[/quote]
Well, when I first saw GoldenEye I enjoyed it (I always enjoy a Bond movie upon first viewing. It was only until after repeated viewings that I realized the pace of the film was just all wrong. The whole theft of the Goldeneye sequence really slows the film down. Similarly to the theft of the warheads sequence in Thunderball. However that film made up for it by having a great second half, aside from the tank chase and the finale, GoldenEye's second half is pretty mediocre.
[/quote]
i think that Campbell is the problem with GoldenEye - i don't think he is a good director - he did abetter job with Casino Royale - but i think that is because he was pushed to do something different.
CBn Reviews 'GoldenEye'
Started by
Qwerty
, Jun 26 2006 09:41 PM
132 replies to this topic
#121
Thunderball302
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Posted 19 December 2008 - 03:51 AM
#122
Gothamite
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Posted 26 December 2008 - 09:46 PM
Watched it today and found it as dull as dishwater, once again. It really epitomizes the Brosnan-era the least of his four films. His performance doesn't even feel right and isn't consistent with his other films.
#123
JimmyBond
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Posted 27 December 2008 - 02:49 AM
Well, when I first saw GoldenEye I enjoyed it (I always enjoy a Bond movie upon first viewing. It was only until after repeated viewings that I realized the pace of the film was just all wrong. The whole theft of the Goldeneye sequence really slows the film down. Similarly to the theft of the warheads sequence in Thunderball. However that film made up for it by having a great second half, aside from the tank chase and the finale, GoldenEye's second half is pretty mediocre.
i think that Campbell is the problem with GoldenEye - i don't think he is a good director - he did abetter job with Casino Royale - but i think that is because he was pushed to do something different.
That sounds like something I'd say (unless I did type out the post you quoted, I can't remember).
The theft really doesnt slow the film down, it's just that the second half doesnt really make up for it. Brosnan jumps around Russia for a bit and then that's it. You never get a real feel that Bond is actually in Russia (a big problem with the Brosnan Bond's I feel, they all had a "soundstage" feel to them).
#124
DAN LIGHTER
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Posted 18 February 2009 - 01:29 PM
I gave it an 8.
It was a good film. The music with the car chase at the beginning between Bond and Xenia Zirgavna Onatopp takes place gets on my nerves. Makes me cringe.Its very dated now.
It was a good film. The music with the car chase at the beginning between Bond and Xenia Zirgavna Onatopp takes place gets on my nerves. Makes me cringe.Its very dated now.
Edited by DAN LIGHTER, 19 February 2009 - 01:19 PM.
#125
chrisno1
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Posted 19 January 2010 - 01:01 PM
This one seems to divide opinion like no other!
In 2008 I watched all the Bond movies and wrote a series of reviews for another site. The aim was to watch them in order in the run up to the premiere of QOS. I succeeded and the reviews were well received.
However, subsequently, I have re-read my reviews and re-watched a number of the movies (the BFI had a whole 007 season earlier this year and I saw quite a few on the big screen again!).
This is my updated review for Goldeneye.
GOLDENEYE
REVISED REVIEW 18/1/2010
“Ready to save the world again?” asks 006 of James Bond at the beginning of this rejuvenating encounter with Ian Fleming’s hero. It certainly appears so. James Bond comes back with a bang and if Goldeneye isn’t going to win any prizes for its subtlety, it scores points for its enthusiasm and endeavour.
Right from the off this is an attempt to bring Bond back to his spectacular best. The pre-credit sequence starts with a death defying bungee jump from atop a dam. The remainder of the film doesn’t quite match this magnificent opening, but it has enough memorable moments in it to whet the appetite for the continuation of the series.
James Bond is now impersonated by Pierce Brosnan and he does a reasonable job without giving the impression he’s making much of an effort. He doesn’t really have to as the action moves swiftly from location to location and the dialogue is mostly throwing away lines at his own character’s expense. Even M gets in on the act. Now played with venom by Judi Dench, this female head of MI6 likens Bond to a “misogynist dinosaur” and dislikes his “cavalier attitude to life.” She isn’t too far wide of the mark and Bond silently appears to agree, tipping his bourbon and ice towards her in recognition. It does however become one of two repetitive strands of the humour. The other is the sexually suggestive pun – there are twelve during the first four minutes, a ratio almost maintained throughout. By the time Alec Trevelyan, the afore-mentioned 006, has revealed himself as the arch enemy Yannis, and delivers what should be a withering rebuke of Bond’s love of Queen and Country, we’ve lost interest because we’ve heard all the jokes.
