Review of Tomorrow Never Dies: (James Bond)

Video

Picture quality is very good, nice and sharp, and very little grain. Layer change position is fine, nice number of chapters to skip through the movie with, and its anamorphic!

As for special effects and other eye candy, this is a bond movie, so the usual pyrotechnics abound. However whilst stuff filmed live is up to the usual high standard, the models look a bit weak. This isn`t as bad as those in Goldeneye, but still not very convincing.

The gratuitous, arty, and sexist intro sequence is good, mixing some nice video effects with cleverly faked x-rayed guns and shell casings, not as good in my opinion as that on Goldeneye, but pretty good all the same.

Audio

Another modern Bond film, another good audio track. No surprises here, just another well put together crescendo of gunfire, explosions and orchestral score.

Features

Trailer, that`s it, joy to the world and stuff. The animated menu is nice, but not exactly worth buying a disc for. Now if you will excuse me, I have to drown in MGM`s extra features apathy.

Conclusion

In his second outing, Brosnan looks at home in the role from the start. The supporting cast is good with the odd exception, and once again you get the usual Bond scenes, they even prop up the wonderful Q for his last (albeit short lived) outing.

However, this is not a good 007 movie, it is ridiculously silly in many places. The circle seems complete, Bond has become entirely self-parodying. From the far-fetched opening sequence to the farcically predictable ending, this is a bit of a stinker. Pryce is okay as a bad guy, if you ignore the fact he is totally unmenacing, but then who is likely to be scared of a media baron like that anyway. There is nothing in this film that is remotely believable, hell they even blatantly defy the laws of physics for over 5 minutes in one helicopter scene.

I know that the whole secret agent lifestyle portrayed is totally unrealistic in every episode from this series, but people like me need at least some foundation of the plot to sit well in reality. It`s a believability thing, and Tomorrow Never Dies is just taking Bond further from where he used to be, and nearer to a glorified comic book character. This is bad news, he isn`t and never will be Batman.

If it wasn`t for Brosnan, the fact it`s the continuing adventures of Bond, and Michelle Yeoh is in it doing some nice martial arts stuff, I`d probably have rated it a lot lower. Get if you`re an avid collector of the series, or know you like the movie, otherwise only if your desperate.