Top Ten Actresses I Would Watch In Almost Anything

So when Abbi over at Where The Wild Things Are did her top ten list of actresses she would see in pretty much anything, that sparked a whole new thing on the blogosphere. Now, I am embarrassed to admit that I started this list soon after she did hers, and I just never got around to going back to it and finishing it up. I realised recently that now is the time to do that! Without further ado, I present to you my top ten actresses I would see in pretty much anything.

Emma Stone

Where is the love: She is cute, she is smart, fun, and sexy and so normal, you cannot help but love the girl. She is down to earth, and not afraid of making a fool out of herself, and that is always cool.
Best role: Wichita in Zombieland (2009)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: The House Bunny (2008)

Angelina Jolie

Where is the love: So many people complain about Angelina Jolie and I’ve never been able to understand it. She is exceptionally talented and wicked sexy, and works hard. She’s a (big) family woman, which is cool, yet she’s still grounded and out there. Plus she and Brad Pitt are just like the most gorgeous couple ever.
Best role: Uhm… this isn’t easy. I am going to go with Jane Smith in Mr & Mrs Smith (2005)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Marion Cotillard

Where is the love: That voice, the way she carries herself, the distinct regal air, Marion Cotillard was destined to impress me. Not only that, she can handle herself in just about any role, but I must say that she excels at playing the slightly psychologically unstable.
Best role: Mallorie “Mal” Cobb in Inception (2010)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Taxi 2 (2000)

Eva Green

Where is the love: Talented and beautiful, Eva Green brings it all to the table. Oozing style and sophistication, she is captivating on screen, always bringing that extra little something to a character, and she isn’t afraid to go wherever the character may take her, even when that is Ugliesville.
Best role: Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: The Dreamers (2003)

Jessica Lange

Where is the love: Jessica Lange is just awesome. I really like her stuff, and I think she is mesmerising and she’s still got it going, even for her age. She dominates the screen whenever she is on, and can play anything from timid and quiet to in-your-face vixen.
Best role: Fiona Goode in American Horror Story: Coven
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Far North (1988)

Judi Dench

Where is the love: Let’s be serious… Judi Dench is just so British, and she embraces it wholeheartedly. Tea and biscuits British, and above all else, she is a solid and entertaining actress. She can play a variety of roles across the board, ranging from comedy to hard-hitting, take-no-nonsense powerhouse performances such as M, she never fails to impress me.
Best role: M in any Bond film, but also Evelyn Greenslade in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

Carey Mulligan

Where is the love: She is so cute and quiet, but can always deliver an understated but powerful portrayal of a character, and I like that talent.
Best role: Irene in Drive (2011)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)

Helena Bonham Carter

Where is the love: Ditzy, crazy, talented, striking? What’s not to love about Helena Bonham Carter? She embraces all her roles and lends them some of her quirkiness, and she is always just absolutely astounding to watch, no matter what role she is in. Something about her is just so inherently different.
Best role: Marla Singer in Fight Club (1997)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Dancing Queen (1993)

Mia Wasikowska

Where is the love: Mia Wasikowska won me over with her portrayal of Bertha Minnix in Lawless (2012). After that, I kept my eyes open for her films because she is gifted and different, and brought something fresh and new to the screen (in my opinion). She has continued to churn out some consistently impressive work, and she has this air of innocence about her she can use to either define a character, or manipulate the audience with.
Best role: India Stoker in Stoker (2013)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Lens Love Story (2007)

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Honourable Mentions:

Julianne Moore

Where is the love: I love Moore for her consistency, and how much effort she puts into her roles. I like the way she has played such a variety of characters, and she has given each and every role her best.
Best role: Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Nine Months (1995)

Cate Blanchett

Where is the love: Blanchett is so refreshing in her sense of uniqueness, and brings that to life on the screen with every role that she takes. She draws you in no matter what her role, and can play anything from elvish queens to folk rock stars.
Best role: Jade Quinn (Bob Dylan) in I’m Not There (2007)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Ponyo (2009)