As Trevelyan points out, the world has moved on since 1989, but Bond remains unchanged amongst the hi-tech gadgets and space age weaponry. Twice, it is the female computer programmer, Natalia, who infiltrates the enemies programs. Bond merely plans escape routes and blows things up. As she remarks herself: “What is it with you and motorised vehicles?” Bond still plays the odds at the casino, drives fast cars, fights a good fight and drinks vodka martinis, though he isn’t as indestructible as some incarnations. The eventual outcome is never in doubt, but the inanity of the proceedings is a lot of fun. Director Martin Campbell keeps a lid on the spectacular goings on and this adventure feels more under control than previous episodes.
The back room boys provide a project to be proud of. The stunt and special effects teams have a field day destroying communication centres, trains, libraries, satellite dishes and half of St Petersburg’s river district. The latter event is caused by Bond’s illegal requisition of a tank and stands out as it is so unexpected. Editor Terry Rawlings does some quick work, ensuring the pace never slows; the tank moves as fast as a car but is much more deadly. Eric Serra’s incidental music is at its best here. Though it’s never a classic score, he does utilise the erotic main theme, written by Bono and The Edge from U2, to good effect. Tina Turner was a good choice to sing the theme, but I feel the honour has come to her a decade too late. She’s lucky Daniel Klienman’s sexy “fall of communism” credit sequence distracts us.
Bond’s hired help this time around is Natalia, played with some zest by Izabella Scorupco. One of Bond’s most normal companions, she’s okay amongst the foolishness, but struggles to convince when required to be the audience’s barometer of morality. Her love scenes with Brosnan are disappointing. Bond’s receives minor help from Joe Don Baker’s Wade and Robbie Coltrane’s Valentin Zukovsky, but both roles, while memorable, are too small to make a lasting impact. Coltrane in particular, with his huge bulk and larger than life persona, should have been dealt a better card than this. If anyone was built to be a Bond villain, Coltrane was.
We do have a splendid villainess, the evil black widow assassin Xenia Onatopp, who, despite her ridiculous name and implausible method of killing victims, is a great addition to the ranks of Bond bad girls. She is introduced racing Bond around the French Riviera before they exchange double entendres over the baccarat table. We learn more about Onatopp’s fetishes as first we watch her strangling a man to death with her thighs and then she has an orgasm while slaughtering the technicians at the Severnya Communications Centre. Later she and Bond share an intensely sadistic sexual encounter at a Turkish bath. Famke Janssen’s performance is so sensually charged that, even when others take centre stage, your attention instinctively switches to focus on her, in case she starts scene stealing again, which she often does.
The down side of Janssen’s success is that the other villains appear weak and underwritten. Sean Bean does the best he can as the British traitor, but, despite the addition of a facial scar, he isn’t sinister enough and his reasons for defection are slight. He does however give Bond a good duel to the death at the movies end. There are two more Russians, a general and a computer geek, but neither wholly convince. We have to leave it up to the specıalıst teams to pull this story along and they all turn up trumps. The climax, filmed at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, is one of the series’ most spectacular. It’s a fantastic location and, coupled with the opening stunt, it bookends the movie nicely.
Midway through Goldeneye, Bond is stranded in a grave yard for Soviet statues and the film makers look to be lying to rest the James Bond of the Cold War. That’s a good thing and if future Bond films are as much fun as this, long may it continue. There’s life in the old dinosaur yet.
RATING 7 from 10
In 2008 I watched all the Bond movies and wrote a series of reviews for another site. The aim was to watch them in order in the run up to the premiere of QOS. I succeeded and the reviews were well received.
However, subsequently, I have re-read my reviews and re-watched a number of the movies (the BFI had a whole 007 season earlier this year and I saw quite a few on the big screen again!).
This is my updated review for Goldeneye.
GOLDENEYE
REVISED REVIEW 18/1/2010
“Ready to save the world again?” asks 006 of James Bond at the beginning of this rejuvenating encounter with Ian Fleming’s hero. It certainly appears so. James Bond comes back with a bang and if Goldeneye isn’t going to win any prizes for its subtlety, it scores points for its enthusiasm and endeavour.
