videos of the year
Tomorrow Never Dies (Dir: Roger Spottiswoode, 1997 UK)
James Bond is back and in his latest adventure proceeds to avoid a full scale nuclear meltdown on just about every continent. Die hard fans will have seen the movie last year on the big screen, which is perhaps the only place to see an 007 movie. However. on video it has a lot going for it, not least the chance to rewind some of the jaw dropping set pieces. The pre-credit sequence alone should be watched about five times, or at least until you know the dialogue verbatim. Pierce Brosnan proves he is the best Bond for donkey's years - at least since Sean Connery emerged from a cloud of smoke at the card table in Dr No. There are many faults with the picture, not least the fact that Jonathan Pryce is far too nice to be a Bond villain. Keith Allen or James Woods would have been a lot better but Pryce would have been better as a government official. After all, this is the man that played nice Sam Lowry in Brazil. Hard to picture he has a dark side at all, and that's the main problem. With his host of eurotrash aides, Elliot Carver ponces around demanded global media rights to world war three when all along you think what he really wants is a nice cup of tea and the chance to put his feet up and watch the cricket. With that being the main flaw, the benefits are legion. Teri Hatcher, Michelle Yeoh, Joe Don Baker, Geoffrey Palmer, Colin Salmon and Judi Dench are all first class while the set pieces are as good as you'd expect from the franchise which just refuses to die. Perhaps best of all is the soundtrack by David Arnold, often barely audible over the squealing tires and explosions. ****
Alien Resurrection (Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997 US)
Like Bond, Ellen Ripley is one of those big screen characters that just refuses to die. In this stylish offering from the brilliant Jeunet - maker of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children - a new Ripley is cloned from the old one's DNA. However, because she had a xenomorph inside her, the new Ripley is not all human. Before long, she's dripping blood which eats into spaceship decks and smiling rather menacingly. The plot is Alien by numbers, but where part 4 succeeds where part three failed so dismally is by giving an edge to the long-suffering heroine. Her character arc has descended into pools of darkness, so that while she looks like the same character from 1979's classic thriller, this time she's bad to the bone. Winona Ryder looks pretty enough and good support comes from Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon. *