Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

[Movie 78 / Day 46]


A few really fun set pieces (car chase, motorbike chase, jumping off a big building etc). Brosnan is pretty good as Bond and it hasn't dated quite as badly as Goldeneye (yet). Michelle Yeoh is also pretty good.

The thing that annoys most is the baddies. Jonathan Pryce is a TERRIBLE super-villain, he just seems like he can't be bothered with the role - you'd think he'd never seen a keyboard in his life from watching the way he pretends to type, he literally just slaps the keyboard like a mong. Every time I see it I find it massively annoying - how much effort would it have taken to actually make it look like he was typing? The guy that plays henchman Stamper is OK, but Stamper himself looks and sounds like a member of a German Take That tribute band.

Still, it's not a bad movie, if you can put up with Pryce.

My rating: 6.0 / 10
IMDB rating: 6.4 / 10
Running time: 119 mins
IMDB link

Babylon A.D. (2008)

[Movie 67 / Day 39]


Vin Diesel is a mercenary who is hired to transport a girl from a convent in Russia to New York. Lots of sci-fi stuff happens, the girl turns out to be genetically modified in order to have the history of the world in her head and to think like a computer and is supposed to be a miracle that will cement the status of a religious sect.

Plotwise, it's all a bit wierd, with lots of holes and jumps. The directors cut is apparently 160 minutes rather than 90, so I'm not really surprised it doesn't flow particularly well if that much has been taken out of it - but I imagine the 160 minute version will get bogged down in too much detail.

The action scenes, when they happen, are actually quite good - as you'd expect for a movie with both Diesel and Michelle Yeoh in it. Some of the special effects are also really nice - especially the slow motion explosion around Aurura, the genetically modified girl. There's just not enough action to make up for the muddled plot.

And I really hope Gerard Depardieu's nose is a plastic prosthetic, because it really looks like it.

EDIT: Having now read the trivia pages on IMDB, which make lots of reference to the arguments between director and studio, I'd actually be interested to see the directors cut. Also, it's a shame Vin Diesel chose this over Hitman, as he'd have been brilliant in that (Timothy Olyphant wasn't quite right for the role).

My rating: 5.2 / 10
IMDB rating: 5.3 / 10
Running time: 90 mins
IMDB link