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MI6 looks back at the "Tomorrow Never Dies"
premiere in 1997 and at what the press had to say...
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Tomorrow Never Dies - Premiere & Press
18th January 2011
| The World Charity Premiere for "Tomorrow
Never Dies" took place on Tuesday 9th December 1997 at The
Odeon, Leicester Square but remarkably was not attended by any member
of the Royal family - the first time since the debut of "The Spy Who Loved
Me" in 1977. The after premiere party was held at Bedford
Square, home of Jonathan Cape, author Ian Fleming's original publisher who released first editions of "Casino Royale" through "Octopussy & The Living Daylights".
The stars of the film were in attendance as well as theme song vocalist Sheryl
Crow and other production personnel.
"Tomorrow Never
Dies" scooped in excess of $331 million throughout
all box office territories. The film was later rated by
Variety as the 19th highest earner in North America. Rex
Weiner of Variety was quoted to say of the 18th Bond film: "Bond
must beat the boat and save the lion."
Mexico's Premiere was attended by a playful Pierce Brosnan who
posed in front of posters outside the theatre on Thursday, Jan.
8, 1998. The city of Toronto in Canada, enjoyed the longest box
office run of any of the Bond films, it ran daily from December
19th, 1997 to June 5th, 1998. |
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Above: Teri Hatcher, who plays Paris Carver, and Jon Tenney - her then husband - at
the LA Premiere.
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Hong Kong opening week box office
- Tomorrow Never Dies, $1,389,448 million.
- The Replacement Killers, $1,284,623 million.
- Who Am I ?, $1,099,336 million.
- The Lucky Guy, $906,556 million.
- Young & Dangerous V, $694,313
- Titanic, $611,860
- Flubber, $95,691
- Love Regret, $12,461
- Wild Taste, $12,382
- Cheerleader Strippers, $11,790
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"The new 007 set opening records for the Bond franchise
in Greece ($336,000), Poland ($173,000) and Yugoslavia ($72,000).
The big earners are the U.K.'s $27.9 million, Germany's $26.2
million, France's $20.2 million and Australia and Spain, both
at $6.4 million." - Reuters |
What The Critics Said...
Above: Pierce Brosnan walks the red carpet. |
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The Good
"Tomorrow Never Dies gets the job done, sometimes excitingly,
often with style. The villain, slightly more contemporary and
plausible than usual, brings some subtler-than-usual satire into
the film, and I liked the chemistry between Bond and Wai Lin (all
the more convincing because the plot doesn't force it).
The look
of the film is authoritative; the scenes involving warships
and airplanes seem sleek and plausible. There's gorgeous
photography
as a junk sails in a sea filled with peaks, and astonishing
action choreography in the rooftop motorcycle chase. On
the basis
of this installment, the longest-running movies series
seems fit for the 21st century." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun- Times
"Sean who? It's official: Pierce Brosnan is James Bond.
Yeah, we know the dapper Irish actor made his 007 debut in the
convoluted and plodding GoldenEye - the most successful Bond movie
ever. But Brosnan - though an extremely convincing British super
spy - was still trying on the part for size. In the wildly exciting Tomorrow Never Dies, the Armani tux, Walther
PPK and shaken, not stirred, martini fit Brosnan as well as they
did Sean Connery and better than they ever suited the comical
Roger Moore and the grim Timothy Dalton. The 18th installment of the legendary James Bond series clicks
on all cylinders." - Kevin D. Thompson, The Palm Beach Post
"Bond is back, proof that the dinosaur is not extinct. Big,
brash, bursting with energy, reeking of formaldehyde. Roger Spottiswoode's
Tomorrow Never Dies will delight the fans of the Bond saga. That
it runs out of steam and dirty jokes about a third of the way
through, resorting to uninspired, formulaic stunts, is neither
here nor there. The Bond audience does not necessarily want imagination,
ingenuity, or invention, just more of the same - and that is what
Spottiswoode provides" - William Russell, The Herald |
"East meets West, yin meets yang and chop-socky meets kiss-kiss
bang-bang in Tomorrow Never Dies, a zippy 007 romp that draws
as heavily from the Asian action genre as from the formula that
has served the series so well for 35 years. GoldenEye and Pierce Brosnan's debonair Bond resuscitated the
creaky franchise in 1995, but as M (formidable Judi Dench) pointed
out, James remained "a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.'' But
Tomorrow, jazzier, wittier and more costly than its predecessor,
also comes closer to catching up with '90s style and politics."
