48 replies to this topic

[JimmyBond]

I watched Goldeneye the other day for the first time in a while. I was pleasantly surprised, for the most part the film greatly improved for me. I no longer really mind that Brosnan is overshadowed by many of his costars in the film, considering this was his first film it probably helped him that he didnt have to carry the whole film himself.

My main complaint of the film is still the whole "theft of the Goldeneye" sequence. It just seems to take too long, and all Bond is left with is to stare at a computer screen. Not only that we're given information that Bond is not privvy too. I always felt it would be more interesting if we knew just as much as Bond did, so we didnt have to wait while he uncovered this out himself (not to be outdone though, I have this same complaint with Thunderballs stealing of the warhead sequence)

Aside from that I really can't find fault with this film (at least not anymore), all the action sequences are fun and the finale with Bond vs. Trevalyan is good fun (marred by the horrible green screen work, can't win them all).

[The Ghost Who Walks]

This film actually gets worse for me each time I re-watch it (which is admittedly not very often for that reason!). I don't know, there's just something that gets boring after you've seen it a few times... Maybe the fact that every character seems to comment on what a "relic" 007 is in every second scene.

It used to be my favourite Bond movie when I was a kid, now it is among my least favourites somehow. There are parts of it I find really boring, which is unforgiveable for a Bond movie.

Brosnan did OK, but was better in all of his subsequent films, DAD included.

[Peckinpah1976]

I enjoyed this at the cinema back in '95 (probably due to the longer than usual gap since the previous film) but repeat viewings have always been a chore for me I'm afraid to say. Not only is it boring for the most part but despite the high technical standards on display, the writing and acting (especially from the male cast-members) are woeful - the whole enterprise just seems like a greatest hits compilation performed by a soulless, decidedly mediocre tribute band.

I'd sooner watch TMWTGG or AVTAK and believe me, I don't say that lightly.....

[Aris007]

I'll agree with Jimmy. The film gets better and better every time I watch it and this is because it fits Cold War atmosphere with up-to-date details. It has lots of funny moments, the action scenes are top, the score is fine and Brosnan looks better than in any of his other outings as 007.

The only drawback, though is hte one htat "The Ghost Who Walks" mentioned that Bond is a little lost in computers and technology in a big part of the film.

[iexpectu2die]

I love Goldeneye, I find it incredibly atmospheric, and Brosnan very charismatic. I love his absurdly 'nice' delivery of "Well, I've had a lovely evening..." to Xenia.

Its hugest flaw, for me, is Eric Serra's score. An absolute travesty. But then again, I can't deny that it seems to add some kind of charm for me. For one thing, the N64 game borrowed the same sort of sound, and anything related to that game makes me smile!

[tim partridge]

The only drawback, though is hte one htat "The Ghost Who Walks" mentioned that Bond is a little lost in computers and technology in a big part of the film.

As are the filmmakers.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

and Brosnan looks better than in any of his other outings as 007.

I agree, and though I never thought I was going to write a thing like this, I think his hair looks a lot more "Bond-ish" in this one than it did later on, making him more, well, Bond-like in my book.

The best thing about GE might be the opening, which might be the finest of the series IMO.

[OmarB]

It was a fun romp but not spectacular. My problem with Goldeneye is my problem with all of that era, Pierce is too pretty! I never get the sense of a shark moving through the story as you get from the books or most of the other actors. Even Moore as goofy as he was did seem like a cold bastard who could snap on you at any moment if it fit into his plan for the mission.

[jaguar007]

and Brosnan looks better than in any of his other outings as 007.

I agree, and though I never thought I was going to write a thing like this, I think his hair looks a lot more "Bond-ish" in this one than it did later on, making him more, well, Bond-like in my book.

The best thing about GE might be the opening, which might be the finest of the series IMO.

I disagree. I think Brosnan looked to slight in the body but he had his big Remington Steele hair. His hair just looked to big for his body. I think Brosnan looked better in TND when he put on more weight and got a hair cut.

[JimmyBond]

The best thing about GE might be the opening, which might be the finest of the series IMO.

