Brosnan brings back brash British Bond
Die-hard Bond fans will find nothing lacking with GoldenEye . In fact, we'd probably give this movie five stars, but we had to tone the rating down for Bond virgins.
Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is back, and his life contains, as always, just the right number of impossible things.
The opening credits are vintage 007 with the "artistic" dancing of three nude models dancing atop pistols and statues. The surreal background and images are reminiscent of Rene Magritte's work.
In the movie itself, everything that could possibly explode blows up. There's lots of technology, lots of mano-a-mano and lots of blood and gore. There are also the typical Bond innuendos, groaners every one.
Brosnan as Bond is a good thing, because all the attitude is intact. Even in a new and politically correct world where Bond's first female boss, M (Dame Judi Dench), calmly calls him a "feminist, misogynist dinosaur," Bond simply looks up and blinks.
The cast is excellent overall. There are two truly beautiful Bond women this time. First, we have delightfully bitchy, sex-crazed bad girl Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) who pounces maniacally on every man and armament in sight. However, good girl Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) takes a long time to learn to use violence properly.
Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), Onatopp and Boris the hacker (Alan Cumming) make for a flawless team of arch villains, even if they might die in the end. Alec, who in other days served Her Majesty alongside Bond, is the mastermind and liaison, Xenia is the "cleaner" and Boris is the tecnology whiz.
Most welcome is Samantha Bond as a wonderfully witty Miss Moneypenny. "You've never had me, James," she remarks coolly after Bond sarcastically makes a pass at her: "What would I ever do without you?"
Everyone's favorite inventor, Q, returns from the original series, played by the wonderful Desmond Llewelyn. "Don't touch that," Q barks to Bond as 007 inspects a sandwich during a tour of a high-tech gadget room. "It's my lunch."
Americans, as usual, are well-represented by a bumpkin, CIA contact Jack Wade (Jon Don Baker), who sports a generic hick drawl that comes straight from some unspecified Backwoods, U.S.A. He can't drive very well, but at least he comes in handy when Agent 007 is "in a pinch."
The cinematography tends towards the extreme. Some shots are amazingly IMAX-like while many of the fistfight scenes are too close-up and filled with shots of flailing, disembodied limbs to be clear.
The soundtrack is nothing but pure Bond. The sound effects are realistic though at times, an instrument from the background awkwardly cuts into the movie. One added bonus: the opening track, "GoldenEye," is performed by none other than Tina Turner.
Surprisingly enough, the movie was hilarious in parts. With plenty of large-scale slapstick as well as verbal reposte, we found ourselves laughing during almost the entire length of the film.
We hesitate to reveal more, for fear of revealing too many of the plot's details. But the door is left wide open for yet another Bond adventure.
We'll just say this: It's good to have Bond back in proper form.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the November 17, 1995 issue.
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