Tomorrow Never Dies

"GoldenEye" was a smash hit two years ago, so Pierce Brosnan could calmly resume the role of James Bond, even though critical and nostalgic voices will argue that Bond is dead. I would venture to claim, however, that Bond lives as long as he can keep raking in money on the scale that "GoldenEye" managed.

In Tomorrow Never Dies the villain is the media mogul Elliot Carver, who sees an advantage in starting a third world war just for the sake of the 'good' news. Initially his enterprise succeeds when he sinks a British warship in Chinese waters and shoots down a Chinese fighter plane. The British and the Chinese trade accusations, and now it is up to Bond to find out what really happened so that the situation does not get any worse. What distinguishes the story this time is that Bond is joined by a female Chinese agent, Wai Lin, who is hardly second to Bond when it comes to breakneck stunts. The male-chauvinist streak will soon have vanished from the character altogether.

Can the Bond films still keep impressing, given the stiff competition they are up against? Tomorrow Never Dies at any rate proved that it could go the distance as far as spectacular action set pieces are concerned.