GoldenEye-1995
Director Martin Campbell
Starring Pierce Brosnan
Scott’s Review #717
Reviewed January 19, 2018
Grade: B
By 1995, after a record six years between films, the James Bond franchise re-emerged with energy, with Pierce Brosnan assuming the role of the MI6 agent and breathing fresh life into the character.
The charming and suave Irish actor gave the role a new direction, last played by Timothy Dalton, who gave Bond a more brooding quality. The resulting GoldenEye offers mixed results, though the casting is a vast improvement over its predecessor.
GoldenEye sees other monumental roles recast- that of Judi Dench as M and Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny.
The film has a slick look and a compelling story, but at times, it is tough to follow, and overall, despite containing all the elements, something seems to be missing.
Or maybe I refer to the other Bonds more? Still, the offering is far from a bad watch.
GoldenEye kicks off with, in hindsight, a major clue to the story as Bond (Brosnan) and fellow 00 agents, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), infiltrate a Soviet facility in northern Russia in 1986, searching for chemical weapons.
Sinister Soviet General Ourumov tragically kills Alec, and Bond mourns the loss of his friend.
The action resumes in present times (1995) as, now in gorgeous Monte Carlo, Bond follows the beautiful and sadistic Xenia Onatopp, a crime syndicate member known for crushing men with her thighs.
Xenia and Ourumov travel to Siberia, where they destroy a bunker holding GoldenEye satellites and kill everyone except the computer programmer, Boris (Alan Cumming), and the lone survivor, Natalya (Izabella Scorupco).
In a clever twist, it is revealed that Alec has betrayed British Intelligence and is himself leading the crime syndicate.
In one of the quietest and best scenes, Bond and M have an interesting exchange in her office as M (a woman) calls Bond out on his arrogance and chauvinism, saying it is a new day.
Dench adds a ton of modern female sensibility to the role (about time in 1995), as Bond now reports to a woman. The scene is important as it leads the two characters to achieve mutual respect and arguably parleys the franchise into a new, more female-empowering direction.
A great positive to GoldenEye is the setting, which I think does wonders for the film as a whole- the bitter, blustery, Siberian set gives a soothing feeling, especially while watching the film during the ravages of winter, snug with a warm blanket and heaters.
Regardless, the sets are realistic, never cheesy, and loaded with atmosphere- so the film itself looks wonderful.
Issues abound with the frenetic pacing of the film- at times, I found myself losing track of the action or the sequence of events.
Understandably, as in many Bond films, events circle the globe and, surely, London, Russia, and Monte Carlo are great locations, but especially within the film’s final climax, I suffered from sensory overload.
Furthermore, Brosnan is not one of my favorite Bonds. Sure, he has the charisma, the looks, and the charm to pull off the role, but something about him does not measure up to Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, or Daniel Craig- certainly, he supersedes Timothy Dalton.
Don’t get me wrong- I do not despise him as Bond, but nothing stands him out against the others either.
The villains in GoldenEye are perfectly adequate if not spectacular. Sean Bean gives Alec a sly, ” aw, shucks appeal and defines good-looking, but his motivations for switching sides are not very exciting- something about Nazis in World War II, the Cossacks, and revenge are quickly mentioned, but it doesn’t much matter.
General Ourumov is effective- with his sinister look, he is the perfect Bond villain. Xenia is little more than a cartoon character (with the name to boot), and her gimmick quickly wears thin.
Finally, Cummings, as the programmer, is played only for laughs, and his final chant of “I am invincible!” as he freezes into solid ice is mildly humorous.
The title theme song, “GoldenEye”, performed by Tina Turner, is forgettable at best and one of the most lackluster in the illustrious musical catalog.
GoldenEye features many of the standard Bond elements and is a decent entry in the franchise.
With the debut of a new Bond, the film has a fresh, very modern, and technical feel that, along with a fantastic setting, overlooks some flaws in the storytelling.
Filled with bombast and a crowd-pleasing method, GoldenEye (1995) is hardly the best Bond film, but not the worst.
