MI6 looks back at the "Tomorrow Never Dies" premiere in 1997, and what the press had to say...

Tomorrow Never Dies - The Premiere & Press
12th December 2003

The World Charity Premiere for Tomorrow Never Dies took place on Tuesday 9th December 1997 at The Odeon, Leicester Square and was not attended by any member of the Royal family, similar to "The Spy Who Loved Me" in 1977. The after premiere party was held at Bedford Square, home of Jonathan Cape, Fleming's original publisher. The stars of the film were in attendance as well as Sheryl Crow and other production personnel. "Tomorrow Never Dies" earned in excess of $331 millon over all territories at the box office. The film was rated by Variety as the 19th highest earner in North American. "Bond must beat the boat and save the lion," - Rex Weiner, Variety

Above: Teri Hatcher and Jon Tenney at the US Premiere

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 19 1997 to June 5 1998.

"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

Above: Samantha Bond and Judi Dench at the UK premiere

Hong Kong opening week 28th January: 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

What The Critics Said...

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, afid,,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

Above: Cecile Thomsen at the UK premiere

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

"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

Above: Michelle Yeoh and Nancy O'Dell at the US Premiere