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.