GoldenEye
Dir: Martin Campbell
1995
***
GoldenEye, the seventeenth Bond film in the series, reignited the franchise in a big way in 1995, six years after Timothy Dalton's Licence to Kill. GoldenEye is the first Bond film that wasn't adapted from an Ian Flemming story nor was it named after any of his work. GoldenEye was however the name of Flemming's Jamaican estate, named after an Operation he was involved with when working for British Navel intelligence during the Second World War. GoldenEye was a altogether glossy return for the worlds favorite spy but I have always felt that it came at a cost. Product placement was always a part of the franchise, indeed Aston Marton had done very well out their partnership with the series, but it had never been as obvious, and dare I say, tacky. GoldenEye is regarded by fans as one of the best and commercially it was the most successful of the series at the time but I never really thought that it lives up to its reputation. Pierce Brosnan finally got his chance as 007 after Dalton left and he was free of his contract with Remington Steele, although Mel Gibson and Liam Neeson were both offered the part before him but both passed on the role. Brosnan didn't so much create his own version of the character, instead he picked elements from each of the former actor's takes on the role. He had the confidence, with a slight vulnerability that Connery had, the sexism of Moore and the anger of Dalton. He also over-did that eyebrow thing people do when imitating the character. Imitation is the key word with GoldenEye. Brosnan did eventually become Bond in later films but here it is an act of an act. The film itself suffers from the same problem. The grand sets look like grand sets rather than authentic places, some in particular look as polystyrene as they are. By 1995 the cold war was over, it was time for a change of story for 007, the possibilities being endless and yet the theme once again included Soviet wrong doing and Russian bad guys with lots of cheap looking communist props. Sean Bean has a huge fan following, and apologies to them for my next comment, but I've always seen him as the go-to bad guy in British films when you don't have a particularly big budget. His Alec Trevelyan (or 006) is a fairly uninteresting Bond villain with a very predictable and unconvincing back story that was screaming out for some kind of gimmick. Shirley Bassey was hired three times to sing a Bond film (Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker) and each of those films was a gamble in some respects. After Goldfinger's success she became somewhat of a lucky charm when they needed her and I can't help but think they had her in mind when hiring Tina Turner, her voice being similar. The theme song is crating and again, sounds like imitation rather than the real thing. I believe many of these issues were teething problems that came from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson who both took over producing duties after Albert Broccoli stepped down after his health deteriorated. Cubby Broccoli is credited with a 'Presented by' title and sadly this was the last Bond film he'd see, dying just seven months after the films release. It is also a mystery to me how Martin Campbell got the director job based on his rather dubious catalog of work, John Woo passed on the opportunity and although I think he would have done a better job, I think they were still looking at all the wrong people. This passing of the baton could have been smoother, I acknowledge that I'm in the minority in thinking it's second rate Bond but there is also a lot I like about it. Both Izabella Scorupco and Famke Janssen's characters represent the death of the Bond girl, in the best possible way that is. Both are great characters of substance and neither are there to be simply looked at or saved. Robbie Coltrane and Alan Cumming provide entertaining light relief among the seriousness of the story but neither performance goes too far, it comes close with Cumming's to be fair but both deliver just the right level of comic relief the film needed.Needed for a popcorn munching blockbuster that is, to be fair that is what Bond always was in a way although this time it really was on a higher level. The best thing about GoldenEye was the casting of Judi Dench as the new M which was undoubtedly inspired by the appointment of Stella Rimington as head of MI5 in 1992. This was essentially the only real step forward into the 90's that Bond took, as sad as that is looking back at it. For me it was The Living Daylights rather than GoldenEye that really saw the reinvention of Bond, GoldenEye was just bigger and more brash and people had missed the character after his six year absence. There was something missing here for me, Bond's essence wasn't quite right and the franchise hadn't moved with the times enough. The Playstation game on the other hand was a totally different matter but then isn't it sad when a game based on a film ends up being far more entertaining than the film itself.