Tomorrow Never Dies
release year: 1997
genre: Bond
viewing setting: most recently: home DVD, 4/13/03
synopsis: Bond must stop a media mogul who wants to make his own headlines by sparking international incidents.
impressions: The whole Eliot Carver/media/news line of thought really got old for me. Also, there were numerous plot holes in this movie, plus the usual if-we'd-just-shot-Bond-when-we-had-the-chance-then-our-plot-would-have-succeeded factor. Really, the only thing that made it worth seeing for me were the chases and Michelle Yeoh's stunts.
acting: Pierce Brosnan did fine; after this movie, I realized that he's sort of a fusion of Connery's style and Moore's style. Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin was the perfect woman here: smart, sexy, could fight...wow.
chase scenes: Chase/shootout in parking deck, good motorcycle chase with Bond and Wai Lin handcuffed to each other.
neat gadgets: BMW 7-series, handy-dandy cel-phone with stungun, fingerprint reader, and car remote control
confirmed Bond kills: around a dozen, hard to tell in this 90s Bond era of heavy gunfire
confirmed Bond nooky: 3
obnoxious female name: none
defining Bond moments:
lights guard's cigarette before punching him out
verbal sparring (and winning) against Carver
checks weight/feel of ashtray before whacking bad guy with it
shuts off power to Carver's broadcast just because he knows it's a surefire way to piss Carver off
obviously revels in playing with the toys given to him by Q
casually brushes himself off after smashing through window
messes with Wai Lin's gadgets
quotable:
Carver: "Exactly what kind of banking do you specialize in, Mr. Bond?"
Bond: "Hostile takeovers."
Paris Carver: "Sometimes these things happen."
Eliot Carver: "Not to me."
assassin: "Wait! I'm just a professional, doing a job!"
Bond: (shoots him) "Me too."
Carver: "The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success."
final word: More flash than substance, but still slick as hell.
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