...an eye and ear-pleasing, action-packed entry in the Bond series
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"GoldenEye," from 1995, marked Pierce Brosnan's first appearance as Ian Fleming's super spy, James Bond. Disregarding the two aberrant versions of "Casino Royale," Brosnan became the fifth actor to assume the role, following in the footsteps of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton. Brosnan is handsome, elegant, debonair, and sophisticated, and he came to the series with a built-in audience from television eagerly awaiting his debut. Still, I find him rather slight of build compared to any of his predecessors and not as formidable a screen presence as the inimitable Connery.
Be that as it may, "GoldenEye" displays more individuality than either of his next two Bond films, both of which could be summed up in DVDTown reviewer Shawn Fitzgerald's words, "loud and soulless." The producers of "GoldenEye" surrounded Brosnan with enough action and adventure that he has little to do to be successful but stand around and look good, yet they have given him a bit of humanity, too, most evident in a scene at the beach where he reveals his outlook on life to a female companion. Brosnan grows on you and eventually wins you over. In the end, he makes a worthy 007.
The plot of "GoldenEye" follows a standard Bond formula, with another madman again attempting to do some massively destructive deed that only our hero can stop. In this case, a renegade Russian general and his covert accomplice steal an armed Russian satellite and threaten to blow up London for their evil purposes. The actual reasons are not important; just go with the fun. What is more to the point is that the movie immerses Brosnan in time-honored Bond traditions. For instance, he gets reunited with his old Aston-Martin motorcar, presumably without the ejection seat he had in "Goldfinger"; he gets to don his old dinner jacket and play baccarat at Monte Carlo; and he gets to face yet another deadly feminine adversary with a sexually suggestive name, Xenia Onatopp (her favorite position).
We meet a new "M," performed by the fine British actress, Judi Dench, who considers Bond a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur"; an evil Russian general, Ourumov, played by Gottfried John; and a fellow British agent, 006, Alec Trevelyan, played by Sean Bean. We see "Q" once more, of course, played as always by Desmond Llewelyn (who was already an older man when he first appeared in "From Russia with Love" in 1963, his character's name given back then as Boothroyd, and until his death the longest-running actor in the series); and Moneypenny, this time played by Samantha Bond (such coincidence).
There is also the customary beautiful heroine, a Russian computer operator named Natalya Simonova, played by Izabella Scorupco. And we are introduced to a pair of new, recurring figures. The first is CIA agent Jack Wade, played by Joe Don Baker, who is one of only two performers ever asked to return as a different character in a Bond film (he played a villain in "The Living Daylights." Maude Adams is the other, performing as different characters in "The Man With the Golden Gun" and "Octopussy"). The second new figure is Russian mobster Valentin Zukovsky, played in high good humor by Robbie Coltrane ("Cracker"). Exotic locations in Russia, Monaco, the Caribbean, and elsewhere complete the picture.
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[release]2996[/release]