Katharine Isabelle

Where is the love: Katharine Isabelle is undoubtedly the horror queen (for me) and she dominates that role. Husky voice and those big green eyes, she was destined to rock any role thrown her way. She is a solid actress, never over the top, delivering just the right amount required for her performances, able to play weak or bitchy or in your face, Isabelle is very talented.
Best role: Mary Mason in American Mary (2012)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Cousins (1989) 

Mélanie Laurent

Where is the love: French and proud about it, Laurent always manages to play a brooding yet strong woman, slightly different, always impressive.
Best role: Shosanna Dreyfus in Inglourious Basterds (2009)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Rice Rhapsody (2004)

Vera Farmiga

Where is the love: I think that Vera Farmiga is pretty underrated, and I like her. Very subtle, but she can totally rock her roles. I must say, she can get pretty creepy sometimes cause she can play cooked a little too well.
Best role: Norma Louise Bates in Bates Motel. Because really – she nails that performance each and every time. Slightly too realistic sometimes.
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: Breaking and Entering (2006)

Amanda Seyfried

Where is the love: What I enjoy about Amanda Seyfried is that she’s a little different. I don’t know why she would appeal to me as an actress, but she does. I have enjoyed watching her play the super special and slow Karen in Mean Girls, and her general progression on to other roles, bigger, better, meatier, is something I have liked. She always does the best with what she has, and even when she is in a crappy movie, she always stands out.
Best role: Karen Smith in Mean Girls (2004)
The one even she couldn’t convince me to see: The Big Wedding (2013)

Review: Skyfall (2012)

“I know I can’t do this job forever, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave the department in worse shape than I found it.”
– M

MI6 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) is on a mission to hunt down a mercenary named Patrice (Ola Rapace) and recover what he has stolen – a computer hard drive that contains details concerning undercover agents placed in terrorist organisations by NATO states. However, he is unsuccesfful when M (Judi Dench) orders Eve Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) to take a shot at the target, even though Bond is wrapped tightly to him. Eve takes her shot, and Bond goes down, falling from the moving train into the rapids below. Patrice escapes with the drive, and M gets a lot of flak from Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), the Chairman for the Intelligence and Security Committee. They want her resignation, and are forcing it upon her, though all M wants to do is fix the wreck that has been caused in the wake of Bond’s death and Patrice’s escape.

“Just look at you, barely held together by your pills and your drink.” – Raoul Silva

On the way back to MI6 headquarters, M’s laptop is hacked and the signal is traced back to her office. In a rush to get back and apprehend someone, M is stopped in time to see MI6 headquarters explode. Bond catches a news broadcast on television where he has been recuperating and returns to London immediately, and M is furious that he did not make contact when he recovered. He is still angry with her for insisting Eve take a dodgy shot and wounding him. The blame can go on endlessly. Bond is an absolute wreck, both his body and mind are deteriorated and he is drinking excessively. M agrees to put him back on active duty provided that he passes all the MI6 physical and psychological evaluations again.

Bond does dismally at his examinations, though M lies and declares him fit for duty. Some shrapnel from Bond’s wound assists in identifying Patrice, and Bond is sent off to Shanghai to recover the hard drive with the undercover agents’ names on it and execute Patrice as well as identify his employer. In Shanghai, Patrice executes a man and scuffles with Bond, leading to his death. Bond knows nothing of Patrice’s employer, but has another clue to follow up on. Bond heads to Macau, where he meets with Séverine (Bérénice Marloh), who was present at the assassination that Patrice was sent to carry out. Bond tries to work it out of her who Patrice’s employer is, and eventually he succeeds. Bond is taken to Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), originally birthed Tiago Rodriguez. He was once M’s cream of the crop, but nowadays dedicates his time to cyberterrorism and is very good at it. Bond, however, outsmarts Silva’s capture with the radio transmitter that the new Q (Ben Whishaw) provided him with, and Silva returns to Britain a prisoner.

