GoldenEye

GoldenEye (1995)

Runtime: 130 minutes

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Judi Dench

From: MGM/UA

This week I decided to rewatch all the Bond movies, so that they all can have similar length reviews on Letterboxd. I tackled the first two in the series... then this, which I hadn't reviewed before here and in fact hadn't seen it in years. The Letterboxd review is below.

In what may be the last Bond movie I'll review for awhile I decided to see this for the first time in years. It's a popular entry in the franchise; it's the first in 6 years due to legal issues and you have a new Bond in Pierce Brosnan, who did a great job with the role even if you can accurately complain about the films/scripts he had to be involved with. Poor Timothy Dalton getting short-shrifted due to no fault of his own and his two movies aren't always rated well even though I do like both.

Furthermore there's the 007: GoldenEye game for the N64, which even now is a cult favorite and at least at the time of the mid 90's was awesome. I am glad that even with the 90's-ness of it (talk of sexual harassment, the new M being a woman and saying 007 has antiquated views, not to mention what computer geeks of the time were thought of) I can still enjoy it.

The plot isn't too complex: you see a mid 80's mission in the Soviet Union where Bond's partner 006 (Alec) dies during a missing. Back in the mid 90's the Cold War is over but in Russia there's still trouble as the titular weapon (it delivers an EMP) by mysterious forces... led by Alec; he's played by Sean Bean so you can probably figure out his ultimate fate. 007 has an unwitting partner in an attractive-but of course-computer programmer Natalya (Izabella Scorupco) who saw what the villains did.

The movie for the most part is successful at being a Bond motion picture for the 90's, with the technology and all the other aspects that were different from the past. The story takes you from Monaco to Russia then the Caribbean.

Some of the effects don't look so hot in 2015 and you can complain about the story but otherwise it's still fun, with colorful characters (played by the likes of Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane and the ravishing Famke Janssen as the crazed sex vixen known as Xenia Onatopp, a name you can only get in this series) and memorable action scenes, from an insane bungee jump-and there's a 90's fad-to a long scene involving a tank... showing that the 6th Fast & Furious movie wasn't the first to do such things. There are even some brutal moments too.

I imagine everyone will agree that this is clearly the best Brosnan Bond, with things starting to fall apart; when I review the other three I'll explain why, and oh boy am I not looking forward to seeing Die Another Day another time.