007 DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002) starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond and Halle Berry

In the days of Sean Connery and Roger Moore, it was pretty clear that which a higher budget, one could attempt to make a bigger or rather a better movie You can see this in the Connery films, when the films of Bond develop from DR. NO to GOLDFINGER and beyond. For Roger Moore's films, there is a very similar development from LIVE AND LET DIE to THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN on to THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and even beyond, to MOONRAKER. Especially in the later instance, bigger does not necessarily mean better. This very same thing happened on the films of Pierce Brosnan. Although the actor got better in the part and really made the role his own, the films grew bigger while the stories lacked a proportionally similar development. In Pierce Brosnan's fourth film, DIE ANOTHER DAY, directed by Lee Tamahori, the story seemed to become slightly less important than how good it looked. Also the film seemed to depend very largely on the presence of special effects and CGI. Maybe too much so.

In an attempt to stop Colonel Tan-Sun Moon trading illegal conflict diamonds for unclear purposes, Bond infiltrates a North-Korean military base where Moon is about to deal with other buyers. Bond however is found out by Moon's assistant Zao and  although he succeeds at disrupting the sales, everything gets blown up and Bond ends up being chased by Moon in cumbersome hovercrafts, until Moon goes over a cliff, seemingly to his death. Bond is then arrested by North-Korean forces under the command of Moon's father, General Moon. 

"I'll Moon You !!!"

The film's title sequence shows Bond being tortured and kept in captivity for over a year. A prisoner exchange deal (Bond is exchanged for ZAO!!) gets him out but M informs Bond he is suspended from active duty because it is believed he leaked vital information while in captivity. Bond is convinced he was betrayed by someone in MI6 and escapes his confinement by MI6, moving to Hong Kong. Here he finds out that Zao is in Cuba and he goes there to meet Giacinta Johnson, Jinx for short, played by Halle Berry, who rises from the Cuban sea very much like Ursula Andress arose from the waters in DR. NO. 

"Gee, I wonder why there are so many men here now!"

Jinx shows Bond that there is a gene therapy clinic that will allow criminals to don new identities by actually changing their bodies and when Bond notes that Jinx goes there, he follows at a distance, finding ZAO in that clinic. Zao escapes but Bond now finds that Jinx is a very capable woman, an American agent herself, as she singlehandedly and easily gets away from the authorities of the island. The conflict diamonds that Zao left behind lead Bond to meeting Gustav Graves at the Blades Club in London, a Club apparently managed by Madonna. Bond engages in a duel of swords with Graves, resulting in hilarity as well as mayhem and afterwards Graves invites Bond to his special demonstration in Iceland of ICARUS. Miranda Frost, Graves's assistant also turns out to be an undercover MI6 agent. Bond is also reinstated as an agent by M in London, where he is equipped by Q (now John Cleese) with the Aston Martin Vanquish, a car with adaptive camouflaging technology, which renders it invisible at times. 

"I told you, M, you can't trust those public transport people. They Are Always LATE !"

In Iceland, Bond again meets Jinx at a spectacular Ice Palace, which then leads to a tremendously spectacular finale, speeding from the destruction of this Ice Palace to a flight in an Antonov thru the concentrated sunlight beam of ICARUS that is supposed to destroy the Korean Demilitarized Zone that will allow North Korean troops to invade South Korea to forcibly reunite the country under the leadership of Gustav Graves, who turns out to be non other than Colonel Moon of the beginning, after having gone thru that gene therapy.

"Well, Diamonds in my face is better than a ring thru my nose !"

Director Lee Tamahori gives DIE ANOTHER DAY a slightly more gritty look by not allowing the title sequence to distract one from the story: Bond is seen being tortured during the title sequence and Daniel Kleinman's visuals are of a rather gruesome nature. When Bond is finally released after more than a year of captivity and torture, his appearance is rather untidy.

"Extensions? What hair extensions?"

Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have crafted a story that in itself does not seem to be far-fetched but when it comes to technology like that of the adaptive camouflaging of the Aston Martin Vanquish (or rather "Vanish" as stated by Q) and the ICARUS beam of concentrated sunlight, one might easily say this might be too much into the realm of Science Fiction.

