Roy Tang

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Goldeneye (1995)

The Bond film reviews were starting to get a bit long for Twitter/notes, so a full blog post it is.

Goldeneye (1995). Bond film no. 17 and first for Brosnan. The films are starting to look “modern”, but might just be because this is the first Bond film to come out after I graduated high school and that’s what I see as “modern”. I didn’t see this in theaters when it first came out though.

We get that dry wit and humor back, and a bit more modern armaments. Not sure if I’ve ever seen Bond use an automatic weapon before (usually it’s just the PPK). Sean Bean is here as 006, but I knew that already. I imagine him coming back was intended as a huge twist in theaters, but that’s kinda spoiled with him getting top billing in the opening credits sequence. Unremarkable opening theme by Tina Turner (not really a fan of that genre of music).

First appearance of Judi Dench as M, who gets a bit more characterization compared to her predecessors. The film tries to address some of the series’ more problematic tropes, with M telling Bond he’s a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War”. New Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) is less enamoured over Bond. His CIA ally even complains about the “stiff-assed Brits” and their “codes and passwords”.

Famke Janssen gives a great and insane performance as the sadistic henchman Xenia Onatopp. Not sure why that Russian general was involved in 006’s plan, he was introduced as some kind of “iron man of Russia” so I initally thought he had some kind of political ambition. In the end it was all about money after all (and vengeance for 006).

Might proceed to the next film (Tomorrow Never Dies) later today!

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