“They kept me for five months in a room with no air. They tortured me, and I protected your secrets. I protected you.” – Raoul Silva

Trouble starts soon after captivity. Silva’s laptop infiltrated MI6 systems when Q plugged it into the network, and Silva escapes. With an incredibly clever disguise, he makes his way to M, who is in the midst of a public enquiry, intent on killing her for his perceived betrayal of her. Bond saves M, inadvertently kidnapping her, making sure that Q lays a path that only Silva can follow. The mission is definitely off the books, and M places her life and trust into Bond’s hands. Bond takes M to his childhood home, Skyfall, where they enlist the help of the gamekeeper, Kincade (Albert Finney).

“Orphans always make the best recruits.” – M

Will Bond be able to protect M? Will Q successfully map a way to Bond that Silva will be able to follow and suspect nothing? Will Bond be able to deal with his past demons and return to his roots to protect a woman he holds as dear to him as that of a mother?

An 8/10 for Skyfall. This was another solid entry to the Bond collection, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. While this movie was distinctly different from every other Bond movie, it just worked. I thought Daniel Craig did a bloody excellent job of coming back as Bond, washed out, bitter, angry and drinking far more than he needs to. Javier Bardem provided a truly genius Bond villain, and was simply amazing to watch. He had it all, excellent. Ralph Fiennes was a very welcome edition, I truly do enjoy him, and he was worthy of the way things went down. The latest Q is also something fascinating – Ben Whishaw takes it up a notch and modernizes the Quartermaster’s position entirely. A lot of this film focuses on M, and Judi Dench again delivers a fantastic performance, and the relationship between her and Bond has changed very little – still very much like mother and son. A lot of the story focuses on her, and it is a welcome addition. Skyfall gives us another look at Bond prior to rising up to his 00 status, and is executed well. The action at Skyfall itself is phenomenal, and it didn’t let up, the story never ceased, and the characters were ever present, no matter the circumstances. The humour that was featured was not over the top, but very witty and sharp as it came along. The intro for Skyfall is definitely my favourite of them all, and was just absolutely stunning to watch. This was a good way to celebrate fifty years of Bond, I must admit. However, I am pretty depressed that my Bond run has finally concluded. I was seriously getting used to the idea that I would have a Bond every week for the rest of my life. Oh well, now we wait for the next installment.

Review: Quantum of Solace (2008)

“This is the world’s most precious resource, we need to control as much of it as we can.”
– Dominic Greene

MI6 007 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) is rushing to deliver his captured Mr White (Jesper Christensen) to M (Judi Dench), to uncover more about his operation, Quantum. Bond is also personally invested with the events, seeing as Mr White was involved with Vesper Lynd’s (Eva Green) betrayal and death, a woman that Bond fell in love with, though is angered by her betrayal. However, in questioning, it turns out White meant it when he said we have people everywhere, and M’s personal bodyguard, Craig Mitchell (Glenn Foster), turns out to be a double agent, taking a shot at M. Bond chases him down and kills him, making M angrier than before. With information they discover in Mitchell’s flat, Bond sets off to Haiti.

“This is about trust. You said you weren’t motivated by revenge.” – M

Tracking down a contact, Edmund Slate (Neil Jackson), he kills him too and meets with Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), whom Slate was sent to kill at the behest of environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Bond watches her, and gets an insight into Greene’s operation – he is assisting General Medrano (Joaquín Cosío) in overthrowing his government so that he can return from exile and take power. All Greene wants in return is a piece of desert that has nothing in it. Bond gets involved with saving Camille from Medrano after Greene handed her over, and here he learns that Medrano is responsible for having killed her family, and that she is on a revenge mission. Bond is tailing Greene now, intent on discovering the whole plan, and why pipes are being used. The CIA, however, seems to be making deals with Greene, what with Gregg Bean (David Harbour) striking a deal to not interfere with anything involving the access to Bolivian oil they are led to believe is there. His partner, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), makes it known that he is unimpressed with the deal.