"Baby, do you wanna ride in my car?"

This is only emphasized once more (or rather twice more) when Q has an admittedly impressive Virtual Reality Training Programme in which any agent can simulate an action sequence (or which ever other action one might wish to conceive of). Although Bond simply states that Virtual Reality is no substitute for the real thing, Moneypenny has perhaps some other use for it.

"Is that you Moneypenny?"

Brosnan clearly shows he has grown considerably in the role and his maturity also reflects his attitude towards M in the film. Halle Berry proves she is not only incredibly hot when she rises from the sea, she also shows that she is a pretty good acress when she goes into action on her own. In the finale, Jinx has an impressive duel with Miranda Frost, which presents us an interesting duel to say the least.

"I slept with him first. Bond is mine!"

The dependency on CGI gets a bit too much when Bond is fleeing the Ice Palace with Graves's Rocket Speedster. Graves uses ICARUS then to cut a path in the ice behind Bond and when Bond goes over the cliff at what seems to be the end of the ice plateau, the ICARUS beam clearly lops off a huge chunk of ice, which creates a tidal wave, that Bond easily covers by windsurfing over it, using a metal plate from the speedster and a bit of his parachute. The windsurfing sequence clearly depends too much on CGI and considering we are now more than 10 years beyond this, we now see that the film suffers for it.

 

          Apparently Brosnan now agrees !!!!!!!!!

Colonel Moon and Graves are not played by the same actor but this hardly seems to matter as neither character really is worked out very well. For instance, upon regenerating himself (Colonel Moon) into this new (Graves) persona, was Graves' identity already known to the world? Was this an existing person who was already alive and whose place he took by having the real guy eliminated or did Moon want to create an original character in Graves? If so, what was done to cover up his lack of a background? After all, Graves wouldn't have had any background from before the 'death' of Colonel Moon, now would he?

Graves, Frost, Madonna and Bond at the Blades Club scene

There are plenty of moments in which the past of Bond is honored. For one, of course, the beautiful shot where Halle Berry rises from the sea, but there is also a precious scene in a storage facility of Q's where all the old gadgets and props are seen, such as Rosa Klebb's spiked shoe from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE or the jetpack from THUNDERBALL. These scenes (and others, such as the ICARUS beam resembling very much a laser beam from GOLDFINGER, aimed at an unfortunate part of Bond's) are very nice and play an integral role.

It is however a bit unfortunate that the Iceland Chase sequences, impressive as they are, come across as too stylistic due to the jump/cut editing. This does not work in the film's favor. Neither does the heavy CGI work in the Antonov sequence, when the plane has gone thru the ICARUS beam and is falling apart. Whether this was a factor to reconsider afterwards or not, it may have played a role in the decision to go back to basics for the next Bond film.

DIE ANOTHER DAY resulted in all in a tremendously succesful and enjoyable film, in which Brosnan clearly reached his highest marks as Bond. Lee Tamahori directed a good film that however is marred by an unevenly developed script and features some CGI that is now dated and poorly looking. David Arnold's music is FANTASTIC again and becomes a wildly popular landmark of the films. And I would almost have forgotten Judi Dench, Colin Salmon, Samantha Bond and Michael Madsen here as very good supporting characters. But there they are.

"What's that, Bond? You want two pizza's, french fries and a Martini?"

For some time also, it looked like a spinoff film might be developed for Jinx, with Halle Berry attached, to be a springboard for a series of its own. MGM however did not pursue this, just like the earlier time when interest in Michelle Yeoh's character from TOMORROW NEVER DIES was not acted upon. It was quite understandable that Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson were very, very perturbed about this. It would have been indeed, very, very interesting!

But trouble was on the horizon again. And then, there was the REBOOT.

"Well then, let me get my stuff together and clear out!"

Up Next : CASINO ROYALE by EON PRODUCTIONS  in 2006!!!!!!

007 THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999)

After the success of TOMORROW NEVER DIES, Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson felt they did not have to 'dumb down' their Bond films and the writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were asked to create a new adventure for Bond, that would allow for depth of character as well as a layered plot. The original story by Purvis and Wade was given a couple of rewrites (one of which was by Bruce Feirstein again) and this results in a film that may be very satisfyingly entertaining but also finds itself with the most outrageous and bizarre plot ever seen in a James Bond film.

