GoldenEye (1995) - Movie Review

Welcome to my old movie reviews, where I will spread out to you my other taste of movies, no matter how good or how bad. These old movies were the classics of the other movies that came out before, and I loved to talk about them. So here we are, discussing about the movie I watched recently (I know right, it’s crazy, and I felt terrible to only watch it now) and that movie is 1995’s GoldenEye.

(I do not own this poster)

GoldenEye was the first and best of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films; it gave the Bond Series CPR, after the long hiatus of Timothy Dalton Bond’s Licensed to Kill and way before Timothy Dalton was Roger Moore’s final years as Bond, to what I call the Austin Power years… absolutely not a great fan.

Martin Campbell is a great James Bond director, and an extremely underrated one; he understood the essence of Ian Fleming’s interpretation of James Bond, both in GoldenEye and Casino Royale. He was such a great director, and I loved both films. For now, I am going to give you GoldenEye, Martin Campbell’s first James Bond Film. To be respectful of those who didn’t watch the movie, this movie will contain some spoilers. You've been fairly warned.

Film Synopsis - When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006 (Sean Bean), a former ally-turned-enemy, only James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) can save the world from an awesome space weapon that -- in one short pulse -- could destroy the earth! As Bond squares off against his former compatriot, he also battles Trevelyan's stunning ally, Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), an assassin who uses pleasure as her ultimate weapon.

(I didn't write this. It's too cheesy to be approved by me.) 

The Pros

Martin Campbell’s understanding of Ian Fleming’s Bond - Martin Campbell gave a terrific direction to this movie, and also to the realism he gave to the characters in GoldenEye. He gave us some of the biggest differences between the previous Bond Films.

Firstly, James Bond is not a superhero. He is a good human being. James Bond actually had blood and scratches and injuries, implying that he is just like us, and he can also be very vulnerable. He is also not a character that goes around winking at the girls and then have sex with them after a while.

Secondly, speaking of sex, the Bond Girl in this movie was not a sex machine. She wasn’t there for the sake of a James Bond sex scene, although there is one in this movie, but there to help James Bond around the mission. She was useful, clever, smart, and not there to woo James Bond to love. She was a part of the story, and helped the story flow along, because she actually did something. Izabella Scorupco was impressive as a memorable Bond Girl. I also loved her use of Russian Accent; that’s the one accent I find extremely hard to imitate.

Finally, the villain in this movie is not a dude stroking a cat, or someone who lives in a gigantic mountain fortress with clumsy idiots working for him; he was a compelling villain, and just as vulnerable as Bond. He was human as well. In this movie, you can tell the villain is not useless either; James Bond met his match in this movie.

The movie had actual real human beings going around doing things. They are not cartoon, but realistic characters.

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond 007 - I loved him. He was such great Bond in the 90’s, and I had to give him more credit as he was so good in this movie, and after that the other of his movies he didn’t do as well. GoldenEye was his most memorable performance I’ve been known to the very least coming from him, and his competition of being the best Bond was Daniel Craig’s Bond.

He had the brilliant mix of Sean Connery’s interpretation of Bond, coming from the 60’s, and a bit of Timothy Dalton’s dark version of Bond from the 80’s. Thank god Pierce Brosnan didn’t have the Roger Moore kind of vibe. Otherwise the movie would have been ruined.

In this movie, you can even tell that Bond is emotionally conflicted about the fact that the villain in this movie was, well, his friend. That is a point I will come across later.

Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond, and I adored him. There are more characters I will adore though.

 (Wow, what charm.)

Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan 006 - Alec Trevelyan is, honestly, one of the best Bond Villains to ever exist in the James Bond series as a whole. Mainly because of how original the concept GoldenEye showed: it’s a movie of Agent vs Agent. The villain was James’ friend, code-name 006. His motivation of acting as a villain can be understood, and you can tell why he was so angered to do such a thing. He is clever, and as you can tell he knows his shit, and this reason is significantly why he is such a great villain. As he was James Bond’s friend, he is always ahead of James Bond, mainly because he anticipated and knew what James Bond will do, what kind of action he will take as an agent. He is a clever villain, and a great one. I loved that kind of idea, as it gives James Bond way more difficult taking him down. Sean Bean is almost undefeatable, and it is hard for Bond to take him down easily.

 

("I anticipate your every move.")

The Bond Girls - As I was saying, these Bond girls were real human beings, not sex toys for the Austin Power Bond to bang. Natalya, played by Izabella Scorupco, was a real human being with emotions, when she saw most of colleagues murdered in cold blood in front of her. She was a really nice character for a Bond girl, and I enjoyed it.

On the flip side, there is the evil Bond Girl, and possibly one of the most popular of the Bond Girls: Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen. She’s a brutal woman, and evil at the same time. She murders people in cold blood, while also acting as the old school Bond Girls (there as a sex machine), only a lot more violent. She killed people during sex by crushing their ribs. Ouch. Famke Janssen, once again, giving an impressive accent, killed it as Xenia Onatopp.

(Badasses.)

Judi Dench as M - Perfect casting choice for this character. Possibly the best casting choice the entire series has made. I loved especially the way how she captivated the character of M, giving her more of a personality. Before she came along, the previous M were always saying clichéd things like:

“Best of luck Mr. Bond! In a word of advice, don’t go around banging girls, but I know you will!”

That's all he ever say.

Then Judi Dench came along, and although having very little screen time just like the other previous Ms, her memorable quotes and a great monologue gave so much depth in M’s character.

"You don't like me, Bond. You don't like my methods. You think I'm an accountant, a bean counter who's more interested in my numbers than your instincts."

