Golden Eye(Zero Stars) I have to confess that I haven't seen any bond movies before except for the recently released prequel, which I sorta liked. I was somehow reluctant to watch these just based on people's description. But it turned out exactly to be what I feared - total brainless affair. Perhaps because I have seen similar movies like Entrapment and Miami Vice, the process of watching this one was painful. Somewhere near the last half hour, I thought the movie should have ended, with no story left. But they had to show all the cool(yawn yawn) stunt scenes they had filmed nevertheless. If you are not a fan of the bond series, skip this safely.
Mate, GOLDENEYE is HAMLET compared to Michael Bay's garbage (which I'm sure Irish will then try and fail to defend) in the "brainless thrills" department.
Anyway, the Roger Moore-era really honestly killed Bond. Oh sure all those movies in the 70s and 80s made a profit, but did anyone really care? Timothy Dalton could have been the ruthless bastard Bond, if EON were fully behind it, instead of trying to shoehorn him still as a Moore-charmer.
In a way, Craig is getting to do what Dalton wanted to do, except Craig has the keys to the kingdom now.
As for GOLDENEYE, it was a nice breath of fresh air for the Bond franchise. Plus, take away the Bond universe....and you have a decent spy action-thriller.
Plus, I think I liked GOLDENEYE back in the day because it offered us a new Bond...one that is aging, very mortal to the fact that the Cold War is over, and that he's failed many of his friends and loves in the past. I mean, you could milk that texture for any action template tale.
Instead, TOMORROW NEVER DIES And the subsequent Brosnan 007 entries don't bother with this and simply went on with business like the Moore-regime...nothing mortal or interesting Bond, just an archetype male that people picture themselves as. Pity.
Still, TND as a movie is actually a nice action movie until it jumps the boat(literally) in the 3rd with the stealth warship. Beforehand, you had Jonathan Pryce being the new non-ideological, self-profit wanting GOLDFINGER of the 1990s...but once we get on the ship, it becomes a bad John Woo movie.
