Review - GoldenEye (1995)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, after the release of The Man with the Golden Gun, Roger Moore continued on as James Bond for five more films: The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill. Shortly after that, Timothy Dalton took on the Bond role for two movies: The Living Daylights and License to Kill. Now, while Dalton was set to take on the role for a third time, a barrage of legal and financial issues led to endless delays, and the future of the James Bond series uncertain. Until, in 1994, a teaser trailer was released in theaters, announcing a new Bond film with a new actor as James Bond: Pierce Brosnan. And the name of that film was GoldenEye. 

             GoldenEye opens with Bond infiltrating a Soviet weapons facility in Arkhangelsk, and meets up with fellow MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan aka 006. The two head to destroy a massive weapons cache, but Alec is apprehended, and apparently killed, by the facility's leader Colonel Ourumov. Bond escapes, finds his way outside, and takes control of a plane just as the facility explodes. Nine years pass, and the Soviet Union has been dissolved, and Bond is driving around in Monte Carlo while undergoing  an assessment. Bond ends up in a brief street race with a woman driving a red sports car. Later that evening, Bond plays this same woman in a hand of Baccarat, and learns that her name is Xenia Onatopp, who is later revealed to be part of the Janus crime syndicate. Xenia later hooks up with a Canadian admiral, and kills him by crushing his ribs with her thighs while the two have sex. 

         The next morning, Xenia and Ourumov, using the admiral's credentials, take off in, and steal, the prototype Eurocopter Tiger with anti-EMP shielding. We then cut to a Russian satellite control facility in Severnaya, Siberia, where we meet Natalya Simonova and Boris Grishenko, two programmers working in the facility. The facility is then infiltrated and attacked by Xenia and Ourumov, who activate and steal an orbital EMP device called GoldenEye. Natalya survives the attack and escapes the destroyed facility, and she makes her way back to St. Petersburg in Russia. In London, Bond is sent by the new M to investigate the disappearance of GoldenEye, as well as the possible ties with Janus and the theft of GoldenEye. 

         In St. Petersburg, Natalya reaches out to Boris, who arranges a meeting, and she is captured by men working for Janus. Meanwhile, Bond meets with CIA agent Jack Wade, who takes Bond to Janus' competition: ex-KGB agent turned crime boss Valentin Zukovsky. Bond gives Valentin a set arms deal, in exchange for a meeting with Janus. Zukovsky arranges the meet, and all is square between Zukovsky and Bond. Bond then meets with Xenia, who attempts to use her usual methods of killing men to kill Bond, but he fights her off, and she takes him to meet the leader of Janus, who Bond is shocked to learn is Alec Trevelyan, alive and well, albeit with some facial scarring due to what happened in Arkhangelsk. 

         After being knocked out, Bond wakes up in a helicopter with Natalya, and the two escape before the helicopter is destroyed. They are then arrested and taken to the Russian Defense Minister for interrogation. The minister is killed by Ourumov, and he takes Natalya hostage, while Bond gives chase in a tank. Natalya is taken to a train with Alec and Xenia on board and the train takes off, running into Bond's tank on the tracks at the entrance to a tunnel. On the train, Bond reveals to Ourumov that Alec is one of the last remaining Lienz Cossacks, and would betray him in an instant. This is proved to be true when Alec kills Ourumov, and escapes with Xenia. Natalya then determines that Alec and Xenia are headed to Cuba, as that's where Boris is backing up his computer files. 

         In the Caribbean, Bond trades his new car, a BMW, that he got from Q earlier in the movie, to Wade for a plane. The next morning, Bond and Natalya head to the supposed location of the second satellite, which is revealed to be secluded by water. The water is drained and the satellite is prepped to activate GoldenEye. The target? London. Yeah, it seems that Alec's plan is to steal millions of British pounds via wire transfer, and wipe away any trace of the incident by blasting the whole of London with an EMP strike from GoldenEye. Bond and Natalya's plane is shot down, and the two are attacked by Xenia, who Bond kills. 

          In the facility, Bond confronts Alec, and Boris inadvertently activates an explosive pen (again, from Q), causing a major explosion. Natalya, meanwhile, deactivates GoldenEye, and Bond and Alec have a fight, which ends with Alec falling to his death, and the destroyed satellite array crushing him. Boris is frozen solid by a destroyed freon tank, and Bond and Natalya are picked up by the U.S. Marines and taken to Guantanamo. 

           GoldenEye was definitely a great movie. Pierce Brosnan definitely knocks it out of the park with his first outing as Bond, while both Izabella Scorupco and Famke Janssen are terrific as Natalya and Xenia. Sean Bean is a terrific villain as Alec Trevelyan, and the idea of seeing 007 go up against 006 is a brilliant idea. I also enjoyed Judi Dench in her first outing as the new M, taking over for Robert Brown, who in turn succeeded the late Bernard Lee. Other actors like Alan Cumming as Boris, Joe Don Baker as Wade, Robbie Coltrane as Zukovsky, Michael Kitchen as Bill Tanner, and Samantha Bond as Moneypenny were terrific as well. I also really enjoyed the movie's title theme, written by Bono and The Edge and performed by Tina Turner. The song, in my opinion, is among one of the best Bond themes of all time.

        Part of what made GoldenEye endure fro as long as it has was the video game tie in released for the Nintendo 64 console. The game, also referred to as GoldenEye 64, was one of the earliest examples of a successful first-person shooter game. Heck, the game was so popular that Eurocom, the developers of the game 007 Nightfire, worked on a remake of the game starring Daniel Craig as Bond, and features a cover of the popular movie theme performed by Nicole Scherzinger. It's pretty cool. Overall, GoldenEye is one of the best Bond films of all time, and definitely gets a rating of 5/5. 

       This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys when I cover the first two Bond movies of the Daniel Craig era: Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.