Bond is back. Or is he?
Pierce Brosnan is the new 007 in the latest James Bond thriller, "Goldeneye." I confess to being a little curious to see if Brosnan is capable of following Sean Connery as the world's most dashing secret agent.
After seeing the movie it is obvious that Brosnan is better than Roger Moore in the Bond role. It always bothers me that Moore has blond hair, when Ian Fleming always described Bond as being dark. Moore also lacks the ability to project total seriousness, a necessity for the Bond role.
Brosnan's look is reminiscent of a younger Sean Connery with something of a quirk of amusement around the mouth. Dark. Sometimes dangerous.
"Goldeneye" has a complicated, somewhat fatuous plot. But the plot is not why most people attend a Bond film. Cool is the reason. And Brosnan is cool.
During a particularly silly chase scene when Bond is driving a tank in pursuit of a car, Brosnan shows his mettle. The chase drags on and on, while Brosnan plays it straight. He knocks over several buildings and destroys half the cars on a Russian Street.
When the tank rolls to a halt, Bond shrugs his shoulders and tugs his tie, not a hair out of place. Brosnan wisely shows his amusement with a curl of the lip, not a smile.
Brosnan is understated, the perfect pose for a latter-day comic book hero.
Bond manages to destroy two Russian capitalists, characters reminiscent of Boris and Natasha Badinoff of "Bullwinkle" fame. He also kills scores of bad guys and a 006 agent gone sour without wrinkling his perfectly pressed Saville Row suit.
Not bad for a former television detective ("Remington Steele").
The two leading female characters are no longer one dimensional "Bond girls." They are women fully in control of their lives.
Famke Janssen hisses and leers her way through the film playing the vile Xenia Onatopp, who squeezes her lovers to death with her thighs. All the really good lines belong to Onatopp, and she makes the most of them.
The "good girl" is top European model Izebella Scorupco who plays a Russian computer wizard and Bond's lover.
Albert R. Broccoli, who produced other Bond films brought "Goldeneye" to the screen. And, even though the many action sequences are exciting, there is little dialogue. The old Bond movies seemed to have lines more lines with humorous quips.
Broccoli relies almost entirely on visual stimulus. In future films more dialogue and less special effects could be in order. Modern audiences raised on MTV will still "get it."
The movie is hardly original, it is a kind of "Moonraker" with updated special effects.
Most people will enjoy the film, if they like action movies. And although Brosnan turns in a good performance, Bond purists may prefer Connery.
The good news is that Bond is back. He still orders his martinis shaken, not stirred, he still introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond," and the ladies still find him devilishly attractive.