When two Chinese MiGs fly over a Royal Navy frigate in the South China Sea its crew aren't amused as they are in international waters... or so they think. Somebody has sent a false GPS signal sending them miles off course. Before the issue can be resolved a 'sea drill' torpedo is launched at the frigate from a stealth ship; the same ship then downs one of the MiGs. It looks like there is going to be an international incident when the admiralty sends the fleet to the site. M believes the location error could be linked to an anomalous signal sent from a satellite belonging to Elliot Carver, owner of the Carver Media Group Network. Bond is sent to the launch of Carver's new global TV station in Hamburg where he hopes to use his prior relationship with Carver's wife. Here he manages to steal the device Carver's tech-expert Henry Gupta used to send the frigate off course. Comparing its settings with the correct settings he is able to find the frigate's last location... in Vietnamese waters.
After parachuting into the sea from high altitude Bond dives onto the ship and discovers one of its nuclear armed missiles is missing. He also bumps into Chinese agent Wai Lin who he first met in Hamburg when she was claiming to be a journalist. When they return to the surface they are captured by Carver's henchman Stamper and taken to Carver's Saigon headquarters. Naturally they manage to escape and learn of the stealth ship... now they just have to find it and expose its presence before Carver can use the stolen missile to start World War Three and become the worlds number one news provider.
This, the second of Pierce Brosnan's outings as Bond, has some fantastic action set pieces; the pre-credit sequence quickly grabs the viewer's attention as Bond steals a plane carrying nuclear missiles from an arms bazaar while somebody is trying to garrotte him and a missile is on its way to destroy the site!! The main story opens well with the attack on the frigate; the 'sea drill' torpedo is a particularly inventive weapon. Things weaken however when we learn who the villain is... Carver is just a media mogul trying to be the first with the news by creating it himself and his henchman Stamper is the sort of meat-headed Euro-muscles that seemed de rigour after 'Die Hard'. Jonathan Pryce is a good actor but I don't think he was right for a Bond villain; the character was clearly just insane and only dangerous because of those he employed. The best of the bad guys was the short lived Dr. Kaufman; Vincent Schiavelli put in a delightfully unpleasant performance in the role. All Bond films need Bond girls and Michelle Yeoh was great as Wai Lin; she made the action look easy and her character more than held her own alongside Bond, Teri Hatcher was also good we Carver's wife although she had far less to do and was dead before long. We've come to expect 'witty asides' during these films but here some of them were embarrassingly bad with the sort of sexual innuendo that might make schoolboys giggle but just seemed forced and crude to me.
Over all this isn't a bad film and despite its faults the superlative action makes it well worth watching... just hope you don't have to explain the 'cunning linguist' joke to a younger viewer!
After parachuting into the sea from high altitude Bond dives onto the ship and discovers one of its nuclear armed missiles is missing. He also bumps into Chinese agent Wai Lin who he first met in Hamburg when she was claiming to be a journalist. When they return to the surface they are captured by Carver's henchman Stamper and taken to Carver's Saigon headquarters. Naturally they manage to escape and learn of the stealth ship... now they just have to find it and expose its presence before Carver can use the stolen missile to start World War Three and become the worlds number one news provider.
This, the second of Pierce Brosnan's outings as Bond, has some fantastic action set pieces; the pre-credit sequence quickly grabs the viewer's attention as Bond steals a plane carrying nuclear missiles from an arms bazaar while somebody is trying to garrotte him and a missile is on its way to destroy the site!! The main story opens well with the attack on the frigate; the 'sea drill' torpedo is a particularly inventive weapon. Things weaken however when we learn who the villain is... Carver is just a media mogul trying to be the first with the news by creating it himself and his henchman Stamper is the sort of meat-headed Euro-muscles that seemed de rigour after 'Die Hard'. Jonathan Pryce is a good actor but I don't think he was right for a Bond villain; the character was clearly just insane and only dangerous because of those he employed. The best of the bad guys was the short lived Dr. Kaufman; Vincent Schiavelli put in a delightfully unpleasant performance in the role. All Bond films need Bond girls and Michelle Yeoh was great as Wai Lin; she made the action look easy and her character more than held her own alongside Bond, Teri Hatcher was also good we Carver's wife although she had far less to do and was dead before long. We've come to expect 'witty asides' during these films but here some of them were embarrassingly bad with the sort of sexual innuendo that might make schoolboys giggle but just seemed forced and crude to me.
Over all this isn't a bad film and despite its faults the superlative action makes it well worth watching... just hope you don't have to explain the 'cunning linguist' joke to a younger viewer!