Opening with a very long (but spectacular) teaser sequence in which Bond chases a female hitman in the waterways of London toward the Millenium Dome, Bond finds himself injured when the female hitman takes her own life in order not to be captured by her employer. When Sir Robert King, a personal friend of M's is assassinated at MI6's headquarters, Bond is assigned to guard King's daughter Elektra, who was previously the victim of a kidnapping. M believes she may very well again be targeted by Renard, a former KGB hitman turned terrorist, believed to be responsible for the assassination of Robert King. Now at the head of King Enterprises, Elektra is in Azerbaijan to supervise the construction of an oil pipeline, when Bond arrives for his assignment. He seems to get on very well with her while on duty but Bond soon does suspect something is off with her. During a skiing outing in the local mountains, Elektra and Bond are attacked by a number of assassins in para-gliding snowmobiles. After making a clean getaway, Bond visits Valentin Zukovsky, (a Russian mob type heavy played by Robbie Coltrane in GOLDENEYE) in order to find out more on the people behind the attempts on Elektra. When Bond impersonates a (dead) Russian nuclear scientist to join others at a Kazakhsstan ICBM base, he is witness to a seriously demented Renard apprehending weapons-grade a plutonium, ready for use in a nuclear bomb and happens to meet Dr. Christmas Jones, nuclear scientist.

"Yes, I am a nuclear scientist." Of course, dear.

When Bond, back in Azerbaijan finds out that Elektra is not exactly the victim she pretended to be, situations become hairy, even before the wildly spectacular Istanbul finale. Also, M gets personally involved in the story, when Elektra requests her presence in Istanbul.

"I should know better than to fall for that one."

 With two James Bond adventures behind him, Pierce Brosnan felt comfortable enough in the secret agent's shoes that he requested director Michael Apted to give him, Bond, things to do with his face and his hands and gestures, indicating he was fully inhabiting the role. Apted later also opined that Brosnan now radiates the same versatile meanness that Sean Connery had in the role thirty years earlier. It is good to see Judi Dench, Colin Salmon and Samantha Bond again in their roles as M, Robinson and Moneypenny, even though Samantha Bond as Moneypenny now turns out not to be all that attractive. (I mean, Bond's MI6 physician, Molly Warmflash, is much more attractive and Bond does his best to get her to comply to his wishes. Come to think of it, poor Ms. Moneypenny !!!)

A sad moment however comes up when Q, so perfectly played by Bond film veteran Desmond Llewelyn in all these films, introduces his successor (John Cleese) to Bond and takes his leave in a very short, poignant exit moment. (A month after the film premiered, Llewelyn passed away in a traffic accident. The DVD and Blu Ray release therefor has a Tribute video to the late, great actor.)

Sophie Marceau is an interesting choice for the role of Elektra King. As the role is a very layered one, and therefor complicated, Marceau proves herself to be quite the actress. Brosnan opined they worked very well together. Robert Carlyle is also very effective as the demented villain but in all honesty, maybe his character could have been worked out a bit more deeply.

Robbie Coltrane and Denise Richards are also both quite enjoyable in their parts and the music by David Arnold is again spot on! Michael Apted also proves himself a very capable director to be able to handle a plot so convoluted that it sometimes is easy to forget where you are in the story. The skiing sequence is quite reminiscent of the classic ski scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, yet thanks to effective updating of the villains comes across as fresh and exciting.

Parts of Istanbul also seem familiar but the Bond films had already been there in From Russia With Love and they would be back again in Skyfall! The World Is Not Enough refers to the motto of the Bond family, as was previously stated in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The World Is Not Enough debuted in November 1999 to good box office but this film was the first time that a Bond film was the recipient of a Golden Raspberry for Denise Richards as "Worst Supporting Actress". And honestly, can you blame them ? Really? A nuclear scientist that dresses like Lara Croft? Oh well.....

"Really, yes, a nuclear scientist !!! Why does nobody believe me???"

