{"id":3922,"date":"2024-09-09T22:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:35:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:35:52","slug":"goldeneye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/09\/goldeneye\/","title":{"rendered":"GoldenEye"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"GoldenEye <\/strong>(1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 130 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, strong violence, sexual situations, double entendres)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Martin Campbell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Eric Serra\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Phil Meheux\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 17, 1995 (US)\/November 24, 1995 (UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane, Tcheky Karyo, Gottfried John, Alan Cumming, Michael Kitchen, Serena Gordon, Desmond Llewelyn, Samantha Bond, Judi Dench, Minnie Driver.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Opening song: \u201cGoldenEye\u201d by Tina Turner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $106.4M (US)\/$352.1M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

It took six years, but James Bond 007 is finally back and with the Cold War pretty much over and the 21st century approaching, GoldenEye <\/strong>is a different kind of Bond movie. It\u2019s definitely not your parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 Bond, that\u2019s for sure. He’s been revamped and upgraded for a new generation, one that’s hooked on computers and big action scenes. Still, this is James Bond we’re talking about here, so he’s still the coolest movie spy EVER.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pierce Brosnan (Remington Steele) now plays agent 007 and does a pretty good job of it his first time out. He brings back the light touch that Timothy Dalton could never quite achieve with his clever quips and openly flirtatious behavior towards the ladies. He\u2019s also a pretty good tough guy; he knows how to handle an automatic weapon or the more traditional Walther PPK. Another difference is that his boss M is now a woman. She\u2019s played by acclaimed actress Judi Dench (Shakespeare In Love) and she is one tough broad. She’s not afraid to speak her mind, at one point calling Bond “a sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and “relic of the Cold War\u201d. Welcome to the 90s, Mr. Bond.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The movie opens in 1986 with Bond on a mission at a Soviet chemical weapons facility with his friend and fellow 00 agent Alec Trevelyan (Bean, Patriot Games). The mission isn\u2019t a complete sense. Bond makes it out alive; 006 isn\u2019t so lucky. 007 witnesses Soviet Colonel Ourumov (John, Berlin Alexanderplatz) shoot his friend dead before the plant explodes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Several years later, Bond is following a woman named Xenia Onatopp (Janssen, Lord of Illusions) who is a member of the Janus crime syndicate. With the help of traitorous Ourumov, she steals a prototype helicopter that is impervious to the electromagnetic pulses caused by nuclear explosions. They fly to a remote bunker in Severnaya (Northern Russia), slaughter the entire staff, destroy the facility and make off with the GoldenEye device, a sophisticated weapons system capable of destroying the world. Bond is assigned to retrieve it. Aware of Bond\u2019s previous connection with Ourumov, M warns 007 not to make it personal.<\/p>\n

The first step to finding GoldenEye is finding syndicate leader Janus, no easy task since nobody knows what he looks like. In order to get close to his target, Bond calls on an old acquaintance in St. Petersburg, ex-KGB guy-turned-gangster Zukovsky (Coltrane, the Harry Potter movies), to set up a meeting with the elusive Janus. Let\u2019s just say Bond\u2019s in for a bit of a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0GoldenEye<\/strong>, the 16th<\/sup> in the series, is the first Bond film not based on an Ian Fleming novel. It\u2019s also the first not to be produced by Albert R. Broccoli who turned the reins over to his daughter Barbara and stepson Michael G. Wilson. I\u2019m sure some of you wonder why it took six years to make another Bond movie after Licence to Kill. It\u2019s because there was a legal dispute between MGM (parent company of UA) and the Broccolis, the owners of the film rights. By the time the dust settled, Timothy Dalton\u2019s contract had expired and the actor opted not to renew it. He was replaced by Bronson who was originally set to replace Roger Moore in The Living Daylights. That is, until NBC pulled a fast one and decided to renew his cancelled series Remington Steele which meant the actor was no longer available. To add insult to injury, they cancelled the series five episodes in. Isn\u2019t it funny how things sometimes have a way of coming back around?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Among its other distinctions, GoldenEye<\/strong> has one of the most evil Bond Girls of the series, the aforementioned Xenia Onatopp (LOVE that name!), a Georgian assassin whose typical MO involves asphyxiating her victims by squeezing them between her thighs. I wouldn\u2019t call her cold-hearted as she appears to enjoy her work. Janssen goes totally OTT here, playing the role with extra relish. It doesn\u2019t hurt that she\u2019s totally HOT! The good Bond Girl is Natalya Simonova (Scorupco, Reign of Fire), a programmer who survives the attack on the facility where GoldenEye was stored. She knows exactly who\u2019s behind the theft and killings. She joins 007 on his mission to recover the device and eliminate the villains. She\u2019s not bad as far as Bond Girls go. Alan Cumming (the Spy Kids movies) steals all his scenes as two-faced programmer Boris. As for Janus, I\u2019ll only say he gets off a good Bond villain line, \u201cWhy can’t you just be a good boy and die?” to which Bond responds “You first.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0Geopolitics may have changed since the late 80s, but one thing that hasn\u2019t changed is Bond\u2019s propensity for action. There\u2019s plenty of it in GoldenEye<\/strong>. The topper has to be the chase through the streets of St. Petersburg. Bond pursues his targets in a tank and destroys almost bloody everything. It leads to a great scene of Bond and Natalya trapped on a train wired to explode. Thank God for the laser-equipped watch given to 007 by gadget guy Q (Llewelyn, still spry at 71). He also provides Bond with a BMW equipped with options fit for a tank.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although I wouldn\u2019t call GoldenEye<\/strong> one of Bond\u2019s best, it is the best one starring Brosnan. The scripts went downhill from here. Also, it was the start of the studio trying to make the Bond movies bigger and louder in order to appeal to modern audiences. I get it, it\u2019s purely a business decision. Well, I say there\u2019s something to be said for purity in form. I prefer the old school Bond films with Connery and Moore. Still, we\u2019re talking about James Bond here. It\u2019s just great to see him after a too-long absence. GoldenEye<\/strong> is a fun movie, that\u2019s all that\u2019s important.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GoldenEye (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 130 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, strong violence, sexual situations, double entendres)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Martin Campbell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Eric Serra\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Phil Meheux\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 17, 1995 (US)\/November 24, 1995 (UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane, Tcheky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-bond-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/GoldenEye-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4889,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions\/4889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}