Right from the off this is an attempt to bring Bond back to his spectacular best. The pre-credit sequence starts with a death defying bungee jump from atop a dam. The remainder of the film doesn’t quite match this magnificent opening, but it has enough memorable moments in it to whet the appetite for the continuation of the series.
James Bond is now impersonated by Pierce Brosnan and he does a reasonable job without giving the impression he’s making much of an effort. He doesn’t really have to as the action moves swiftly from location to location and the dialogue is mostly throwing away lines at his own character’s expense. Even M gets in on the act. Now played with venom by Judi Dench, this female head of MI6 likens Bond to a “misogynist dinosaur” and dislikes his “cavalier attitude to life.” She isn’t too far wide of the mark and Bond silently appears to agree, tipping his bourbon and ice towards her in recognition. It does however become one of two repetitive strands of the humour. The other is the sexually suggestive pun – there are twelve during the first four minutes, a ratio almost maintained throughout. By the time Alec Trevelyan, the afore-mentioned 006, has revealed himself as the arch enemy Yannis, and delivers what should be a withering rebuke of Bond’s love of Queen and Country, we’ve lost interest because we’ve heard all the jokes.
As Trevelyan points out, the world has moved on since 1989, but Bond remains unchanged amongst the hi-tech gadgets and space age weaponry. Twice, it is the female computer programmer, Natalia, who infiltrates the enemies programs. Bond merely plans escape routes and blows things up. As she remarks herself: “What is it with you and motorised vehicles?” Bond still plays the odds at the casino, drives fast cars, fights a good fight and drinks vodka martinis, though he isn’t as indestructible as some incarnations. The eventual outcome is never in doubt, but the inanity of the proceedings is a lot of fun. Director Martin Campbell keeps a lid on the spectacular goings on and this adventure feels more under control than previous episodes.
The back room boys provide a project to be proud of. The stunt and special effects teams have a field day destroying communication centres, trains, libraries, satellite dishes and half of St Petersburg’s river district. The latter event is caused by Bond’s illegal requisition of a tank and stands out as it is so unexpected. Editor Terry Rawlings does some quick work, ensuring the pace never slows; the tank moves as fast as a car but is much more deadly. Eric Serra’s incidental music is at its best here. Though it’s never a classic score, he does utilise the erotic main theme, written by Bono and The Edge from U2, to good effect. Tina Turner was a good choice to sing the theme, but I feel the honour has come to her a decade too late. She’s lucky Daniel Klienman’s sexy “fall of communism” credit sequence distracts us.
Bond’s hired help this time around is Natalia, played with some zest by Izabella Scorupco. One of Bond’s most normal companions, she’s okay amongst the foolishness, but struggles to convince when required to be the audience’s barometer of morality. Her love scenes with Brosnan are disappointing. Bond’s receives minor help from Joe Don Baker’s Wade and Robbie Coltrane’s Valentin Zukovsky, but both roles, while memorable, are too small to make a lasting impact. Coltrane in particular, with his huge bulk and larger than life persona, should have been dealt a better card than this. If anyone was built to be a Bond villain, Coltrane was.
We do have a splendid villainess, the evil black widow assassin Xenia Onatopp, who, despite her ridiculous name and implausible method of killing victims, is a great addition to the ranks of Bond bad girls. She is introduced racing Bond around the French Riviera before they exchange double entendres over the baccarat table. We learn more about Onatopp’s fetishes as first we watch her strangling a man to death with her thighs and then she has an orgasm while slaughtering the technicians at the Severnya Communications Centre. Later she and Bond share an intensely sadistic sexual encounter at a Turkish bath. Famke Janssen’s performance is so sensually charged that, even when others take centre stage, your attention instinctively switches to focus on her, in case she starts scene stealing again, which she often does.
The down side of Janssen’s success is that the other villains appear weak and underwritten. Sean Bean does the best he can as the British traitor, but, despite the addition of a facial scar, he isn’t sinister enough and his reasons for defection are slight. He does however give Bond a good duel to the death at the movies end. There are two more Russians, a general and a computer geek, but neither wholly convince. We have to leave it up to the specıalıst teams to pull this story along and they all turn up trumps. The climax, filmed at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, is one of the series’ most spectacular. It’s a fantastic location and, coupled with the opening stunt, it bookends the movie nicely.
