I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all.
There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's continue things with the Pierce Brosnan era:
Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.
Goldeneye (R): Goldeneye was my first James Bond film so I'll always be a bit partial to it, but even on its own merits, this is a joyous movie. It's 90s action movie bliss, fun from start to finish, and a great introduction to Bond and all of the tropes that come with him. If I were to recommend any movie as a starting point, Goldeneye would be an easy pick.
Goldeneye is kind of a movie of two halves in that the first half is fairly slow and methodical, and the second half is pretty much nonstop action and excitement. Not to say that the first half of Goldeneye is bad, but aside from the usual action-packed opening, there aren't any grand setpieces for about an hour into the movie. Let's talk about that opening though because it's already one of my favorites. The first ten minutes of Goldeneye perfectly introduces Brosnan's version of Bond while throwing in a bunch of impressive stunts and a Sean Bean death for good measure. I adore Brosnan as Bond, regardless of the quality of his movies, I think he fits the character perfectly. He's suave, calculated, and quite frankly just really badass. After the opening, however, Goldeneye moves pretty slowly, focusing mostly on Bond spying on the henchman Onatopp as well as setting up the Bond girl Natalya, both of whom are fine characters though not super remarkable. The first half also tries to introduce a theme about whether or not Bond is relevant now that the Cold War is over. It's a super interesting idea, but unfortunately, Goldeneye kind of just drops the concept the scene after it's brought up. While the Craig films' relentless self-reflection got fairly tiring, at least they tried to explore their themes more thoroughly.
All my complaints stop, however, once Sean Bean's character, Alec Trevelyan, shows up again halfway through the movie, as we learn he is the true antagonist. This was already a great boon to the movie because I love Trevelyan as a villain. He's more of a rival/parallel to Bond than a flat-out supervillain and I think that's awesome, not only does the conflict between them feel personal but Trevelyan serves as an example of what Bond would be like if he went astray. I know Silva would later serve a similar purpose, but he feels too different from Bond for that to really work. Trevelyan is like if Bond looked in a mirror, their similarities are part of the appeal. As you might expect, the point Goldeneye gets its main villain is the point where the movie goes full-throttle and never stops. This movie is back-loaded to the brim with action scenes and setpieces, one after the other, and they're all phenomenal. From the ejection seat, to the shoot-out in the archives, to that godly tank chase, to the fight with Onatopp, Goldeneye's second half is relentless. And it all culminates in one of my favorite third acts ever, with the climactic and striking final battle atop the satellite. If a film can stick the landing well and leave a good taste in my mouth, I'm definitely going to be more willing to look at it fondly.
With a fairly slow start and interesting themes that it refuses to do anything with, Goldeneye probably isn't one of the most best-made films in the series, but it will always be one of my favorites. It's a perfect introduction to Brosnan as Bond and a pure fun action movie with bombastic setpieces, a fantastic set of villains, a thrilling second half, and a healthy dose of 90s excess and cheese.
4.5/5 Stars
Tomorrow Never Dies: People tend to say that Pierce Brosnan only had one good film, and having seen Tomorrow Never Dies, that couldn't be further from the truth. TND may not have excelled at too much, but it nailed pretty much everything, from the plot, to the characters, to the action.
When going through these Bond movies, something I've noticed is that the narrative is rarely a highlight, outside of Casino Royale, of course. Tomorrow Never Dies is an exception, I adore this movie's simple but effective story. The premise is simply that an evil news mogul named Carver destroyed a submarine to provoke war between the UK and China, so now Bond and a Chinese agent named Wai Lin have to team up to disprove and stop him before all-out war. Everything in Tomorrow Never Dies's story works. The premise is established early on, and we're given a ticking time limit of 48 hours before war starts, imbuing TND with a lot of tension right from the get-go. Wai Lin is a fantastic Bond girl, not just because Michelle Yeoh is a great actress, but because of her fun banter with Bond and large amounts of agency. But what really makes TND's plot work is the villain, Carver, himself. On his own merits, he's a very fun antagonist, played to hammy perfection by Jonathan Pryce. But what really elevates him to one of my favorites to date is just how shockingly real and prescient he is. A news mogul who incites a full-on war may have seemed a bit goofy in the 90s, but with the rise of the internet and the increased political polarization that's resulted from it, TND has never felt more relevant. Now more than ever, news companies have realized that their words have an impact and can shape the public perception of an issue, whether it's through bias or misinformation. So even with how hammy Pryce is as Carver, he's also incredibly terrifying.
