Goldeneye [VHS]

Great pure entertainment just fun

Ahead of its time

Goldeneye is the seventeenth Bond movie in the series, and the first of four with Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. Indeed, it is the best of his four. Following a Scot, an Australian, an Englishman and a Welshman, Bond was now played by an Irishman. In my view, Brosnan was a good Bond, but the lack of control over his part that Dalton insisted upon meant that this and the other three of his movies led to Bond becoming a parody of his true self. Like the final movies of Roger Moore in the role, Brosnan's script emphasised to an absurd degree the superhuman strengths and luck of the part, as well as the equally absurd humour. Humour is good in Bond but it must be a dark and brutal humour to be credible: playing Bond for laughs shows a lack of self-respect for the man. 'Goldeneye' was the one Brosnan movie in which these aspects were most under control.`Goldeneye' followed a little hiatus of six years since the previous movie, `Licence to Kill'. During that time, the Soviet Union finally came crashing down, and the Bond team had to face the fact that the Cold War was over. There was also a great technical revolution during that time as Bond finally moved into the digital age. As well as a new Bond, there is a new M in Judie Dench, it being a conscious decision to make the female parts tougher. (The title at the head of this review is her description of Bond.) It's over an hour before Bond gets his first kiss.There were a number of new faces in the Bond production team too, most notably of course the director, Martin Campbell, who contended that, "If we don't get this right, the series is dead." As the extras on the double-DVD show, Campbell is a man with a lot of energy (to put it diplomatically). Other new faces include Daniel Kleinman (for the late Maurice Binder), and Eric Serra doing the soundtrack.There are the usual amazing stunts (jumping off a dam) and the usual ludicrously unbelievable stunts (freefall to catch up with and steer to safety a plane, tank chase through Saint Petersburg). Bond still escapes a million bullets without a hair falling out of place (but see the note about the censors, below). Thankfully the undercranking of the camera was kept to a minimum, and was not enough to make it obvious.Despite being only one commentary, there is a generous helping of extras on the double-disc version. In the commentary we learn that the amazing opening dam jump was done for real, was a world record, and was done on the first take: it was the only take! We also learn that Sean Bean himself had once been a contender for the Bond role. I was interested also to learn that the censors do not like to see blood, or to see bullets hitting their mark, but they do not mind high body counts! So my previous gripes about Bond movies should be mostly laid at the censors' door rather than the producers'. (But it would be interesting to see a woman direct a Bond movie.)There are the usual deleted scenes, anatomies of scenes, location-scouting, model-making featurettes. One of the best is a thirty-minute `Secret File', where you learn the production secret that comprises cat-litter and self-raising flour? There is also a good forty-minute TV special, `The World of 007', introduced by Liz Hurley. It's over-the-top and camp, but features some interesting interviews with the likes of John Barry, Roger Moore, and a variety of actors and production team staff.

For whatever reason, and despite Ian Flemming himself stating that Timothy Dalton was the closest interpretation to Bond that he’d seen, Dalton left the iconic role after only two films (which weren’t as bad as some people like to make out!). And, the role of the super-spy went to the man producers had been trying to attract for some time – Pierce Brosnan. And, although it’s probably fair to say that when people look back on the history of Bond, he too wouldn’t be described as many people’s ‘favourite’ Bond, he did make advances in bringing the franchise right up to date.Right from the beginning we meet our new Bond bungee jumping into a Russian base. Now, I know these days most people know what bungee jumping looks like, but, back in 1995, it was actually quite an event seeing it done on the big screen. Yes, the plot isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, i.e. a Russian presence trying to exact revenge on the West, but it’s just so new seeing such a ‘modern’ Bond. Gone are the days of blatantly ‘blue-screening’ the action behind the actors and now Bond can happily sky-dive into a falling plane and make it look real (well, as real as jumping into a falling plane and piloting it to safety can look!). I feel like I have to dwell on this ‘modern feel’ because it is this film’s major change from previous incarnations. The action looks better, the chases are more fantastical (the ‘tank chase’ being the highlight!) – it’s just totally Bond for the new nineties generation.The ever-wonderful ‘Q’ is on hand to smooth over the transition of old to new Bond, but the modern feel is not just helped by (another) new Moneypenny, but also having a female M, brilliantly played by Judi Dench, who states much of the criticism that’s been levelled at Bond throughout the franchise, i.e. he’s a misogynistic relic of a bygone age! Add great supporting performances from Sean Bean, Robbie Coltrane and Famke Jannsen (a henchwoman who likes to crush her victims between her thighs in the heat of – er – ‘passion’ and you have an action-spy movie that really roles along nice. As I mentioned, the plot isn’t anything spectacular, but the overall look, feel, cast and a wonderfully-snarling rendition of the title song ‘Goldeneye’ by a Tina Turner at her best, really elevates what – by rights – is nothing more than an average movie to one that really feels like the Bond franchise has been given a shot in the arm.‘Goldeneye’ may not be technically the greatest of the long-running saga, but it certainly cements its place in the franchise by being the most different from what came before it. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan and should even entertain casual fans of the action genre. Oh, and did I mention that Pierce Brosnan is also pretty damn good as the lead? He keeps the wry charm of Roger Moore and the ability to add just the right amount of humour to the role without it becoming a parody of itself. Plus he’s believable enough as an action hero when he’s gunning down hordes of faceless Russian hoods. Overall, a damn fine ride.

Cheesier than I remember from when I was a young but still good.