GoldenEye

Martin Campbell, UK/USA 1995, 130 minutes

After a break of several years, Pierce Brosnan is the new James Bond, stepping, jumping and sprinting into a role originally offered to him in 1986. It begins in typical Bondian fashion with a bungee jump off a 600 feet dam to infiltrate a Soviet chemical weapons plant with his friend and rival Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean). Years later, NATO's newest helicopter, the Tiger, is stolen by vampish Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), working for mysterious Russian Mafia boss Janus. Soon after, dainty computer programmer Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova (Isabella Scorupco) has one hell of a day at the office, (in her case, the top secret Space Weapons Research Centre in Severnaya, Siberia) and so Bond is sent after a secret satellite weapons system codenamed GoldenEye.

This is a return to the Bond of the Sixties - with a nod to the modernity of the Nineties. M is now played by Judi Dench, branding Bond a "relic of the cold war" and Bond no longer smokes. Even Bond's company car is a BMW. The realism of Dalton's Bond is replaced with more obvious humour and gratuitious bloodshed comparable with other modern actioners. Bond is international now, and that is evident in both the styling - Italian Brioni suits, English Church shoes and American Timberland boots - and the cast - a mix of Polish, Dutch American, English, French, German and Scottish actors. Natalya is no Bond bimbo. Intelligent and resourceful, at one point she bosses Bond around, as if he was some dumb henchman. Don't even think of calling Xenia Onatopp a bimbo, and even Miss Moneypenny jokingly threatens Bond with sexual harrassment charges.

Nevertheless, Q is as contemptful of Bond as ever, with an excellent range of toys and gadgets. Bond drinks vodka martini at casinos and personally prefers to drive an Aston Martin. The stunts and chases are more spectacular than ever, with some original scrapes that Bond has to get out of and a dramatic final confrontation. But you knew that already, for this is Bond, James Bond.

"This is the best Bond movie since On Her Majesty's Secret Service ****" - Empire

Review by Scott Keir
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97