Originally, he was added for Spy Who loved Me, when Bond reports with the tracking system overlay, which is discussed at the Admiralty.  He was there to be an outside civil servant.  Bond later reports to M, in Cairo.  In Moonraker, Keene was again there to represent the outside government, since the Moonraker shuttle was a touchy diplomatic issue.  He was there in For Your Eyes Only because Bernard Lee was dying of cancer and succumbed before he could film any scenes.  They added the Chief of Staff to represent the chain of command.  Sir Frederick is there in Octopussy to add continuity to new M, Robert Brown, then has a smaller appearance in View to a Kill.


Largely, he is there because Lee's health was bad (he was diagnosed with cancer, in 1980, but had lost his wife, in a fire, in 1972 and took to drinking, and had few roles, beyond Bond, for several years) and to expand things a bit, in terms of bringing in the outside government.  I suspect it was supposed to be a one-off, in Spy, but Broccoli liked him and had him brought back for later films, plus to help cover for Lee.  Ironically, Robert Brown, who took over the role, played the First Sea Lord, in Spy.  I didn't mind his presence and was happy to see Bill Tanner, the Chief of Staff, in FYEO, after he made frequent appearances in the novels (and was a friend of Bond's, within the Service).  They didn't use the character again until later, in Brosnan's run, with Michael Kitchen (of Foyle's War fame). 

Goldeneye



Starring Pierce brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Jansen, Alan Cummings, Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Joe Don Baker, Michael Kitchen, Colin Salmon, Robbie Coltrane, and Tcheky Karyo.

Released November 1995.

In 1986, Bond and 006 (Alec Trevelyan), infiltrate a chemical weapons facility in Arkhangelsk and mayhem ensues. 006 is caught and Bond escapes, as 006 is killed. In 1995, in Europe, Xena Onatopp steals a high tech French attack helicopter, under Bond's nose. it is then used by her and Russian Gen. Orumov to infiltrate the Goldeneye satellite weapon system and murder everyone but programmer Natalya Simonova and Brosi Grishenko, who was an accomplice. The satellite has a weaponized EMP mechanism. Natalya learns that Boris is alive and arranges to meet him in St Petersburg. Bond is tasked to investiigate the Goldeneye incident, with the aid of CIA man Jack Wade. he makes contact with ex-KGB officer Valentin Zukovsky, who points him towards the Janus crime syndicate. Xena tries to seduce him and Bond turns the tables and forces her to lead him to Janus, who turns out to be a very alive 006. Bond is captured and left to die, with Natalya, but manages to trigger an ejection seat in the boobytrapped helo and they escape. Bond is picked up by Russian authorities and meets with Defense minister Mishkin, who is murdered by Orumov, with Bond framed. bond escapes in a tank and tears through St Petersburg. Bond kills orumov but 006 escapes to Cuba.

Bond and Natalya meet up with Wade, in Florida and sneak into Cuba. They get to the control center for a second satellite and put a monkeywrench into the works. Bond and 006 fight on an antenna array, while Natalya spikes the computer system, while Boris tries to unlock it, before he is killed by liquid nitrogen. The satellite is destroyed and Bond and Natalya go f or a bit of nooky, when Wade turns up with some spec ops operators.

The film was long delayed, due to the lawsuit and counter suit between Eon and MGM. When it was finally settled, Dalton had bowed out. This allowed Pierce brosnan to get his chance to play Bond (though liam Neeson and Mel Gibson were talked to). The name comes from Ian Fleming's Jamaica home, which was named for an actual espionage mission. It is given to the Russian EMP satellite weapon system.

Brosnan is an excellent Bond, mixing the charm of Moore with the deadliness of Connery. Sean bean makes for a great turncoat 00, who is actually Bond's superior, in the field. Famke Jansen gets to go nuts as the psychotic Onatopp. Robbie Coltrane is fun, as Valentin, who gets to return. There is a heavy Luc Besson connection, thanks to the presence of Tcheky Karyo (Bob, in Nikita, as well as a French knight, in Messenger) and composer Eric Serra, who does the music. I half wished Besson had directed, though Martin Campbell knocks it out of the park. This is what we wanted in Bond, as a classic Bond, deadly and charming, spectacle, a great villain, twists and turns, good actors, and stunts mostly in service to the plot. The opening teaser sequence is great piece, topped off by the bungee jump.

Judi Dench is an M for a new era, inspired by Stella Rimington, who was appointed as head of MI-5 (Security Service, tasked with counter-intelligence), in 1992. She plays it with her usual skill and gusto. She is as hard nosed as Admiral Sir miles Meservey, the original M. Michael Kitchen gets to bring Bill tanner, Chief of Staff alive, while colin Salmon, who made a stir in the second prime Suspect series, plays an MI-6 tech. Samantha Bond makes a nice Moneypenny, for a new era and has great chemistry with Brosnan. She would later turn up in Downton Abbey, to great effect.