007 TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997) Starring PIERCE BROSNAN as James Bond

After GOLDENEYE came out in 1995 to great financial success, Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, one of the original two producers of the legendary film series, passed away. This would make the 18th Bond movie the first film made totally by Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. It can of course be suggested that Cubby may not have had an active hand in the production of GOLDENEYE, but his influence was most certainly felt. It is strange then perhaps to see a non-Fleming title with very little actual meaning become the title of a big production. But TOMORROW NEVER DIES would be directed by Roger Spottiswoode and written by Bruce Feirstein and would prove to be a vast improvement on its predecessor.

In the teaser sequence, James Bond disrupts an arms bazaar scene for terrorists on a remote airport strip close to the Russian border, with rather explosive results. The main story then unfolds, to deal with a media mogul by the name of Elliot Carver, who, quite clearly insane, will instigate a war between England and China to get the rights for media coverage by his media enterprise over the vast Chinese market. Carver has the HMS Devonshire sunk and has it arranged that it looks like China may have had something to do with it. Bond is sent to Hamburg to meet Carver at a business presentation and check him out. At this presentation, Bond also meets Paris Carver, Elliot's wife, with whom Bond had had a previous relationship. (Oh?) Paris makes it possible for Bond to get access to Carver's Hamburg HQ, where Bond finds a gadget that was used to disguise the true location of the Devonshire,  With this device, the location of the Devonshire was made to look like it was in Chinese waters when it sank. Elliot however kills Paris for this 'betrayal' and Bond finds her dead. A number of exciting sequences follow in which Bond teams up with a Chinese agent, Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh.

One can tell that Brosnan by now has settled well into the role as he gives his scenes with Paris Carver, played by Teri Hatcher remarkable sensitivity. Judi Dench, too, is again remarkable as M, this time efficiently assisted by Colin Salmon as agent Robinson and Samantha Bond as Ms. Moneypenny. Bruce Feirstein's story is not bad, (even though the second half is slightly less well structured because it just seems to be one scene after the other), but with regards Bond's past, it seems strange that we have never heard of Paris as a love interest before. Did anyone mention the word 'reboot'??   Daniel Kleinman again does an appealing title sequence with a lot of CG while composer David Arnold seems to hit all the right chords for the music. His score is brilliant, very rhythmic, forceful and very reminiscent of Classic John Barry.

The film does still suffer from the A-Team Curse (millions of bullets fired that seem to hit NO ONE!!), but in sexiness, it does seem to allow for a bit more than usual, although nothing graphic is shown. It is interesting to note that Teri Hatcher was still working on LOIS & CLARK in the USA during the shoot and that she was pregnant while making this movie. Vincent Schiavelli plays an interesting role as a professional assassin and producer Michael Wilson shows up at 20 minutes into the film on one of Carver's screens. (Michael Wilson has been known to show up in cameo's now and then.) Finally I'd like to note that the oriental locations may seem familiar: these scenes were very close to where twenty years earlier THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was shot.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES is a definite improvement over GOLDENEYE and although it has some structural problems in the second half, these problems are minor. All in all, a good film, also very enjoyable, well produced, well acted and very well directed. Thank you all ! Looking forward to the next one.

"Am I going to be in that as well? "

"NO !"

A New Look for SUPERGIRL !!!

Here she is !!!  The look of the new SUPERGIRL for the upcoming television series. But then, this used to be Helen Slater in 1984's Supergirl movie:

Hmmmm, there seems to be very little difference !!! Is this a good sign or what???

Something to think about...

When you have franchises that run a long time, you obviously run into questions of continuity. For instance, in the James Bond franchise, you may note that with Daniel Craig's entree in CASINO ROYALE, the series was officially rebooted. That means we are no longer talking of Bond as being the same guy as in the past and we may state that the films DR. NO to and including DIE ANOTHER DAY do not belong in the same movie universe.

Here we see all the actors playing Bond in the official EON Productions of the franchise: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig (so far, this is written in 2015, of which note) but let me ask you this question then: were the adventures of the famous secret agent really the adventures of only one guy? 

