GoldenEye (1995)

GoldenEye, Bond # 17, is the first entry in the franchise which I saw all the way through, in this case on a Blockbuster video tape circa 1996. The six year gap between License to Kill and this movie is the largest production gap in the history of the franchise, and no doubt part of that time was spent determining exactly what to do with Bond in the post cold war period. The opening title sequence, song sung by Tina Turner, depicts scantly clad women demolishing Soviet style statuary with sledge hammers, and the plot touches on both the seeming directionlessness of Yelstin era Russia, and the legacy of cold war era defense projects, in this case a space based EMP weapon named GoldEye (which is also the name of the late Ian Flemings Jamaica estate).

Bond is recast here, Pierce Brosnan, whose looks and charm had made him a top contender for the role since the success of his 1980's TV series Remington Steele. They give him a 'this time its personal' storyline involving the fate of a work colleague, 006 played by Sean Bean, and while Brosnan delivers the lines, I never really felt any sense of anguish and responsibility in his performance. This film also differs from the structure of previous Bond films in that we spend a good amount of times with one of the Bond girls (Izabella Scorupco) before she even meets James, which isn't bad, just different. Famke Janssen, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Cuming, and Jo Don Baker are in the cast, with the latter basically playing the Felix Lieter role, only for some reason they don't use that name, perhaps because the previous Lieter got a leg bit off in the last film? Judi Dench takes over as M, and exotic locations include France, Cuba, and throughout the former Soviet Union. I must say this film was disappointing compared with previous Bond movies. **1/2