While I don't agree it's the best of the series (that honor goes to QoS, at least for me). It is a cracking sequence and does what any Bond opening should do: build up suspense, then end with a great finale.

[Turn]

My main complaint of the film is still the whole "theft of the Goldeneye" sequence. It just seems to take too long, and all Bond is left with is to stare at a computer screen. Not only that we're given information that Bond is not privvy too. I always felt it would be more interesting if we knew just as much as Bond did, so we didnt have to wait while he uncovered this out himself (not to be outdone though, I have this same complaint with Thunderballs stealing of the warhead sequence)

This is one of my criticisms as well. The film seems to take forever to get going, introducing and reintroducing characters, updating the series for the time, establishing the plot. It seems rather out of step with much of the rest of the series in that way.

I do look forward to watching GE on Blu-ray when they get round to it.

[zencat]

I've always liked GoldenEye. Great cast. Great locations. And it was the last truly witty Bond movie. It's sexy and fun.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I sort of like GoldenEye, but Natalya gets on my nerves fifteen minutes after we meet her, and Boris... well, don't get me started on that.

The so-called "dialogue" in this film, as well, leaves me aghast; who the hell thought "boys with toys" was a good line?

[MkB]

and Brosnan looks better than in any of his other outings as 007.

I agree, and though I never thought I was going to write a thing like this, I think his hair looks a lot more "Bond-ish" in this one than it did later on, making him more, well, Bond-like in my book.

The best thing about GE might be the opening, which might be the finest of the series IMO.

I disagree. I think Brosnan looked to slight in the body but he had his big Remington Steele hair. His hair just looked to big for his body. I think Brosnan looked better in TND when he put on more weight and got a hair cut.

Seconded. My only problem with Brosnan in GE is the haircut.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

and Brosnan looks better than in any of his other outings as 007.

I agree, and though I never thought I was going to write a thing like this, I think his hair looks a lot more "Bond-ish" in this one than it did later on, making him more, well, Bond-like in my book.

The best thing about GE might be the opening, which might be the finest of the series IMO.

I disagree. I think Brosnan looked to slight in the body but he had his big Remington Steele hair. His hair just looked to big for his body. I think Brosnan looked better in TND when he put on more weight and got a hair cut.

I don't know, I always thought he looked the most Bond-like in GE. Thinking of it, that might be because of the clothes he wears in the films more than the hair, though (isn't that uniform he wears in the opening pretty much exactly like the one Dalton had in the opening of TLD?). Physically, I think he looked like a pretty believable action hero in GE, though you could see a difference for the better in TND.

My God, I just wrote an entire paragraph analyzing Pierce Brosnan's looks.

[Double-Oh Agent]

GoldenEye is great. Bond is back, the action is great, the PTS is very suspenseful, good song by Tina Turner, and fantastic Bond girls. The only problems are the score (which is better when you listen to it on CD than how it works in the film) and Brosnan's hair.

[HH007]

I sort of like GoldenEye, but Natalya gets on my nerves fifteen minutes after we meet her, and Boris... well, don't get me started on that.

"AH! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!"

[sharpshooter]

I've always liked GoldenEye. Great cast. Great locations. And it was the last truly witty Bond movie. It's sexy and fun.

Quite. Undoubtedly Brosnan’s best Bond film, Martin Campbell struck gold twice.

[Colossus]

I always liked GoldenEye, 006 is such a great baddy. Probably my favorite post-70s Bond.

I like its overall feel most, the lovable fuzzyness. The end fistfight was brutal.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

This is also the only case I remember liking a video game adaptation more than the actual movie.

[Della Leiter]

I sort of like GoldenEye, but Natalya gets on my nerves fifteen minutes after we meet her, and Boris... well, don't get me started on that.

"AH! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!"

I agree 100 percent. I do love this movie (definitely Brosnan's best), but they annoy me to no end. 006 was fantastic. Period.

