Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Götz Otto, Teri Hatcher, Judi Dench, Joe Don Baker, Samantha Bond, Ricky Jay, Geoffrey Palmer, Desmond Llewelyn, Vincent Schiavelli, Colin Salmon. [PG-13]

Brosnan’s sophomore outing as James Bond finds him matching wits and weapons with a ratings-obsessed media mogul (Pryce) who intends on triggering nuclear war between China and the UK for the sake of broadcasting rights (think: a slightly less evil Rupert Murdoch)—a strange plot, to be sure, and without any sincere effort to comment on modern tech or the “art” of headline-grabbing, but charismatic Pryce is amusingly satirical in the disturbingly prescient role. At least 007 spends about half the movie in the company of the rare Bond girl who can hold her own at all times, a butt-kicking Chinese spy played by Yeoh; the other primary Bond girl, the villain’s wife (Hatcher) who still carries a torch for ex-lover Bond (contrived much?), is pretty much a non-starter. A professionally-crafted and pacy entry in the series, but it has a shortage of standout moments, and seems to mostly just be going through the motions despite the usual hodgepodge of impressive stunts, gimmicks, and cliffhanger thrills. The climactic battle aboard a massive stealth ship is practically a rewrite of the final act of The Spy Who Loved Me…but by virtue of Yeoh’s value alone, this sequence ends up being superior (even if Otto’s bleached-blond henchman is no Jaws). Dedicated to the memory of longtime producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, who passed away the year before. Look for a young Gerard Butler as a seaman in an early scene.

69/100