GoldenEye (1995) - film review

British agent James Bond is sent to Monte Carlo to tail Xenia Onatopp, a member of the mysterious Janus crime syndicate.  Bond fails to prevent Onatopp and her associate General Ourumov from stealing a revolutionary new helicopter which is capable of withstanding an electromagnetic pulse.  Onatopp and Ourumov take the helicopter to a secret Russian research base at Severnaya where, having slaughtered the staff, they steal the control disks for a satellite weapon named GoldenEye.  Bond’s mission takes him to St Petersburg, where he learns that Janus is a former associate of his, Alec Trevelyan, who has turned traitor to avenge the West’s betrayal of his parents at the end of WWII.  Trevelyan intends to use GoldenEye to destroy the West’s computer systems, thereby inflicting a catastrophic financial meltdown...

After a six-year long hiatus, during which United Artists and Danjaq (the owners of EON Productions) were locked in a seemingly intractable legal wrangle, the James Bond movies finally made it into the 1990s, with an action-packed extravaganza which was to provide the template for the series over the next decade.  Timothy Dalton had given up the part after two films (one of which had been a near-flop in the United States) and 42-year-old Pierce Brosnan stepped into the role as though it had been custom-made for him.  Although critical opinion was divided, GoldenEye proved to be a huge commercial hit and ensured that the Bond franchise would thrive into the new millennium.

As a straightforward action adventure, GoldenEye is a respectable offering for its time, although it sacrifices character depth in favour of wham-bam action spectacle and is one of the most superficial of the Bond movies.  After a concerted effort by the previous production team to move away from the innuendo-based silliness of the Roger Moore years and make a Bond a more believable and human character, the team on GoldenEye reverted to the old formula that had proved far more popular, which meant more gadgets, gimmickry and an endless stream of puerile gags about sex.  GoldenEye probably owes much of its success to the fact that it plays the nostalgia card with shameless abandon and on several occasions it feels like a crude pastiche of the Roger Moore Bond films.  The film is significant in that it is the first in the series not to use any elements from the Ian Fleming novels (other than Bond and his secret service associates).

In his debut outing, Brosnan looks more comfortable in the part of Bond than his predecessor ever did, although his characterisation lacks substance and at times he looks like a synthetic copy of Moore (albeit somewhat rejuvenated).  Perhaps the most likeable portrayal to date, Brosnan’s Bond is charming and heroic, but is more comic-book superhero than the flawed hero that Timothy Dalton attempted to bring to his interpretation of the part.  Judi Dench is inspired casting for the part of M and Sean Bean makes a surprisingly effective villain (although you could argue the film might have been much more interesting if Brosnan and Bean had switched roles).  The script offers little opportunity for character development, but the cast make the best of what they are given and there is hardly a dull moment.  Whilst the film is somewhat shallow and prone to silliness in parts, it is an entertaining non-stop rollercoaster - the best re-launch the series could have hoped for at a time when, with the Cold War consigned to history, Bond was looking decidedly out-dated.

© Steve Chandler 2011

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