together.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 406 derekwinnert.com