GOLDENEYE
A film review by Lewis Butler
Copyright 1995 Lewis Butler
GOLDENEYE is the much anticipated debut of Pierce Brosnan as everyone's favorite spy. After a delay of over ten years, we finally get to see Remington Steel utter the phrase, "Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred." Was it worth the wait? Well, yes, overall. Mr. Brosnan was born to play Bond, a realization that first came to me when I saw him in the middling to poor film adaptation of Forsythe's THE FOURTH PROTOCOL. In short, he fills the lines of the tuxedo quite nicely. He's more of a man's Bond than Roger Moore was, and he doesn't have the slightly stiff look that Dalton had.
The plot is typical Bond fare, with a slight twist as we get a 00 agent other than Bond into the mix. But no one goes to Bond films for the plot. These movies are a plethora of action, women, guns, evil Communists (oh, and good Communists--it's the 90's) and the triumph of good over evil.
The gizmos are not nearly as inspired as they have been, but in a refreshing change of pace, not every single gizmo given to Bond is used during the course of the film.
In short, if you like Bond films in general, Goldeneye is a film worth seeing. Certainly better then Moondreck (MOONRAKER) and it doesn't have the presence of Tonya Roberts (A VIEW TO A KILL) to drag it down into the depths. The villains are outstanding, and 006 almost walks away with the film.
The main Bond woman in this film is Isabella Scorupco, and as far as I know, this is her first film. She plays a Russian computer techie, second banana in her posting to a wonderfully nerdy Russian Hacker named Boris (Alan Cumming). There's some posturing about near the end of the film that looks like the script was trying to establish and actual relationship between Natalya and Bond, but the scene is awkward and best ignored.
Sean Bean, playing 006, almost walks away with the film, as I said. He's a rotten bastard who is really just a reflection of Bond's potentially very dark side. It's fun to watch Bean and Brosnan up on the screen, because you can easily believe that the characters were friends.
All in all, a worthy addition to the Bond pantheon. No, it's not one of the best Bond films, but it is one of the better ones.
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