“There is something horribly efficient about you.” – Camille Montes

Bond makes it into Quantum’s meeting, and it ends with a very bloody conclusion, causing M to finally decide she is finished with his rash decision making. A Special Branch bodyguard and advisor to the British Prime Minister is killed by Greene’s men, though it appears Bond is responsible. M order Bond return, and he defies her orders, instead meeting up with René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and asking for his assistance, which he grudgingly gives, still not having quite forgiven Bond for calling him a traitor during the whole Le Chiffre ordeal. British agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) meets them at the airport and orders Bond home, though he will hear nothing of the sort. Attending a party of Greene, Bond is set up to look like he killed Mathis, though he did not, the Bolivian police did. Bond goes on the run officially when things start going seriously sour and innocents are dying. Though everyone else is hunting Bond, M realises that he may very well be onto something, and sort of steps back to allow him some leeway. With Camille, Bond finds out that Greene is not interested in oil out in the desert, but that he is creating a drought, blocking up the water supply. It would make him immensely rich and powerful.

“Everything he touches withers and dies.” – Dominic Greene

Camille wants revenge on Medrano for her family’s murder, and Bond wants to find out who is at the heart of the Quantum debacle, and how it all fits together. Someone needs to be held responsible for having shot M as well as robbing Vesper of her life. Will Camille get what she wants? Will Medrano pay for his sins? Will Greene gain power through successfully creating the drought, and will Bond ever work his way back into M’s good graces? Will he figure out how Quantum fits together as well as what exactly they are up to?

Quantum of Solace scores a 7/10. While most definitely not the best film of the franchise, it was not nearly as bad as criticisms would have you believe. Daniel Craig again knocks you out the park with his portrayal of Bond, who is still reeling from the loss of Vesper, and holding her accountable for everything that he feels. He is driven by a suppressed rage and serious anger problem, and is rather blasé about how he approaches most life and death situations, although you can see dying is not an option for him. I was not particularly impressed with Olga Kurylenko, she is not a particularly fascinating Bond girl overall. I just want to comment and say that I thoroughly enjoyed the theme song, Another Way To Die, but then that might be due to my being a Jack White fan. Whatever. Mathis’s death was terribly sad, and illuminated more of Bond’s character, and the relationship between M and Bond continues to impress. There were most certainly plot holes and some flaws, and Mathieu Amalric did not really impress me as the villain. He was definitely not the worst, and had a lot going for him, just something about him did not… dominate as much as you would expect a villain to. I understand that they wanted to show more of a monster integrated into society, and that they nailed. Some homage was paid back to previous Bonds, but not enough to have this whole film be a knock of to its predecessors. Felix Leiter as a character was a little bit not himself for this, and his partner was a damned pain in my toe. Overall, not a bad movie, though definitely not the strongest in the series but holds up well, a large part due to Daniel Craig’s performance, I am sure.

Review: Die Another Day (2002)

“You see Mr. Bond, you can’t kill my dreams. But my dreams can kill you. Time to face destiny.”
– Gustav Graves

MI6 agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) infiltrates a North Korean military base. Undercover as a potential weapons buyer, he takes conflict diamonds into the base, stacked with explosives underneath it. Bond’s meeting with Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee) was going well enough until his right-hand man, Zao (Rick Yune), informs Moon that Bond is a British assassin. Things go horribly for Bond just then, and he is forced to set off the explosives in the briefcase containing the diamonds. Zao is grievously injured and has diamond fragments in his face. Moon attempts to escape on a hovercraft, but Bond gives chase. Moon doesn’t make it, though Bond does. However, Moon’s father, General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), takes Bond prisoner and submits him to months of torture.

