The British MI6 discovers a secret weapon's bazaar for terrorists and fires a missile at them, but right then, the transmission discovers a nuclear missile among the weapons. Luckily, James Bond is on terrain, steals the fighter jet with the nuclear weapon and thus avoids a disaster. However, an even bigger problem is manifesting: Elliot Carver, a media mogul, orchestrates an attack on a British frigate after it distorted their GPS signal and led them off-course in the South China Sea. Carver then blames the Chinese Army and publishes the story in his newspaper "Media". Britain and China are on the brink of war; Carver plans to get broadcast rights in China for the next 100 years when his general takes over China, so Bond enters the game. Carver does not shy away from even killing his wife, Bond's ex-girlfriend, but the British agent teams up with the female Chinese spy Wai Lin and they together sink Carver's ship in the sea, killing him.
The 18th instalment of the "assembly line" spy franchize about James Bond easily grossed finely at the box office and is the best film starring Pierce Brosnan as 007. Since it is predictable that Bond will survive all the ostensibly "dangerous" situations and traps thrown at him at the end of the day anyway (in order to get another sequel), a big plus point is that a lot of the story turned towards satire. This way the villain, Carver (a cynical Jonathan Pryce), is trying to create his own news for his tabloid "Tomorrow" ("The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success!", he claims), and even shape the events in the process. This is neatly summed up in the scene where Carver is typing the headlines with gusto: he writes "British Sailors Killed", but then deletes the last word and uses a more sensationalistic title: "British Sailors Murdered". Carver even teases Bond when he presents him with an obituary on the screen prepared in advance: "Commander James Bond Dead". The choreography of the action sequences are excellent (including the sly chase sequence where Bond is driving the car over a remote control from his back seat, and thus at one point exits and allows the car to jump from the top of the building); Roger Spottiswoode's direction is solid; a few ideas are amusing (Bond and Lin slowly descend down from the top of a building by holding on to a giant banner of Carver, thereby tearing his poster face through the middle); whereas Michelle Yeoh is wonderfully charming, even overshadowing Teri Hatcher, which are the main virtues.
Grade:++
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