Pierce looks really good as Bond in this movie, if I do say so myself. I like his hair in this movie. It certainly is more Bond-ish; made me want to run my fingers through it or something... *shakes daydream of Pierce Brosnan out of her head* Anyway, it's one of my top 5 favorite Bond movies.

[double o ego]

I'm not even going to lie. I was a big contributor in the whole Brosnan hate and I used to think that GE was the most overrated Bond film in the history of the series. I still think GE is slightly overrated but Brosnan proved to be a fantastic Bond in his 1st outing and it's just a shame the rest of his movies held him back. Brosnan overall was good but he could have been great. However, GE was ruined big time by Serra's score and that horrenoud song of his at the end, ugh!

[BoogieBond]

Really like Goldeneye and fully agree Double-Oh Agent. Its a complete package of thrills and stunts, and I find Pierce good in this, I like some of the lightness that is used in this one, the line "Talented Girl" always brings a smile. Brozza's best film by a mile. Also due to the 6 year wait, we were all raring the go. I even don't mind the OTT tank sequence because it is so MovieBond.

[Col. Sun]

I really like GE. Brosnan's best IMO. I even think his performance is probably his best in terms of his age being perfect, his energy and, I may be wrong, but he also seems far less self conscious than he was in TWINE or DAD.

I also think Campbell creates a very stylish, 60'ish style, very classic Bond -- it has a retro feel like CR has.

GE is great fun.

[tim partridge]

For all of it's many flaws in story, dialogue, tone, characterisation, Boris etc. I think the direction is faultless and there is so much breathless enthusiasm in that side of it, but at the same time it's very conservatively lensed, much like a John Glen or Terence Young Bond movie. It feels like a very British spy film, made by Brits and happily ignorant of True Lies or whatever else was big in movie spies that year. Editing is brisk and pacey and the mood is really there thanks to the beautiful cinematography and Eric Serra's ambient score.

I must be the only person on Earth who also loves the Severneya theft sequence, which is as cold and brooding as aliens visiting a morgue. It's such a tense sequence, and terrifying to see Natalya scramble for her life as her co-workers are gunned to pieces. The following attack on Severneya is a masterpiece of action direction and suspense too. The countdown to detenation gushes adrenaline everywhere. Just on this level, GE is so incomparably ahead of any other Brosnan film.

Famke Jansen steals the show, Gottfried John is fantastic (the moment in which he guns down one of his own soldiers is classic suspense) and I agree with Col Sun on Brosnan nailing it performance wise in this one. Like Craig in CR, Brosnan just looks very much awake and concious of not messing anything up for Martin Campbell. You really get the impression that Bond is overwhelmed and taken by the surroundings and situations, not just being self aware and bored about the proceedings (like he was IMO on TND and DAD). I love how Brosnan runs like a panther, too, and fights like a bear (watch him in the Cuba elevator, grappling with that soldier and you've got something on par with Connery).

Also, unlike the other Brosnan films, I LOVE how the second unit/stunt work is indistinguishable from the main unit footage, and not a series of attention demanding stunts designed to stand out from the main story. It just really helps with the suspense, pacing and overall verisimilitude. It helps that the best action scene in the film, in which 007 fights 006, was actually directed by Martin Campbell, too.

In my honest opinion, I feel that TND got everything right that GE didn't (tone, script, written characterisation), but it didn't have anything that was special about GE (solid direction, cinematography, editing, moody music but mostly the enthusiastic direction of Campbell). If only you could combine the two...

[Harmsway]

I think the direction is faultless and there is so much breathless enthusiasm in that side of it, but at the same time it's very conservatively lensed, much like a John Glen or Terence Young Bond movie.

I think the direction's good, but not fantastic. It's easily better than the direction in most of the outings in the franchise, with a much tighter sensibility to it, but it's nothing truly stellar. I think Campbell's work on CASINO ROYALE is a huge improvement over what he accomplished in GOLDENEYE.

Editing is brisk and pacey and the mood is really there thanks to the beautiful cinematography and Eric Serra's ambient score.