“The same person who set me up then has just set me up again, so I’m going after him.” – James Bond

M (Judi Dench) and Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon) and the Americans arrange a prisoner exchange for Bond – Zao for Bond. M revokes his 00 status, and informs him that while in captivity an American agent was murdered, and it suspected that Bond was the one that leaked the information. Bond is furious that he was traded for Zao, who is an incredibly dangerous man. He is more upset, however, that it appears that someone is setting him up, making it look like he leaked information under duress. Bond escapes his MI6 prison to complete the mission he was set. Learning that Zao is in Cuba, Bond sets out immediately.

“The pleasure of the kill is in the chase.” – Gustav Graves

Bond meets up with NSA agent Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson (Halle Berry), and the two spend some time together. Bond follows her to a gene therapy clinic just off the island, where he discovers Zao. Patients can change the way they look through DNA restructuring, and he learns that Zao is currently undergoing a face change. Attempting to apprehend or kill Zao, Zao escapes, leaving behind his necklace containing conflict diamonds. Billionaire Gustav Graves’s (Toby Stephens) company crest is engraved on the diamonds, starting the new leg of Bond’s investigation. Who exactly is this mysterious man who emerged from nowhere? Bond hears that Graves enjoys fencing, and challenges him at a club. Bond wins the fight, and Graves invites Bond to join him in Iceland for a scientific demonstration. M gets wind of the fact that Bond is investigating Graves, and reinstates his 00 status as well as offers any and all assistance.

“He’ll light the fuse on any explosive situation, and be a danger to himself and others.” – Miranda Frost

In Iceland, Bond learns that Graves’s assistant, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), is an undercover MI6 agent. In Iceland, Bond witnesses the unveiling of Graves’s latest project – Icarus. Icarus is an orbital mirror satellite that can focus solar energy on a small area. There are both pros and cons to this whole issue. Jinx also turns up at the ice palace, and soon they are both in a lot of trouble. Bond still has no idea who the traitor is. Soon Bond finds out that Colonel Moon is still alive, and that he has undergone the gene therapy to alter his appearance and assumed to identity of Gustav Graves, who is intent on using Icarus to reunite North and South Korea by cutting a path through the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Will Bond be able to stop Moon for the second time, this time permanently? Will he figure out who the traitor is that set him up to take the fall for leaked information? Will Bond be able to live completely with what he went through in Korea?

A 4.5/10 for Die Another Day. I don’t know, this movie… no. For one, the effects were damn dodgy, and that is saying something. The camerawork annoyed me no end, and the need to speed up and slow down scenes all the damn time nearly drove me insane. Also, it was just… ridiculous. Let’s put it like that. It was a simply ludicrous Bond film. It starts well enough, what with Bond being captured, taken hostage, spending months being tortured and all that. It even progresses just fine, such as his exchange going down, knowing he is untrusted and bearing the knowledge that someone set him up to look very guilty, just as Colonel Moon was set up, too. Bond makes his escape, and slowly but surely everything goes downhill from there. Well, it started slowly; eventually it was like a free-fall into terrible. There is the case of the Aston Martin Vanquish – who the hell would spend that on a car to hide it? Don’t say some MI6 spy, because it is just getting… oh please. Just no. Then there was the wakeboarding with a parachute thing with icebergs and a massive tsunami? Pffff! The lines in here were cheesy, and the sexual innuendo ran rampant throughout the movie, and I really didn’t appreciate it. It is not necessary to make a great film, please! The puns and punchlines were so lame in here, and not the kind of lame that some action flicks can get away with.

