GOLDENEYE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1995 Michael John Legeros
(UA)
Directed by Martin Campbell
Written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein
Cast Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen,
Joe Don Baker
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 129 minutes
Reviewed at The Imperial, Cary, NC (15NOV95)
==
James Bond is back, thought not exactly as we remember him. Sure, the girls and gadgets are all there. As are the pithy one-liners and the over-the-top stunts. Check. What's missing is the level of technical polish that has best-characterized the 31-year-old series. Thrilling, but tiring; Bonded, but bloated, GOLDENEYE is only a half-success. (Half shaken, not stirred?) Director Martin Campbell (CRIMINAL LAW, NO ESCAPE) has loaded the post-Cold War story with *plenty* of delightful bits, ranging from Bond's sexy showdown in a St. Petersburg steambath, to a tank/car chase through those same Soviet streets. (The plot involves quite a bit of vehicular traffic, actually. Even the old Aston Martin makes an appearance!)
The problem is that these scenes, the best scenes, never gel into a cohesive whole. GOLDENEYE is an exciting, episodic film that lacks a singular vision. For that reason, it's difficult to properly gauge Pierce Brosnan's performance as Ian Fleming's master spy. He seems to have more verve than his most-recent predecessor, Timothy Dalton, but the overstuffed story never gives the actor any room to breathe. It's fight, dash, scowl, kiss, repeat. Over and over and over again.
Too much action is only one of the problems in GOLDENEYE. The absurd opening--involving, among other things, the bungee jump shown in the trailer--sets the precedent that nothing in the story shall be taken seriously. Nothing new there. The trouble comes when Campbell tries to insert real drama into this classy, cartoon reality. It doesn't work. Equally uncomfortable is the amount of graphic violence that we're shown. Bond is quite the indiscriminate killer in this one, and that harder edge isn't effectively balanced by the bigger, sillier stunts.
Other problems include Derek Meddings' too-obvious miniatures, a boring score from Eric Serra, and a wandering POV that strays too far away from our favorite secret agent. The laughs are there, though, thank God, and the supporting cast is impeccable. Some of the surprise scene-stealers include Jon Don Baker, as Bond's cranky American contact, Robbie Coltrane (!), as an ex-KGB heavy, and Famke Janssen, as the Russian villianess with killer thighs. Literally. Peter Lamont's production design is also very good. The best visual metaphor of the year may just be Bond's nighttime meeting in eerie junkyard (graveyard?) of fallen Russian monuments. Startling.
BOTTOM LINE: For the Bond franchise, and for Brosnan, it's a start.
Grade: C+
-- Mike Legeros SAS Institute Inc. legeros@unx.sas.com (w) - legeros@nando.net (h)
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