GoldenEye (1995)

Movie Info

I’m back! (For the first time)

007 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and 006 Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) go on a mission in the Soviet Union only to lose 006 to the enemy General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov (Gottfried John).  Years later after the fall of the Soviet Union, a secret weapon called GoldenEye poses a threat to the world when it is stolen by a revolutionist named Janus.  Now James and a GoldenEye programmer named Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) must stop GoldenEye from being used again, and Bond will discover that his past will come back to haunt him.

Fredo, I mean Alec, I know it was you…

Directed by Martin Campbell, GoldenEye is the seventeenth film in the James Bond franchise.  Following a low return by License to Kill in 1989, the period between GoldenEye and License to Kill was the longest time between Bond films partially due to legal disputes.  The title is in reference to the name of James Bonds’ creator Ian Flemings’ Jamaican home.  The movie’s title song “GoldenEye” was written by Bono and the Edge of U2 and performed by Tina Turner.  The movie was met with favorable reviews and also spun off one of the most critically acclaimed and successful video games in GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64.

GoldenEye is one of my favorite Bonds.  It is rather dark in comparison to some of the other Bonds because it was allegedly originally written for the “Dark Bond” Timothy Dalton before problems caused the film to go on hiatus.  The movie also shows a switch in enemies in that between License to Kill and this film, the Soviet Union fell…making Bond’s primary enemy null & void.  The movie despite the darker tone has much of what makes Bond great.

I am Invincible!!!

Pierce Brosnan stepped into the role that was meant for him back in The Living Daylights and continued on for another three films.  He plays Bond as cool, collected, less humorous, but still quick with a quip.  This Bond makes the best use of Brosnan and it is mostly due to a fun story with great villains.

GoldenEye keeps moving, something that Bond films often fail to do.  The action flows decently from one scene to the next and there are some pretty clever action sequences.  The big bungee jump that starts the film, the Russian tank chase, the train scene, and the battle on satellite dish keep the action amped up and manages to maintain that energy throughout the film.

Oh yes!

The movie also has some great James Bond villains/allies.  Sean Bean is nice as the treacherous Janus/Trevelyn and is back up by a great team of villains.  Xenia Onatopp keeps the trend of crazy named villains, and Famke Janssen’s uber-sexual playing of her works with her killer thighs.  Alan Cumming is also good as the egotistical computer programmer Boris Grishenko though Gottfried John is a rather generic villain.  Robbie Coltrane makes a brief appearance as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky (with Minnie Driver as his mistress) and of course Q (Desmond Llewelyn) is back with more gadgets like the great exploding pen.  Samantha Bond steps in as Miss Moneypenny and Judi Dench takes the reigns as M which she maintains through the Casino Royale relaunch.  Natalya Simonova isn’t the best Bond girl, but she’ll due and holds action scenes better than some.  It is also nice to see Joe Don Baker after playing a villain in The Living Daylights to be Bond’s recurring ally Jack Wade.

GoldenEye is just a fun Bond and I recommend it for fair-weather fans of the series.  The action is good, the acting is good, and the plot is good (for a Bond film).  Check out GoldenEye and enjoy the action (or pop in the classic video game).  James Bond returns in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

Preceded By:

License to Kill (1989)

Followed By:

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)