Review: The World Is Not Enough (1999)

“I’m afraid it is you who deserve credit. When I took her, she was promise itself. And then you left her at the mercy of a man like me. You ruined her. For what? To get to me? She’s worth fifty of me.”
– Renard

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) meets with a Swiss banker on an assignment. M (Judi Dench) has sent him to collect money of Sir Robert King (David Calder), a British oil tycoon. Bond wishes to know who killed the other MI6 agent who was murdered for a report he had on him that King was buying. Bond makes a narrow escape when things go awry. Meeting up with M and Sir Robert at MI6 headquarters, he returns Sir Robert’s money. However, it seems the money was booby-trapped, and Sir Robert is assassinated within the MI6 headquarters. Chasing down the assassin outside the building, Bond gets close enough to her for her to say she that she cannot be protected and continues to commit suicide.

Bond backtracks the money to Renard (Robert Carlyle). He is a terrorist and ex-KGB agent. Once ordered to be assassinated, the bullet that lodged in his brain did not kill him, but is killing off his senses and him slowly. This makes for him to be a terrible enemy, however, seeing as he does not have the limitations of a normal man to stop him. Bond is assigned to protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), Sir Robert’s daughter who was once kidnapped by Renaud. M fears that she may be Renard’s target again. Elektra is monitoring the construction of her family’s oil pipeline, and is very dismissive when Bond warns her that her life may be at stake. She finally relents to make use of Bond’s protection when an attempt on her life is made.

“You can’t kill me. I’m already dead.” – Renard

Bond calls in some old contacts, most importantly Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who has theoretically gone legit. It becomes apparent that Elektra’s head of security, Sasha Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen), is the insider that is working with Renard. Bond kills Davidov and impersonates him when he catches a plane to Kazakhstan, where he ends up at a Russian ICBM base. Bond is now impersonating a nuclear physicist, and meets with Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), who is also a physicist. Bond’s cover soon falls apart when he comes across Renard, and though Bond does not kill him, red flags are raised in his mind due to the similarities between Renard and Elektra. Renard removes a GRP locator and weapons-grade plutonium from a bomb and makes off with the plutonium, leaving the card.

“Revenge is not hard to fathom for a man who believes in nothing.” – James Bond

Bond accuses Elektra of suffering from Stockhom Syndrome, and she hits back that Bond is mad, and that she has called M in to take over. Bond voices his opinion to M that Elektra may be in bed with Renard, so to speak, which M blows off promptly. She knew Sir Robert, and she trust Elektra. Elektra joins up with M and Bond, and they are alerted to a problem in one of Elektra’s inspection rig. It almost appears that she is innocent, and Bond takes Christmas with him to go and prevent the explosion in the pipeline, and they establish that the plutonium was stolen to create a nuclear explosion, wrecking the oil line in Istanbul, making Elektra’s line the only one, and making a fortune. In the meanwhile, Elektra has taken M hostage and plans on killing her for revenge.

“There’s no point living, if you can’t feel alive.” – Elektra King

Will Bond be able to call in all the favours he needs from various people to prevent Elektra’s plan from being executed? Will M survive, and will she be able to adequately explain herself to Elektra? Will Christmas prove to be an asset or a liability to Bond in the location of the nuclear reactor and plutonium? Will Bond be able to stop it all, save M, and get the girl (again)?

A 6.5/10 for The World Is Not Enough. I actually thought that this one was alright, not too bad, but no great shakes either. The plot was a basic revenge plot, so they played it safe. The story progression was alright. I really liked seeing more of M in here, and more of her character was demonstrated. Q announcing his retirement finally does not come as a shock, though it is amusing to see Bond worried that it will be a very quick resignation and Q moving on. Sophie Marceau was a beautiful Bond girl, I must admit, and far more interesting than Denise Richards. Something about Denise Richards just didn’t work too well, though I am not sure exactly what. I can also say it was not just her name’s fault though! The action sequences were alright, the music was ok, so nothing really to write home about. There was (get this), another remote controlled car for Bond to play with. I don’t know what it was about Brosnan that inspired remote controlled cars. However, The World Is Not Enough was the first Bond film since Dalton to keep me interested and watching all the way through (GoldenEye had the cast yet still fell flat). It was nothing innovative or anything, and it truly had its flaws, but overall it didn’t annoy me, and this was the one Brosnan one I don’t really have complaints about. I really hated the Christmas coming once a year comment from Bond at the end, though I still do not find it as tasteless as Q’s re-entry comment in Moonraker. Overall, it was just another average addition to the Bond world – nothing new, nothing too extreme, but nothing too dead boring.

