Review of GoldenEye (1995) by Martyn M — 21 Dec 2014

In 1986 MI6 officers James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), agent 007 - and Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), agent 006 infiltrate an illicit Soviet chemical weapons facility at Arkhangelsk and plant explosive charges. Trevelyan is apparently shot and killed by Colonel Arkady Ourumov, but Bond steals an aeroplane and flees from the facility as it explodes. Nine years later Bond arrives in Monte Carlo to follow Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), a suspected member of the Janus crime syndicate, who has formed a suspicious relationship with a Royal Canadian Navy admiral. She murders the admiral to allow Janus to steal his identity. The next day they steal a prototype Eurocopter Tiger helicopter that can withstand an electromagnetic pulse. They fly it to a bunker in Severnaya, where they massacre the staff and steal the control disk for the dual GoldenEye satellite weapons. They program one of the GoldenEye satellites to destroy the complex with an electromagnetic pulse, and escape with programmer Boris Grishenko. Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), the lone survivor, contacts Boris and arranges to meet him in St. Petersburg, where he betrays her to Janus. In London, M (Judi Dench) assigns Bond to investigate the attack. Bond flies to St. Petersburg to meet CIA officer Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker). He suggests Bond meet Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), a Russian Mafia head and business rival of Janus. After Bond gives him a tip on a potential heist, Zukovsky arranges a meeting between Bond and Janus. Onatopp is sent to meet Bond at his hotel and attempts to kill him, but he overpowers her and she takes him to Janus. Bond meets Janus who reveals himself as Alec Trevelyan, who had faked his death but was badly scarred from the explosion at Arkhangelsk. A descendant of the Cossack clans who collaborated with the Nazi forces in World War II, Trevelyan had vowed revenge against Britain for their involvement in his parents' deaths. Just as Bond is about to shoot Trevelyan, Bond is shot with a tranquiliser dart, knocking him out. Bond awakens tied up with Simonova in the Tiger helicopter programmed to self-destruct, from which the two escape. They are immediately arrested by the Russian police and are brought to the military archives, where the Russian Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin interrogates them. As Simonova reveals the existence of a second satellite and Ourumov's involvement in the massacre at Severnaya, Ourumov bursts into the room and kills Mishkin. As Ourumov calls for his guards, Bond escapes into the archives with Simonova, where a firefight ensues. Simonova is captured and is dragged into a car by Ourumov. Bond steals a T-55 tank and pursues Ourumov through St. Petersburg to Janus' armoured train, where he kills Ourumov as Trevelyan escapes and locks Bond in the train with Simonova. As the train's self-destruct countdown begins, Bond cuts through the floor with his laser watch while Simonova locates Grishenko's satellite dish in Cuba. The two escape just before the train explodes. Bond and Simonova, now lovers, meet Jack Wade and trade Bond's car for Wade's aeroplane. While flying over a Cuban jungle in search of the satellite dish controlling the satellite, Bond and Simonova are shot down. As they stumble out of the wreckage, Onatopp rappels down from a helicopter and attacks Bond. After a struggle, Bond shoots down the helicopter, which snares Onatopp and crushes her to death. Bond and Simonova then watch a lake being drained of water, uncovering the satellite dish. They infiltrate the control station, where Bond is captured. Trevelyan reveals his plan to rob the Bank of England before erasing all of its financial records with the remaining GoldenEye, concealing the theft and destroying Britain's economy. Will 007 be able to save the world from this disaster?

At the time the script was being written the producers were under the assumption that Timothy Dalton would be renewing the role of Bond. It was written to match Dalton's darker, more realistic portrayal of 007. "Goldeneye" is actually the nickname of Bond creator Ian Fleming's beachfront house in Jamaica where, between 1952 and 1964, he wrote the Bond novels and short stories. It was named for the contingency plan that the SIS, whose members included Fleming himself, devised in the event of a Nazi invasion of Spain. The new arrangement of the Bond theme used in the opening was disliked by many fans and was replaced by a more traditional version in future films. In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, and said Brosnan's Bond was "somehow more sensitive, more vulnerable, more psychologically complete" than the previous ones, also commenting on Bond's "loss of innocence" since previous films. Several reviewers lauded M's appraisal of Bond as a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur", with Todd McCarthy in Variety saying GoldenEye "breathes fresh creative and commercial life" into the series. John Puccio of DVD Town said that GoldenEye was "an eye and ear-pleasing, action-packed entry in the Bond series" and that the film gave Bond "a bit of humanity, too". Ian Nathan of Empire said that GoldenEye "revamps that indomitable British spirit" and that the Die Hard movies "don't even come close to 007". Tom Sonne of the Sunday Times considered GoldenEye the best Bond film since The Spy Who Loved Me. Jose Arroyo of Sight & Sound considered the greatest success of the film was in modernising the series. However, the film received several negative reviews. Richard Schickel of Time wrote that after "a third of a century's hard use", Bond's conventions survived on "wobbly knees", while in Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman thought the series had "entered a near-terminal state of exhaustion." David Eimer of Premiere wrote that "the trademark humour is in short supply" and that "Goldeneye isn't classic Bond by any stretch of the imagination." I remember not being all that impressed when "GoldenEye" came out, and not being too happy about Pierce Brosnan taking over as Bond. I still agree with the fact that "GoldenEye" is mediocre in terms of the plot, way too much cold war memorabilia in the storyline if you ask me as this came out in 1995. I think that a rogue british agent as the main bad guy is not that satisfying either (but we did get to see that in "Skyfall" again, however Javier Bardem was a bit better than Sean Bean). The action is ok, but the stunts a bit way over the top at times, the "catching the plane midair without a parachute" was just too ridiculous in my eyes. Pierce Brosnan is not bad as Bond (as I thought then), but he is still a bit too stiff as Bond to really convince me. Famke Janssen´s Xenia Onatopp is just overbearing with such a ridiculous name. The lovely and beautiful swedish/polish Izabella Scorupco was a treat to see, even is she´s not fully convincing as a russian. All in all, "GoldenEye" is tops a 3 out of 5. Nothing more, nothing less.