- Rita Kempley , The Washington Post
"Tomorrow Never Dies has non-stop action, a dash of glamour,
and some witty dialogue, adroitly performed by a very good cast
bent on wringing out every nuance of every double entendre. The
Bond formula is now so fixed that watching the films has become
somewhat ritualistic. Unfortunately, in this case, this ritual
evokes memories of a higher order of pleasure than the film is
able to provide. However, the pleasures on offer in Tomorrow,
if instantly forgettable, are also considerable. The film is better
than the general run of action / spectacle movies, an indication
of how little we come to expect from the genre. But it is far
from premium Bond" - Jose Arroyo, Sight and Sound
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The Bad
"Although this is only Brosnan's second outing as
Bond, there's a jaded air to the proceedings. GoldenEye
appeared to reinvent the series but this takes several steps
backward. The opening, with Bond sabotaging an illegal arms
deal, is insipid, Pryce's villain, despite a few droll quips,
isn't nasty enough while Hatcher looks churlish rather than
gorgeous.
There are funny lines, though the double entendres are
practically single entendres. The best come from lively
Moneypenny (Samantha Bond). Why she and Bond don't get it
together is a mystery.
Naturally, there are plenty of exotic locations, including
the Pyrenees, Thailand, Mexico - and Brent Cross Shopping
Centre car park!
Action scenes abound, but are confusing. Lacking invention,
they can't compare to GoldenEye's opening or its tank chase.
Brosnan's 007 is more unpleasantly violent than any of his
predecessors. When did 007 start stomping on peoples' heads?
Realism suffers, too. Why would a British agent risk a global
war simply to rescue a Chinese agent? Why have a five-minute
countdown for a missile we're told can be launched immediately?"
- Rosie Rosie, Daily Mail
"This is Brosnan's second outing as Bond and he still looks
a little timorous in the role, sporting the nervous good looks
of a man who fully expects to be called back at any moment and
told to model sweaters for the rest of the day. His gun control
is okay, if a little limp-wristed - but if Brosnan is serious
about Bond, he really is going to have to put more into his sex
scenes. Here, in the middle of one of his more joyless clinches
with Carver's girlfriend, Teri Hatcher, Brosnan nibbles her shoulder
with all the enthusiasm of a man faced with last year's turkey."
- Tom Shone, The Sunday Times
Right: Pierce Brosnan (above) keeps the British end up, (below) at the Paris Premiere with co-star Michelle Yeoh.
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"Tomorrow Never Dies" hit paydirt, outgrossing its
predecessor even though it was only medium-to-good in the qualitative
stakes... Fine to be carrying on with, great in parts, but for
the [official] 19th, a return to unsubtle cliché, glaring
obviousness and a grand tradition, please" - Ian Nathan,
Empire
| The Ugly
"The last outing ...was just kick, bollock, scramble."
- Pierce Brosnan, 1999
"Tomorrow Never Dies [is] a film that somehow manages
to take all the twinkle from Pierce Brosnan's successful
impersonation in GoldenEye and throw it away" - Geoff
Brown, The Times
"To have so many writers come on to this and then
still throw the stuff out is just a joke."- Pierce
Brosnan 1997
Right: Jonathan
Pryce at the LA premiere.
Related Articles
 Tomorrow Never Dies Index
 LA Premiere Gallery |
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