James Bond - Golden Eye

14 March 2015

GoldenEye 1995

• Director:  Martin Campbell
• Based on the novels  by Ian Fleming
• Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Gottfried John, Alan Cumming, Michael Kitchen, Samantha Bond, Desmond Llewellyn
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Pierce Brosnan   – The Ghost Writer, Mamma Mia, Seraphim Falls, Dante’s Peak, Mars Attacks!
• Sean Bean – North Country, The Island, Troy, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Stormy Monday
• Famke Janssen – The X Men
• Joe Don Baker – Mars Attacks!, Reality Bites, The Living Daylights
• Judi Dench – Hotel Marigold, My Week with Marilyn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, The Shipping News, Chocolat, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, 84 Charing Cross Road, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Robbie Coltrane – Harry Potter 1-8, From Hell, Henry V, Black Adder, Tutti Frutti, Absolute Beginners
• Alan Cumming – The Tempest, Titus, Eyes Wide Shut, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion
• Michael Kitchen – Foyle’s War, My Week with Marilyn, Mrs Dalloway, Enchanted April, Out of Africa, The Comedy of Errors, King Lear and one more where he played a man who murdered his wife. It was a very good film but I can’t remember the title or find it on IMdB.
• Samantha Bond  – Downton Abbey and other series
• Why? Curious. Hal and I saw several Bond films in a Bond festival in the early 70’s and enjoyed them. Sean Connery is the only Bond we have ever seen.  Friends have said later actors have been good too. And with Judi Dench they can’t be all bad.  So we bought the box...
• Seen:  March 6, 2015   

Another new James Bond. Pierce Brosnan this time. I saw him first in Mamma Mia and was quite charmed by him, to my surprise.

Oh, he’s a real cutie here. Beats the other Bonds by a mile.

A very dramatic – and completely impossible – intro with Tina Turner doing Bono and the Edge’s song.  Followed by an equally impossible and annoyingly (supposed to be funny no doubt) macho car chase through the mountains.

The intro is in the collapsing USSR. The rest of the film is nine years later. Russia is run by the mafia.

More new things. A cheeky Moneypenny. And finally! Judi Dench! Welcome, sharp-tongued M! Who calls Double-Oh Seven a sexist misogynist dinosaur!  Oh, this could be good!

GoldenEye. A vicious mass destructive weapon.  Suddenly things have changed.  Though twenty years old this film feels very now, unlike all the other Bond films.  The excitement is grimmer. The intrigue more complex.  The betrayals deeper and more personal.  It’s rawer, slicker and sharper.  The sex is kinkier, the high-tech is genuinely high-tech (at least in my very low-tech eyes).

In many ways it follows the formula – and dear old Q is still with us – but Bond has moved into a higher division. With actors like Michael Kitchen, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Cumming, Izabella Scorupco and Sean Bean, and of course Judi Dench, this one has class.

And, wonder of wonders, Brosnan is better than Connery.

3* of 5