"…Good, because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to the young lady I sent out to evaluate you."

"If I want sarcasm, Mr. Tanner, I'll talk to my children, thank you very much."

“If you think for one moment I don’t have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong.”

Loved her in this movie, and I loved how Martin Campbell brought her back to the reboot for James Bond in Casino Royale.

 

("Bond...Come back alive.")

 

A great, compelling story - The story sucked me in to the entire movie, and I happened to not only wanted to watch great action sequences, but rather what happens next as the scenes go by. The story was great, and it didn’t give away all the plot points in the beginning, and it was a great spy espionage movie. Slowly, expositions were told to the audience, but they were done in a good way, not simply giving it away. GoldenEye was right smacked in the middle of a timeline where good movies were good thrillers that have great stories while also having good action sequences to help move the plot and movie along. GoldenEye was one of them.

Cinematography - One of the most underrated point of this movie. I get it, the movie is old. However, the cinematography in this movie is more than impressive. Martin Campbell had the eyes for those kind of camera angles and movement, as well as Casino Royale. The use of wide shots, panning around the actors as they move, were all great. It honestly is a good looking movie, even though the cameras used to film scenes were in low-resolution compared to cameras nowadays, the cinematography paid off, making it one of the best looking films in the 90’s.

Action Sequences - How can I possibly ignore the action in this movie? GoldenEye had some of the best action scenes I have seen for a long time. The cinematography aided the action sequences, along with a good musical score composed by Eric Serra, made scenes fast-paced. It was a reminiscent of Die Hard, and it’s absolutely brilliant. The shaky cameras were done well, and it doesn’t look like a claustrophobic mess, but a clean movie with unsafe action.

When I mean unsafe action, I mean it. They don't play it safe at all. The characters are vulnerable at that moment in the scene, and it helps grow the tension. I really appreciate it. The fight scene with Trevelyan and Bond was legitimately dangerous, and looks like it is not fake. The quick editing helped the scene grow thick with tension, as you see two friends-turned-enemies just beating the piss out of each other, and with it guiding along was the shaky cam as you see them throw each other across the room. How nice of them.

 (Admit it. They're awesome.)

The stunt work was nice. The jaw-dropping opening dam jump was an extremely great looking stunt. It’s something I obviously don’t see every day in movies. Another one we came across later was the tank chase. That was done well enough. Seeing cars crashing along as the tank charges on them are awesome. I mean it, literally. They were all practical. It must have been impressive for its time. Well, for me, it still is. Those were actual stunts, not a cluster of dumb special effects movies use these days.

Intense Scenes - The pen flipping and clicking done by Boris when Bond knew the pen is a hand-grenade. Come on, people. Enough said on that.

Tina Turner’s GoldenEye Song - The only competition for me this song was Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name from Casino Royale, Adele’s Skyfall, and Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger. It’s a great song, I suggest listening to it.

The Video Game GoldenEye - My friend’s father had a Nintendo 64, with quite a few good ol’ video games along with it. I play GoldenEye with him for a really long time. Adds quite a few nostalgia to my friend’s father, as I watched the movie with them and his father would occasionally go like: “Oh my god, it’s the dam level!” And he’ll be happier than ever. Those were the good times. But anyway, giving it the positive thing about this point, is the fact that the video game is not only great, but revolutionary at its time. Thank you, GoldenEye, you also gave an extremely well-made video game.

Neutral

Eric Serra’s Musical Score - The musical score is fine. It is not the memorable kind, but it was great because it fitted in with the action sequences. But taking away the musical score would have been no different. It is a good companion though. Also, my only one issue was with one particular song. It was played during a car scene in the beginning of this movie after the opening credits, and it didn’t work. It just doesn’t, and it sounded terrible.

Good Pacing – A movie with rich backstory, then a really cool action scene, and then more story, and more cool action scenes. The pacing in this movie is perfect. However, thanks to the love story, it stalled the movie and slowed it down, eventually stopping my interest. Before that, I forgot I was watching a movie. Sadly, the love scene kind of ruined it for me, but in the end, the pacing is fine.

The Cons

Some scenes did not age well - This has absolutely nothing to do with the Cinematography, don’t worry. However, some scenes when they use a green screen, for example, after the dam jump they used the green screen for one brief moment, and it obviously showed some outlines, implying that it of course couldn’t hold up anymore. Also, the view of the airplane flying across the exploding facility also used a similar technique, and you can obviously see the plane does not really fly across.

The Love Story - Somewhere in Martin Campbell’s checklist for a good James Bond movie, he forgot to do a love story in the plot. So, he made a last minute check and made a lovely-dovey scene before the movie was released.

No, I’m kidding, I’m not sure how he does it. However, the love story really didn’t work for me. It felt forced and surreal, and I didn’t buy it. It stalled the movie, and made us lose the focus of the great and compelling story we’ve been following through. Removing the love scenes could have made it so much better personally. You can already see the love between Natalya and Bond, so I feel like it was absolutely unnecessary. 

Conclusion

GoldenEye is a great example of what 90’s Thriller movies were like. The movie had a great and talented cast, great cinematography, a good musical score that helped guide the awesome action sequences along. But because some scenes didn’t age well, and the love story really made me lose the focus of the great and compelling story that is also worth mentioning, I’m going to give it this rating.

The Pros - 11

Neutral -2

The Cons - 2

Rating: FULL PRICE AWARD (5/6)

Might as well be making more great and classic Bond movie reviews. It helps put my interest in other old movies. Very well, I better start watching.

Also, my review of the video game GoldenEye might also come soon. Who knows :3

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