When Bond marries Tracy Vincenzo in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE but Tracy is killed by his arch enemy at the end of the same film, Bond later on is referring to having once been married. In the teaser of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, he also pays respect to his late wife at her grave. Felix Leiter said in LICENCE TO KILL about (Dalton's) Bond, "He was married once, you know," but Pierce Brosnan refers to a relationship with Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, something that previously we never knew of.

a documentary about the franchise

When Lee Tamahori directed Brosnan in DIE ANOTHER DAY, he said something of the name 'James Bond' being some sort of code name for an agent in that position and that this would also explain the different faces. That would be one idea (that has been discarded by the producers). However, what would you say then in the case of the science fiction franchise of  STAR TREK?

 
The CLASSIC STAR TREK CREW

In the original series we saw William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Walter Koenig and George Takei as the characters that in 2009's reboot were played by Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho and Anton Yelchin.

The J.J. Abrams Star Trek Crew.

Here, in this franchise, there is no question of talking about other characters. These are the same characters, but the film plays in a different timeline so it is no surprise that new actors give the characters new faces and the film a totally new look. One could also think of the same question when it comes to Doctor Who but then he is a Time Lord and he regenerates and that is the solution for him.

All the Doctors (MINUS John Hurt)

It might also apply to comic book characters like Superman (for instance, why has Clark Kent in the comics seemingly not even aged since his first appearance in 1938?) or Spider-Man (the same can be said about his appearance in the comics since 1963).

For films or series that run a limited amount of time, the continuity is generally not a problem because it has a beginning and remains consistent to its end. But when you have series that run like James Bond or Star Trek, for a good 50 years already, I think there is only ONE PRACTICAL SOLUTION to this continuity problem. And that is that one needs to discard the continuity issue on a larger timescale and just look at the character in the particular film, episode or comic book one is seeing him or her in. That would also explain a good number of things in franchises like SPIDER-MAN or JAMES BOND.  

Will the real Batman please stand up?

The Marvel Comics Group has often taken pride in its continuity and in their films they also do so very heavily for the moment. DC Comics have always taken another position in that they have often done other versions of their heroes in different worlds, different dimensions, what have you. Also in their films, they do not adhere to one shared movie universe. (Although the series ARROW and THE FLASH do exist in one world.)

So what you do when you watch a film, an episode or read a comic book of a long running franchise, is you just focus on the time span in that film, episode or comic book. That is the time in which it plays, nothing else matters. If new rules will be applicable, this will be stated to be so. For STAR TREK it has been stated officially that everything from Classic Star Trek up to Star Trek Enterprise belongs to one and the same timeline. Everything that comes after, is a rebooted timeline. For James Bond, CASINO ROYALE with Daniel Craig rebooted the franchise so everything that came before is off the table. Good thing too. Does anyone want to remember Barry Nelson as James Bond?

Gimme a drink ! Now! No, thank you.

Barry Nelson, played Jimmie Bond in the 1954 telecast Casino Royale which now is hardly ever seen. His Bond was an AMERICAN !!  Or David Niven in the spoof film version of 1967?

Wodka Martini, shaken not stirred? I don't think so.

Best to forget this perhaps????? I guess this might indeed be something to think about...

007: GOLDENEYE (1995) starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond

After Timothy Dalton’s second Bond film LICENCE TO KILL got ravaged by critics and box office alike in the summer of 1989, EON Productions fell victim to a most harsh predator: law suits. A number of law suits was responsible for the delay in production of the next Bond movie and it took quite some time before these matters were settled and in the meantime, in 1994, Timothy Dalton stated he stepped away from the role. This may most certainly be called a major setback and a great pity because it would not be long anymore before the return of James Bond would be set in motion. In 1995 Martin Campbell would direct Pierce Brosnan as a totally new James Bond in the film GOLDENEYE. The title GOLDENEYE came from the name that Ian Fleming had given his house in Jamaica but for the new film, it was to refer to a weapon satellite that would bring havoc from above. 

James Bond and Peter Trevelyan, 007 and 006

GOLDENEYE opens with a sequence from Bond’s past, where he works together with agent 006, Peter Trevelyan (played very effectively by Sean Bean) to destroy a Russian chemical weapons facility at Archangelsk. However, it seems that agent 006, Peter Trevelyan, is lost in the battle. 9 Years later in the south of France a dangerous female agent of the Janus Crime Syndicate, Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen, steals a prototype helicopter that is built to withstand an electromagnetic pulse.  

