Tomorrow Never Dies

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General		Extras
Category	Bond	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Michael G. Wilson (Producer) and Vic Armstrong (Second Unit Director)
Running Time	114 minutes	Other Extras	Booklet
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	4	Director	Roger Spottiswoode
Studio Distributor	Warner Brothers	Starring	Pierce Brosnan Jonathan Pryce Michelle Yeoh Teri Hatcher Joe Don Baker Judi Dench
RRP	$34.95	Music	David Arnold

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
Macrovision	?
Subtitles	English English for the Hard of Hearing

    Tomorrow Never Dies is a typical Bond movie. It opens with a spectacular action sequence, we see Bond save the world from a wicked mastermind bent on starting World War III (who as usual bites the dust in a most unusual fashion), and he gets to seduce lots of glamorous women along the way, all without a hair out of place. Well, maybe a little shaken, but certainly not stirred. And, we get to be amazed by the menagerie of Bond gadgets supplied by Q.

    The villain in this instalment of the franchise is Elliot Carver, ably played by Jonathan Price, a media mogul intent on creating a global media empire, and not above starting a war to feed his presses. The villain's hard to kill sidekick and his henchmen are German, suitably nastily led by Stamper (Gotz Otto).

    The glamorous ladies in this piece are Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher) and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). Paris Carver is the helpless female, and Wai Lin is the independent, aggressive female with a number of gadgets of her own.

    What plot there is exists to take us from action sequence to action sequence, and boils down to Carver trying to start a war between Britain and China. Bond, of course, must save the day. The action sequences are spectacular and plentiful, providing lots of eye and ear candy along the way.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced. The DVD cover indicates incorrectly that this disc is formatted at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear. Shadow detail was generally superb except for two scenes; under the stealth boat and the end sequence between Bond and Wai Lin where I felt shadow detail was a little lacking. No low level noise was apparent.

    The colours were superbly rendered and very consistent throughout the entire movie.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts were not a problem with this transfer. Even scenes which can cause aliasing problems were impeccably transferred. Film artefacts were extremely rare and pretty much went unnoticed.

Audio

    Dialogue was always very clear and easy to understand.

    There were no audio sync problems at all with this disc.

    The music by David Arnold is suitably Bond, ranging from sophisticated background music to exciting chase sequence music.

     The surround channels were aggressively used for music and special effects. I felt that the only improvement that could have been made to this soundtrack was to add in more surround ambience. I felt that some scenes lacked a little in this aspect. Otherwise, this is a superbly enveloping and aggressively directional surround mix.

    The .1 channel was often used for the numerous special effects and for the music. As is the case for any modern Bond film, don't stay at home without it (a subwoofer). The impact of this movie would be significantly lessened without a subwoofer.

Menu

Audio Commentary

Theatrical Trailer

Booklet

    The video quality is reference quality.

    The audio quality is very near to reference quality.

    The extras present are acceptable, but more would have been welcome.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
5th February 1999