Midway through Goldeneye, Bond is stranded in a grave yard for Soviet statues and the film makers look to be lying to rest the James Bond of the Cold War. That’s a good thing and if future Bond films are as much fun as this, long may it continue. There’s life in the old dinosaur yet.
RATING 7 from 10
Edited by chrisno1, 19 January 2010 - 01:11 PM.
#126
elizabeth
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Posted 19 January 2010 - 10:55 PM
8. great action. great bond girl. great bond.
#127
SecretAgentFan
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Posted 09 February 2010 - 03:51 PM
Re-watched it.
Well, GOLDENEYE was one of my top three Bond films back then when I saw it in theatres. It really was a welcome return to the old formula and Brosnan totally nailed it and made the character fun again.
That was my take then.
Now, I must say, the film did not hold up as well as I had remembered it. The first hour moves very slow and has lots of sequences that just do not really work for me. Examples: the drive with the psychologist, the casino scene, the long, long exposition, heck, even the "M" scenes - so much of that now feels forced IMO. Of course, it was forced back then. It was EON having to establish the basic Bond scenes so that the public would be re-introduced to them. They certainly did make an effort and in the context of the whole film the scenes do what they need to do. But IMO you can feel that effort. This is also due to the dialogue that is very often on-the-nose instead of nonchalant and relaxed.
BUT... the film also has some very strong sequences. And the tank chase in St.Petersburg really is one of the best sequences in any Bond film. I remember how audiences in the theatre cheered and applauded that one. In this moment I thought to myself: Yes, Bond is back.
Also, the sequences with Bond fighting Onatop in the bath and the tough fight with 006 on the satellite dish really do what I like Bond to accomplish.
The score... is interesting and appropriately cold for the setting. But I do not regret having Serra score only one Bond film.
In the end, GE is a good Bond, not a great one. But to me, Brosnan really stands out here as the main factor for GE succeeding. Although he still seems a bit too intent on being tough and serious he can be ironic and amusing without being camp. And, let´s face it, he totally works with the ladies. My girl-friend really got into Bond when Brosnan took over the role.
So, my take: 7 out of 10.
Well, GOLDENEYE was one of my top three Bond films back then when I saw it in theatres. It really was a welcome return to the old formula and Brosnan totally nailed it and made the character fun again.
That was my take then.
Now, I must say, the film did not hold up as well as I had remembered it. The first hour moves very slow and has lots of sequences that just do not really work for me. Examples: the drive with the psychologist, the casino scene, the long, long exposition, heck, even the "M" scenes - so much of that now feels forced IMO. Of course, it was forced back then. It was EON having to establish the basic Bond scenes so that the public would be re-introduced to them. They certainly did make an effort and in the context of the whole film the scenes do what they need to do. But IMO you can feel that effort. This is also due to the dialogue that is very often on-the-nose instead of nonchalant and relaxed.
BUT... the film also has some very strong sequences. And the tank chase in St.Petersburg really is one of the best sequences in any Bond film. I remember how audiences in the theatre cheered and applauded that one. In this moment I thought to myself: Yes, Bond is back.
Also, the sequences with Bond fighting Onatop in the bath and the tough fight with 006 on the satellite dish really do what I like Bond to accomplish.
The score... is interesting and appropriately cold for the setting. But I do not regret having Serra score only one Bond film.
In the end, GE is a good Bond, not a great one. But to me, Brosnan really stands out here as the main factor for GE succeeding. Although he still seems a bit too intent on being tough and serious he can be ironic and amusing without being camp. And, let´s face it, he totally works with the ladies. My girl-friend really got into Bond when Brosnan took over the role.
So, my take: 7 out of 10.
#128
Lachesis
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Posted 09 February 2010 - 05:33 PM
Very nice review - Its always good to revisit old friends, even if they do begin to display their age (much like myself sadly ^^).
On imdb I scored this a solid 8, recently i revisited all my scores there and it was under no pressure to move and it would still be one of my five 'desert island' Bonds (assuming a coconut powered player and screen of course).
While it doesn't move with the pace of an mtv video, and isn't edited as if a caffine enraged Freddie Kruger had been asked to 'tidy up', I rather enjoy the time it takes to introduce us to the story and the unusually wide diversity of characters, both ally and enemy, revealed. The plot is part update, part nostalgic homage and after a gap of 6 years it was just what we needed to remind us why 'nobody does it better'.
