ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

GoldenEye (1995)

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 1970 to 2000
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 3:36 pm    Post subject: GoldenEye (1995) Reply with quote




It took me a while to get accustomed to Pierce Brosnan as the new face of James Bond, but now I think the four films he starred in are actually the best of the franchise.

I never cared for Roger Moore or any of his Bond movies, and Goldfinger stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Connery films, so the Brosnan Bond movies really don't have a lot of competition.

I think Pierce has his own version of the Connery Cool, giving him the ability to look smart, act tough, and occasionally be funny.

IMDB has 151 trivia items for this film, and I had to wade through them all to find some gold among the dross. Here's what I found. (Trivia items as in blue.)
______________________________

Before Pierce Brosnan was cast as James Bond, Liam Neeson, Mel Gibson, Sam Neill, Hugh Grant and Lambert Wilson were all rumored to be in the running for the role.

Note from me: I can NOT take "rumors" like this seriously. Could any of guys have played Bond. Nope. don't think so . . . Rolling Eyes

Roger Moore paid a visit to the set to see his son Christian Moore, who was working as a third assistant director. He quipped that early tests of Pierce Brosnan hadn't worked out, so he was brought back.

Note from me: I can actually see Roger doing this. I wonder if his son thought he was serious. What really makes this funny is that Bronan's own 22 year old son, Christopher Brosnan, was the third assistant trainee on the second unit, and I wonder if he heard the joke too!

Sean Connery recommended Mel Gibson as a candidate to take over as James Bond. He turned it down, as he was busy with Braveheart (1995).

Note from me: No. Not really. That can't be true. Sean thought Mel Gibson could take over for him?
Shocked

_____________ GoldenEye (1995) teaser trailer


__________

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
The Spike
Astral Engineer


Joined: 23 Sep 2014
Posts: 266
Location: Birmingham. Great Britain.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

James Bond. Charming, sophisticated secret agent. "Shaken, but not disturbed."

GoldenEye is directed by Martin Campbell and adapted to screenplay by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein from a Michael France story that uses characters created by Ian Fleming. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco and Famke Jansen. Music is scored by Eric Serra and cinematography by Phil Meheux.

Bond 17, 007 and his friend Alec Trevelyan (006) are assigned to destroy a Soviet chemical weapons installation but the mission goes awry and 006 is executed. Forward 9 years later and Bond is sent by M to locate a weapons system called GoldenEye that may have fallen into dangerous hands. Travelling into new Russia, Bond unearths a fiendish plot involving the GoldenEye and a face from the past threatens to usurp his efforts.

With the lengthy litigation issues between Eon and MGM/UA finally resolved, a new Bond went into production 6 years after Licence to Kill was released. By now Timothy Dalton had moved on to other things and had amicably left the role he so respected. This let in Pierce Brosnan, finally, someone who had long courted the role and was agonised to miss out on it back in 1986. A very popular choice, Brosnan would be the spearhead of a new strategy to update Bond for the 1990s. Michael France came up with a story involving new Russia since the Cold War had ended, the new M was to be played by a woman (Dench) and a dynamite cast assembled for the picture. Even a new studio was built at Leavesden, this because Pinewood had been taken over by another production-Sean Connery's First Knight! Press conferences went well, hopes were high that Bond could remain a viable action franchise in the mid to late 1990s.

"I might as well ask you if all those vodka martinis ever silence the screams of all the men you've killed... or if you find forgiveness in the arms of all those willing women for all the dead ones you failed to protect."

GoldenEye proved to be a great Bond film because the makers got most of the key elements right. They managed to freshen up things by way of the astute casting of Dench, the new Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) was appealingly feisty and they gave Brosnan a script perfectly tailored to his talents. Crucially the classic elements of previous Bond productions are deftly incorporated as well, exotic locations (Monte Carlo, Puerto Rico), tough and sexy Bond girls, gadgets, many different vehicles, strongly played villains and Bond also has to use brain and brawn at times. There are many who love the gadget side of Bond, and many who prefer him as an intelligent and tough human being, GoldenEye caters for both sides of the fence. One minute he's using a headbut to escape from a perilous cockpit situation, the next he's got a laser watch to get out of another deathtrap. Something for all here. There's also some edginess in the script, a truly great passage as Bond and M drink Bourbon, you can cut the atmosphere with a knife, a dialogue exchange about Cossacks where an acknowledgement comes from Bond that carries real weight and the barbed observations that Trevelyan throws Bond's way. While it's great to see a ruthless Bond in the final showdown. This is often mature and potent stuff.

Brosnan does great work, handsome, athletic and a magnetic screen presence, hell he even managed to carry off the witty one-liners that so many Bond fans seem to love. He is helped immensely by the cast put around him. Bean plays off of Brosnan very well and their interactions sparkle, while Dench wonderfully brings back the tension and respect aspects of M and Bond confrontations not seen since the Bernard Lee years. Scorupco gives Natalya Simonova great courage and cynical bite, nice to note that she never once glams up, she's always in her standard clothes as she tags along with Bond amongst the carnage. The stunningly sexy Jansen gets a villainess role of a lifetime as Xenia Onatop, a complete bad ass who gets sexual pleasure from death and destruction, she smokes cigars and dresses with an erotic kink. Gottfried John (General Ourumov), Robbie Coltrane (Valentin Zukovsky) and Tcheky Karyo (Dimitri Mishkin) skillfully act out their respective roles. While Desmond Llewelyn as Q engages in only the way he can.

Problems? Yes. Trevelyan's motives are a bit weak, nigh on unbelievable in fact. Alan Cumming's nerdy computer geek is annoying and at odds with the strong characters around him, and a couple of ludicrous deaths hark back to the cartoon parts of Roger Moore's era. While we definitely could have done with more Coltrane! Major problem is the score from Serra, as part of the "refreshing" process for a new Bond era, the makers brought in Serra to provide an experimental score, it doesn't work, the themes are out of sync with a Bond movie. Even his end credit song is wrong, he sings it himself and closes down a great action movie with puffy romantic strains. A shame since the title song is a strong one, belted out by Tina Turner and written by Bono & The Edge of U2 fame. No matter, GoldenEye survives the missteps to become a part of the upper echelons of Bond movies. Crammed with high energy action (Martin Campbell proving adept in this department, tank chaos a pure delight) and amazing stunts (oh my that leap off the dam), rich Bondian characters and top end production value, all sit nicely alongside a new and popular James Bond actor.

The worldwide box office sang to the tune of an incredible £351 million, proving once again that when Bond's viability as a box office draw is called into question, nobody actually does it better. 8.5/10

_________________
The quality of mercy is not strnen.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Krel
Space Ranger


Joined: 19 Feb 2023
Posts: 190

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The first Bond movie to feature another 00 agent, and see his face obscured.

I laughed when M told Bond that even though she had not been a field agent, she had no problem sending men to their deaths. WELL BIG SURPRISE THERE HUH? It made him look silly, and pointed out that she had no relevant experience. A mistake that undermined her character.

The best scene from the movie is a blooper. Bond and Natalya are in an elevator. Bond hands Natalya a pistol and asks her if she knows how to use it. Natalya completely fumbles checking the pistol. Brosnan, without missing a beat and in character, holds out his hand, saying "obviously not". Laughing

David
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

With the exception of Goldfinger (for sentimental reasons), I like all the Pierce Brosnan "Bond" movies much more than the sadly dated Sean Connery films.

One must acknowledge the passage of time and the changing world around us as we grow older. (Beside, the Connery/Bond films have clunky special effects . . . ) Rolling Eyes

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 1970 to 2000 All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group