I like the score. I think the cinematography ends up being so-so, largely just because everything looks so drab and gray. I wish the look of the flick had a bit more vitality to it. I know they were trying to go for a post-Cold War vibe, but I don't think it would have hurt to make it less dreary and give it all a whiff of exoticism.

In my honest opinion, I feel that TND got everything right that GE didn't (tone, script, written characterisation), but it didn't have anything that was special about GE (solid direction, cinematography, editing, moody music but mostly the enthusiastic direction of Campbell).

TOMORROW NEVER DIES had a good script? I'm astonished you think so. I think that flimsy piece of screenwriting merits nothing but scorn. Any good ideas contained in it are completely undeveloped or poorly handled, and the dialogue is simply awful.

[Judo chop]

GE is back up at the top of my Brosnan sublist. It feels like an excellent John Glen Bond film to me. I wish Campbell had dared to experiment outside of the mid-range shot every once in a while, but the action is great and he squeezed some pretty decent performances out of his crew.

I'm still fond of DAD for some reasons, and appalled by it for others. Overall, GE is way more even and thus is Brosnan's best.

I wish the BMW garage sequence in TND had occurred in GE so I could wave farewell forever to the former film without feeling any sense of loss.

[tim partridge]

TND has the least amount of plotholes of any Brosnan Bond, it's easily the most coherent of those too, clearly down to it being apparently influenced/modeled so much on the tried formula of SWLM etc. The dialogue is also the sharpest of the Brosnan films, with a certain refreshing dryness that sadly doesn't come off to best effect with what appears to be non-direction from Spotiswoode (a bit of a trademark in his films, if you've ever been unfortunate enough to watch duds like Turner and Hooch, Air America, Terror Train, et al). Wai Ling particularly is a brilliantly written Bond girl.

I still don't know what the story really fully is for GE. How did Alec become Janus? Why is his face scarred? Chemical explosion that was faked? Uhh?

I disagree with you strongly on the look of GE. Then again, I think I prefer "dreary" visuals, especially when they are done properly like here. That said, the Monaco scenes from GE are really warm looking and nice. I much prefer the smokey anamorphic GE over the ho-hum super35+2K DI of CR. As I have have said in other threads, I also love the WW2 military influence of Leavesden on GE, plus all of the old St Petersburg architecture, and yes I admit that such settings are inherently "dreary". Love the Severneya bunker too. The cold starkness across the film is great, and creates a real brooding synergy with Serra's score.

Edited by tim partridge, 07 April 2009 - 05:50 PM.

[Judo chop]

The dialogue is also the sharpest of the Brosnan films

Seriously?

Last time I watched TND, I made it as far as China. I turned it off because I couldn't take anymore of the dialogue. Unless by 'sharp' you meant something in the vein of 'a sharp stick in the spine'. For I can't recall a single intelligent moment in the whole first 30-40 minutes.

Consider that an invite: Help me to see.

[Harmsway]

It feels like an excellent John Glen Bond film to me.

Good way to describe it.

TND has the least amount of plotholes of any Brosnan Bond

In some sense, perhaps so. But the story still has more holes than Swiss cheese, including a lot of nonsense about how Britain's navy is somehow noteworthy enough to go to war with the Chinese without any aid from other foreign powers, etc. and so forth. TOMORROW NEVER DIES' narrative is based on the ludicrous assumption that the UK is somehow still a superpower in its own right.

The dialogue is also the sharpest of the Brosnan films, with a certain refreshing dryness that sadly doesn't come off to best effect with what appears to be non-direction from Spotiswoode (a bit of a trademark in his films, if you've ever been unfortunate enough to watch duds like Turner and Hooch, Air America, Terror Train, et al). Wai Ling particularly is a brilliantly written Bond girl.

Really?

I'm flabbergasted, if you think so. TOMORROW NEVER DIES had a level of puerile dialogue that stands out with the worst of the Bond films. Terrible one-liners, horrid innuendo, and characterization that falls completely and utterly flat. Nah, the dialogue in GOLDENEYE - while still overwritten - is miles beyond the howlers and groaners present in TOMORROW NEVER DIES.