Another thing Tomorrow Never Dies nails is the pacing and the action. Similarly to Quantum Of Solace, of all movies, TND is under two hours and pretty crammed with action. Unlike QoS, however, the movie feels purposefully tight, rather than rushed, and all of the action scenes are spaced out as to not overwhelm you. Also unlike QoS, the action is actually really goddamn good. From the opening where Bond fires an ejection seat into another plane, to the paper factory chase, to one of the most inventive car chases I've seen in a long time, to the handcuffed motorcycle chase, to the carnage-filled finale. Michelle Yeoh even gets a fight scene to herself and it's as fun and well-choreographed as you might expect. Aside from some predictably iffy CGI, the action in Tomorrow Never Dies is tight, bombastic, and wonderfully practical. Honestly, I really don't have many gripes with Tomorrow Never Dies. The only thing I could really criticize would be that the third act was a bit over-indulgent with the explosives, but even then, the final battle with Stamper was tense enough to make up for all of the bombast.
I'm kind of in shock considering my unadulterated love for Goldeneye, but honestly, Tomorrow Never Dies is kind of a better movie? It's tighter paced, the story is more focused, the villain's plan is shockingly relevant today, the Bond girl is one of the series' best, and the action is fantastic from start to finish. It doesn't reach the highs of Goldeneye but it's a more consistently strong movie throughout, and I honestly can't understand why anyone would hate it.
4.5/5 Stars
The World Is Not Enough: The World Is Not Enough is Brosnan's Spectre. It's a movie with all of the makings of a great Bond film, only to be dragged down considerably by a fatal flaw. TWINE doesn't quite top the ridiculous retconning of Spectre in terms of pure stupidity, but it comes really close at points.
The World Is Not Enough has a very promising premise. MI-6 is blown up in the crossfire of an assassination attempt, so now Bond has to stop the assassin from killing the victim's daughter, Elektra King, who unbeknowest to him, was the assassin all along. There's a lot of potential in this storyline, from the personal stakes that result from MI-6 getting blown up, to the fantastic twist that plays around with your expectations of the Bond formula. And when TWINE focuses on Bond and Elektra, it's fantastic. Brosnan gives a more rage-filled performance as Bond that fits the film's attempted tone perfectly, and Sophie Marceau as Elektra masterfully toes the line between Bond girl and Bond villain, making the twist feel believable. The first hour of TWINE is almost entirely focused on Bond and Elektra, and while there are some great moments later on (M getting involved in the plot, everything about Elektra), it's probably the high point of the movie. However, even it has its issues. The action overall is a huge step down from Goldeneye and especially Tomorrow Never Dies. It feels way more sluggish and generic, and even the fairly well-liked opening boat chase felt like it dragged on. I also felt that, since TWINE was initially trying at a more serious tone, goofy moments like Bond playing with his X-Ray Glasses felt a bit out of place. But a few weak jokes and mediocre action isn't enough to truly ruin the film. TWINE's problems go even deeper than that.
The ultimate problem with The World Is Not Enough is that it doesn't commit to its premise. Elektra playing double-duty as both Bond girl and Bond villain doesn't have the same impact because TWINE also has another Bond girl and another Bond villain, and neither of them are very good. Christmas Jones is the obvious low point here, an easy contender for worst Bond girl because she actively makes the film worse whenever she's in it. Denise Richards is already horribly cast as the character, her acting is really lousy and she lacks any chemistry with Brosnan, but what's even worse is that whenever she's on screen, the writing quality plummets. Maybe it's just her delivery, but her dialogue feels clunkier than everyone else's, and all the cheeky "Christmas" one-liners only elicited groans. The second Bond villain, Renard, isn't as bad because you kinda needed a decoy antagonist for the twist to work. But the problem is Renard isn't a decoy, he's on equal footing with Elektra even after the reveal, and he's the one Bond has the final battle with. He's not even a fun character at least, he just comes off as sniveling and uncharismatic (and he can not pull off that turtleneck). What really feels insulting about these two characters is the fact that it feels like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to give off the impression that TWINE is something new, but didn't have the confidence to go whole-hog and ultimately fell back into old habits.