Bond meets Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)

This EuroCopter Tiger chopper is then used to infiltrate a Siberian bunker where the control discs of the GOLDENEYE Satellite Weapons are kept. Onatopp kills the crew of the bunker in Severnaya with a Russian accomplice on scene, a computer specialist named Boris and sets the GOLDENEYE Satellite to destroy the complex by electromagnetic pulse, while Onatopp and Boris leave by helicopter. However, there is one survivor, a data analyst Natalya Simonova. 

Bond and Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco)

Bond is called in by a new M (the excellent Judi Dench) and after having been scolded by M to be a relic from the cold war, M sees no other option than to send Bond to Russia. Bond flies to St. Petersburg where he meets up with his American liaison, Jack Wade, played by Joe Don Baker, and arranges a meeting with a local crime boss, Valentin Zukovsky, who puts him on the track of Janus. After meeting with Xenia, Bond meets with Janus, who reveals himself to be none other than Peter Trevelyan and a fast moving chain of events is set in motion, in which Bond chases thru St. Petersburg with a heavily armored tank, before the characters go to Cuba for an unlikely yet explosive finale.

 A touch of humor with Desmond Lewellyn as the ever irascible Q

I’ll honestly admit I have very little in terms of positive feelings for GOLDENEYE. The most horrendous element of the film for me is the music by ERIC SERRA, a French composer who is known for his interesting scores for films of Luc Besson. However interesting his music is in French cinema, it was totally misplaced here and failed to provide any musical enthusiasm for a lackluster story that seems to consist of nothing but a series of chases, guns firing, explosions and the like. And what’s worse: the film suffers severely from the A-Team Curse: millions of bullets are fired but no one is hit, wounded or killed. How seriously did Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson want us to take this?? Brosnan also seemed to be a bit young to portray an experienced Bond and although he exudes plenty of charm, he lacks the cynicism to make the one liners really count. (I’ll admit he got better in his later films but I’m not a fan of his, really.)

Judi Dench as M

Fortunately there are plenty of good actors around Brosnan; Judi Dench is wonderful in her first outing as M and Sean Bean is very credible as a villain. Joe Don Baker and Robbi Coltrane also hit their marks with verve, but Famke Janssen cannot help it that she had a badly written part to begin with. Her character Xenia Onatopp is ludicrous at best and does not allow Janssen to really act. The part is simply too bizarre and when she is killed (without any blood in sight), I only find myself greatly relieved. Martin Campbell does an excellent job as a director and would later also direct Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (but that is a significantly better film).

Bond getting up close to Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)

To illustrate however, the silliness, let me talk about that opening sequence where Bond dives off this dam, all the way down, enters this base facility but when he exits, we seem to be on a mountaintop facility where he exits by plane. Did Bond step into an elevator unseen somewhere???

 If this is this mountaintop facility he flies away from, where did that dam all of a sudden disappear to? As you can see below, the dive was considerable, yet he ends up on top of that mountain!!!

 "I am not going to climb no mountain ! Where are those elevators ???"

While I don’t care for the music by Eric Serra, I do think the TINA TURNER song, GOLDENEYE, is very good and so is the title sequence by Daniel Kleinman. Kleinman would return for later films as well.

Considering that the producers later (with CASINO ROYALE) went for a total reboot, there seems to be a bit of it in the air here as well, as Bond refers to earlier missions we have no knowledge of. All in all, I could not say I was very pleased with GOLDENEYE in 1995. General audiences however thought  Brosnan was better than Dalton (a statement I do not agree with) and GOLDENEYE was very successful financially.  For what it’s worth, I do think Brosnan got better with the following films, but honestly, I am simply not a fan of his Bond. Brosnan’s best part in my opinion was THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR in which he played Thomas Crown very effectively, much better than he played Bond. (Interestingly, a sequel to that film has long been in the pipeline but has failed to come about so far.) 

"Ladies, don't tickle. I am holding a gun here !"

For me, the return of James Bond in GOLDENEYE was at best mediocre but let’s continue to look further at TOMORROW NEVER DIES next.