Review: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

“Soon I’ll have reached out to and influenced more people than anybody in the history of this planet, save God himself.”
– Elliot Carver

MI6 British 007 agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is on a field assignment on the Russian border. When MI6 establishes that there are a few wanted men in the area, British Admiral Roebuck (Geoffrey Palmer) and M (Judi Dench) come to blows about how to handle it. Roebuck insists on launching a missile attack. Bond manages to make it out of the area, and a techno-terrorist named Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) also escapes with an American GPS manufactured by the military. Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) runs the Carver Media Group Network and has a unique plan – world domination via news. He uses the decoder to send the British frigate into Chinese waters in the South China Sea where it is sunk by his henchman, Richard Stamper (Götz Otto), in his stealth shit. A missile is stolen, and a Chinese fighter jet is shot down. The British survivors are executed by Chinese weaponry. Carver wishes to provoke a war between the United Kingdom and China, and of course, has the breaking news reporting on it.

“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” – Elliot Carver

Roebuck is furious, and is intent on deploying the British Fleet to recover and retaliate in connection to the frigate, and M is granted a reprieve or forty eight hours to investigate. She puts her best man on the job – Bond. Carver has been suspected of involvement or intimate knowledge of the sinking and execution after his news stations and papers have critical information long in advance of the events becoming public. Bond had a relationship with Carver’s wife, Paris (Teri Hatcher), and is told to make use of any means necessary to find out anything he can from her. Bond gathers the required information he needs from Paris, and breaks into Carver’s newspaper headquarters. He steals back the GPS encoder, only to discover when he leaves that Paris has been killed and he has a hit out on him.

“You forgot the first rule of mass media, Elliot! Give the people what they want!” – James Bond

Making a narrow escape, Bond takes the GPS and with it backtracks the exact location of the frigate. Bond goes to the South China Sea to investigate the sinking and discovers a missile is missing. He also runs into Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese spy, again. This time, the two are captured by Stamper and taken to Carver. The two need to work together to get to the bottom of everything and prevent some terrible things from happening. They know that Carver has a steal ship, and they need to locate it. It is the only way that they can think of stopping Carver’s plans from executing a brand new world war and becoming the leading media mogul.

“It depends whether your mission is peace or revenge.” – Wai Lin

Will Bond and Wai Lin set aside their differences and work together? Will they be able to warn their governments in time of Carver’s plans in order to implement a new world war? Will Carver ever pay for the things he’s done, and can they get everything done in time and survive to make M look like a genius?

A 6/10 for Tomorrow Never Dies. This was a little bit too out there for me. I think it was the action sequences, or how logic seemed to evade so many scenes. There was potential, but it was thrown away to add in as much action sequences as was possible. Teri Hatcher did not really provide a charismatic character, and she seemed to be a little out of place. Her performance was truly underwhelming, but so was her character. Desmond Llewelyn really has stuck by the Bond franchise loyally! Judi Dench is always lovely, and demonstrated here that she is not afraid to bare her teeth and stick by her guns as M, so to speak. Nothing new was brought to the table, though I thought that Elliot Carver was a new type of villain – the world of news is a new place to dominate. I actually liked him, to be honest. For me this was just another typical entry to the world of Bond. The cheese was back in abundance, and shamelessly flaunted to the world. There were some scenes in it that carried some humour, but not always the sharpest of the lot. Pierce Brosnan gives another performance that is well-oiled, and sometimes one has to wonder whether he is too slick for the role, though he still attempts to bring a little more depth to his character. Overall, the movie carries the British superspy through another outing, but not with a wealth of grace and resourcefulness. It will do, though.