I am actually sad Timothy Dalton didn't get this quality of material/Director to show us what he could do with it, but Pierce Brosnan is great and curiously more relaxed and invested in the role than in his later outings imho.
On imdb I scored this a solid 8, recently i revisited all my scores there and it was under no pressure to move and it would still be one of my five 'desert island' Bonds (assuming a coconut powered player and screen of course).
While it doesn't move with the pace of an mtv video, and isn't edited as if a caffine enraged Freddie Kruger had been asked to 'tidy up', I rather enjoy the time it takes to introduce us to the story and the unusually wide diversity of characters, both ally and enemy, revealed. The plot is part update, part nostalgic homage and after a gap of 6 years it was just what we needed to remind us why 'nobody does it better'.
I am actually sad Timothy Dalton didn't get this quality of material/Director to show us what he could do with it, but Pierce Brosnan is great and curiously more relaxed and invested in the role than in his later outings imho.
#129
SecretAgentFan
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Posted 09 February 2010 - 06:28 PM
Thanks, Lachesis.
I forgot to mention Wade´s last line, watching Bond and Natalya kiss:
"I guess you will want to continue your briefing at Guantanamo..."
How times change (the meaning of certain phrases)...
I forgot to mention Wade´s last line, watching Bond and Natalya kiss:
"I guess you will want to continue your briefing at Guantanamo..."
How times change (the meaning of certain phrases)...
#130
O.H.M.S.S.
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Posted 10 February 2010 - 11:09 AM
I adore GoldenEye, this is why:
I think Pierce Brosnan made a perfect Bond in GoldenEye.
I love the whole post-Cold War atmosphere.
Monaco, St. Petersburg and Cuba >>> great locations.
Great music by Eric Serra, very underrated, best non-Barry OST.
Sean Bean makes one of the best villains.
Great cinematogrpahy by Phil Meheux.
Main titles.
Unforgettable minor characters: Mishkin, Grishenko, Ourumov, Zukovsky, ...
Lovely Bond girls with Natalya and Xenia.
Memorable scenes throughout + great dialogue.
I think Pierce Brosnan made a perfect Bond in GoldenEye.
I love the whole post-Cold War atmosphere.
Monaco, St. Petersburg and Cuba >>> great locations.
Great music by Eric Serra, very underrated, best non-Barry OST.
Sean Bean makes one of the best villains.
Great cinematogrpahy by Phil Meheux.
Main titles.
Unforgettable minor characters: Mishkin, Grishenko, Ourumov, Zukovsky, ...
Lovely Bond girls with Natalya and Xenia.
Memorable scenes throughout + great dialogue.
#131
scaramunga
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Posted 23 February 2010 - 05:18 AM
Love Goldeneye. Where is the blu ray already??
Pierce's best turn as Bond, IMO. It really helped jump start the Bond series again in 1995.
I really love Martin Campbell's direction in the 2 Bond films that he directed. I'd love him to come back and do one more.
Pierce's best turn as Bond, IMO. It really helped jump start the Bond series again in 1995.
I really love Martin Campbell's direction in the 2 Bond films that he directed. I'd love him to come back and do one more.
#132
Attempting Re-entry
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Posted 23 February 2010 - 03:20 PM
Saw this on opening night in '95; I felt that, after the great gunbarrel, it all went downhill.
Re-watched it again recently with my kids; again, I felt that after the great gunbarrel, it all went downhill.
Some things never change.
I'm not a Brosnan basher at all, but something's off with this movie I think. It could purely be down to the rubbish music, but I also don't really buy the Bond/Trevelyan relationship.
Re-watched it again recently with my kids; again, I felt that after the great gunbarrel, it all went downhill.
Some things never change.
I'm not a Brosnan basher at all, but something's off with this movie I think. It could purely be down to the rubbish music, but I also don't really buy the Bond/Trevelyan relationship.
#133
Turn
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Posted 24 February 2010 - 01:45 AM
I actually thought it was in trouble from the gunbarrel - the underwhelming Serra Bond theme and Bros' rather stiff turn and fire.Saw this on opening night in '95; I felt that, after the great gunbarrel, it all went downhill.
Re-watched it again recently with my kids; again, I felt that after the great gunbarrel, it all went downhill.
Thought it recovered from there very nicely until Bond has to fly into the descending plane.