Overall, The World Is Not Enough is probably going to end up being the Bond film that sticks with me the least. I really liked the Bond and Elektra stuff, there was potential here for one of the best films in the series, but with some unnecessary characters that drag the movie down, some weak action, an inconsistent tone, and a feeling that the crew is falling back into old habits, TWINE just comes off as middling.
2.5/5 Stars
Die Another Day: People tend to say that the Brosnan films as a whole are goofy and dumb, but I don't really think that's the case. Tomorrow Never Dies is probably the silliest of the first three thanks to Jonathan Pryce but even that has a fairly grounded story, but otherwise, I spent much of the last two films wondering where they got such a negative reputation. But then I saw Die Another Day... Oh, boy.
Die Another Day is the definition of "throw everything at the kitchen sink and see what sticks". It starts off with a gritty and muted opening where Bond is imprisoned in North Korea for over a year. He's then accused of leaking information while in prison so he goes off on his own to figure out who set him up. Okay, solid premise, unfortunately the first half-hour feels like an entirely different movie from everything else. Bond quickly turns back to normal despite his imprisonment in a fashion akin to Sonic Forces's very similar opening, we learn a North Korean colonel Bond killed is alive and used genetic engineering to change his own race to Caucasian (that's gotta be racist, right? That feels racist), there's a bonkers fencing fight, Madonna shows up as a guest star, Bond surfs an ugly CGI tidal wave, there's an invisible car, a palace made of ice, a mech suit?! Die Another Day doesn't just go off the rails, it goes off the fucking planet. Oh, and don't get me started on the bizarre editing, with its random slow-motion at the worst possible time. And oh my god, there's a scene where Bond goes to London and London Calling by The Clash starts playing? Bond is British, it's not like he's going to some foreign location! Die Another Day feels like a nonsensical collection of random ideas rather than an actual movie. There's no cohesion, no logic, every scene feels entirely disconnected from everything else. It's a mess, plain and simple.
It also doesn't help that Die Another Day is an anniversary film, and unlike other anniversary films like Skyfall and No Time To Die, which pay respect to the franchise through big emotional swings, Die Another Day just stuffs itself with callbacks to previous Bond movies. Even more, the plot references and takes influence from other Bond plots, which ends up really explaining why Die Another Day feels so disjointed. It's not trying to tell a good story on its own, it's taking nostalgic elements from the rest of the series and filling in the blanks. So yeah, Die Another Day is really bad, but that begs the question: Is it a "So bad, it's good" film ala Spock's Brain or a "So bad, it's bad" film ala Star Trek: Insurrection? Eh, it's kinda both. There are some genuinely great moments like the solid cold open, the thrilling sword fight, and literally everything about Miranda Frost, and there are also like some hilarious dumb stuff like Halle Berry and Toby Stephens hamming it up as Jinx and Graves respectively, that ridiculous car chase, and pretty much the entire final battle. I'm a sucker for early 2000s trash, after all, so there are points in DAD when I was really enjoying myself. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen too frequently. Die Another Day also has some really boring stretches, particularly in the notably less weird first half, making for an inconsistent "So bad, it's good" film. This isn't an ironic masterpiece like The Room or Spock's Brain, or a camp classic like Batman & Robin.
Overall, Die Another Day is easily the worst Bond film I've seen yet, and it's not even close. While it does have its genuinely good moments as well as some hilariously bad guilty pleasure moments, the enjoyable parts aren't quite prevalent enough for DAD to cross the line into full-on guilty pleasure. The movie is still bogged down by a disjointed and nonsensical plot, bizarre editing decisions, and horrid CGI.
1/5 Stars
Here's how I'd rank the Pierce Brosnan movies:
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Goldeneye
- The World Is Not Enough
- Die Another Day
See you next time when I review the James Bond underdogs, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby.
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