007 days of Bond: GoldenEye

After a 6 year hiatus due to financial difficulties at the studio, James Bond was back - this time starring Pierce Brosnan. Excluding the Bonds who had fewer than three films during their run, it's quite interesting that the best film that Brosnan made was his first as Connery and Moore improved later on in their respective runs.

In this outing, James Bond's mission is to explore the destruction of a Russian military base - believing that a device they previously believed to be fictional, "Goldeneye" to be the culprit. Goldeneye is a weapon that emits a strong EMP that destroys all electronics in it's path. He teams up along the way with Natalya Siminova, a survivor from the Russian military base before it was destroyed by Russian General Ourumov and his accomplice, Xenia Onatopp. While investigating a ghost from his past comes back to haunt him.

Compared to his later outings, Brosnan actually seems to be enjoying his role, and plays character like he isn't going through the motions.

The highlight of the film is Sean Bean. His casting was perfect for the role of Alec Trevelyan. Returning is also Joe Don Baker, this time as Jack Wade, a quasi-replacement for Felix Leiter. Robbie Coltrane appears as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, who reprises his role in the uninspired The World is Not Enough. Alan Cumming plays an incredibly annoying Boris Grishenko, who just happens to have some of the more memorable lines in the film.

Izabella Scorupco plays an iffy Bond girl. She's decent, but it feels like they tried to empower her too much with that mid-90s "girl power", which unfortunately left her with little to work with. Famke Jansen's character is so over-the-top that it passes that threshold of "so absurd it's good."

Certainly the only Brosnan film worthy of this list.