“Another Carver building. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he developed an edifice complex.”

Justin’s rating: Go gadget go!

Justin’s review: If my faulty memory serves correctly, James Bond was mostly MIA in pop culture during the first half of the ’90s. Really nobody was talking or thinking about it at the time. The ’80s hadn’t been that kind to the franchise, and so the studio took a break, regrouped, and came back with a new 007 and the slam-bang amazing Goldeneye. Plus, there was the Nintendo 64 game, which probably eclipsed that movie for many nerds.

Goldeneye’s Pierce Brosnan went on to make three more James Bond films from 1997 to 2002 — suitably entertaining but far quicker to fall off the radar of the filmgoing public. I always liked his take on the character more than most of the other Bonds, but I’m not a die-hard groupie of this series, either. What’s interesting is that Brosnan’s second outing actually became somewhat of an underrated entry in many fans’ eyes. So let’s take a look at 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies.

After a suitably thrilling opening sequence involving a terrorist bazaar, an incoming ballistic missile, nuclear torpedoes, and fighters playing chicken, James Bond finds himself in the thick of an international crisis between China and Britain. However, it’s a sinister media corporation that’s actually behind a double false flag operation, led by a somewhat more sinister version of Steve Jobs (Jonathan Pryce’s Elliot Carver) who’s got a stealth boat, a nasty underwater drill, and — now — nuclear missiles.

Carver wants to own the world through his media coverage, including shaping the news as his demented and deliciously over-the-top megalomania dictates. This being back before the too-serious Daniel Craig era, this story can indulge in plenty of excess and style and cheese. Oh, and so much innuendo that Howard Stern was like, “Dude, tone it down.”

As Bond investigates the Carver Media Group, he bumps into his former girlfriend (Teri Hatcher) and Chinese spy Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). While Yeoh has been a tremendous screen presence since the ’80s and broke into western fame in the ’90s, she kind of faded away for a while before coming back in a big way these past few years with Star Trek and Everything Everywhere All At Once.

It’s good to see her a the midpoint of Yeoh’s career, especially since she’s more a contemporary of Bond here than a conquest. They work well together, especially during an sequence where they have to escape, fight, and ride a motorcycle while handcuffed to each other.The two go from Hamburg to China, throwing a wrench in Carver’s rather stupid plan to spark World War III so that he can get exclusive news coverage.

Tomorrow Never Dies is nothing more or less than a flashy popcorn flick with a touch of ’90s cool (listen to that industrial techno when the parking garage chase begins) and plenty of Bond staples. It was comfortingly nostalgic to return to the Pierce Brosnan 007, especially with Desmond Llewelyn in his second-to-last turn as Q and Dame Judi Dench as M.

Intermission!

• Fun fact: This movie released the same day as Titanic and also had a giant sinking ship.
• Terrorist arms bazaars are the best bazaars! Make sure you hit the snack bar!
• Nuclear torpedoes are the best torpedoes! Also, is that a thing?
• Ejecting a guy up into another plane is as silly as it is silly
• I love the giant corporate logo on the satellite, as if anyone’s looking
• That sea drill is a proper Bond villain weapon
• “Consider him slimed.”
• Q as the rental car agent was funny
• “Grow up, 007.”
• Absolutely nobody is being subtle here on the good guy side or bad guys
• I want some of those wall-walking boots
• Does anyone else find it weird that Bond quips one-liners to himself and no one else?
• Bond’s car electrocuting the people and withstanding sledgehammers
• “I feel like an idiot. I don’t know what to say.”
• All the car gadgets are excellent — and Bond giggling as he drives it remotely
• If they’re so high that Bond needs a mask to breathe while he jumps, how can everyone in the plane be OK with the door hanging open like that?
• Outdoor public showers are weird