Tina Turner does the theme song, which fits the era, while feels like a Bond theme. She gives it the heat that Gladys Knight lacked in License to Kill (having a better song helps). Eric Serra proved a bit controversial; but, I liked it. Serra is a bassist, so his scores are heavy on base, with lots of synth; but, he makes good use of strings in the theme, which helps propel the action. His score for Nikita is tremendous and one of the first I ever bought, for the score, rather than songs. he delivers a similar feel, here, though Bond doesn't quite allow for the beautiful melodies he had in Nikita. he topped this with his score for Fifth Element, in my book, especially the Diva scene.

This was a really great return to form for Bond and brought it into its 4th decade, when many thought it might be dead. Sadly, Cubby Broccoli didn't live to see it, as he died soon after the release. his failing health meant he wasn't actively involved in filming, as daughter Barbara took over the financial stuff, while stepspn michael G Wilson had bee a co-producer since View To a Kill, and had been involved in the script development since FYEO. Special effects man, derek meddings also passed away, with work on the Goldeneye satellite sequence being his last work, in the series. Meddings earned fame working for Gerry Anderson, before moving on to the Bond films and other productions.

In the gap between License to Kill and Goldeneye, the Soviet government collapsed and the Union fell apart. This is captured in the title sequence, as we see Soviet icons collapsing. This new situation greatly informs the film, with the rise of the Oligarchs and crime syndicates within Russia, which created the environment that brought Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB officer, to power (dictatorship).

Sadly, this would be the apex for Brosnan, as the subsequent films have issues that were largely absent, with this first film. Script became a major issue, with Brosnan and Quentin Tarantino both suggesting Casino Royale as a script source for bring the series back to something more grounded.

Next Thursday Night on TCM ... they will be showing Dr. No on Prime Time and working it way up to Brosnan's films - every Thursday in the month of September.

If you want to try a female Bond, all you need to do is adapt this, faithfully....



Modesty Blaise was a thrilling comic strip and novel series, with a strong, capable female lead, who could kick Bond's hinder.  However, she was never adapted well to other media, especially film.

By far, Goldeneye is Brosnan's best film which unfortunately says a lot about his time in the role. A shame though because he is the complete package with both charm and cold cunning. Sean Bean is fantastic here. I always love it whenever we see other 00 agents (the last time being, what is 006 who was murdered in Octopussy?) The tension and pain of betrayal is carried wonderfully throughout the film between the pair and encompasses many facets of their formenting rivalry from loyalty to skills to fighting over the girl(s).

Alan Cummings is great as the comic relief. I much prefer Jon Don Baker here versus his previous role in Living Daylights, he finds much better use of his manic energy as Wade. I love Colonel Ourumov especially in the chase scenes (in St Petersburg I believe?) Seeing Bond crash through a wall in a stolen tank to continue chasing him only illicit his response of casually taking a swig from his metal flask in what seems to be perfect nonchalance. Love it! 

There's a moment though when I'm taken out of the film and it's in Brosnan's first meeting with Dench's new M. She remarks on his male behaviour and attitudes over the years and wonders if there's room for such archaic thoughts in this new modern society. To me, it just raises the longstanding underlying question of, is this the same Bond we've been watching all these years only through different actors? Such a question always lurks in the background (at least for me) and often doesn't distract from or take away any enjoyment I find in watching these films, only rising to the surface in small moments such as this one.  

Forgot to mention; Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench have a long history together. they co-starred in the tv comedy As Time Goes By, as lovers who were parted by the Korean War and who meet again, decades later, and rekindle the romance. It was a wonderfully pleasant and sweet series, with a terrific cast and sharp writing. They also co-starred in Mrs Brown, where Dench played Queen Victoria.

The World is Not Enough



Starring Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, John Cleese, and Goldie.

Released November 1999.

Bond picks up money in a bank, in Spain and looks for the name of a killer of an agent. the banker is killed by a woman, before Bond gets his info. he returns to London and drops off the money, which is boobytrapped and explodes, within MI-6 HQ. Bond chases the assailant in a high tech speed boat, across the Thames, to the Millennium Dome, where she tries to escape by hot air balloon, but kills herself, rather than be caught. Bond survives and the money is traced to an ex-KGB agent, known as Renard, who had previously kidnapped Elektra King, daughter of the billionaire killed at the MI-6 office (for whom the money had been gathered). Renard had been shot in the head; but survived and his pain centers were severed from neural contact. Bond is tasked to protect Elektra, in Azerbaijan, and they are attacked by assassins in parahawks. Bond stops them and goes to see Valentin Zukovsky and learns that Elektra's head of security Davidov, who is in league with the killers. Bond kills Davidov and replaces him on a flight to Kazakhstan. He masquerades as a nuclear scientist, on an inspection of a missile silo, being deactivated. There, Renard is removing locator cards and plutonium, from a warhead. Bond is discovered by American advisor Dr Christmas Jones (groan!) and they end up trapped in the silo, with a bomb set to go off. Bond gets them out. In Azerbaijan, Elektra reveals herself as in league with Renard and sabotages her own pipeline and abducts M, for revenge. Bond visits Valentin, again, and they are attacked by Elektra's goons and barely survive. Bond goes after Elektra. Renard is set to sabotage a Russian nuclear sub, to create an incident and M is able to use the locator card to send a signal that can be traced. Bond and Jones are captured and separated, with Bond held and tortured by Elektra, until he is saved by Valentin. Bond kills Elektra and goes after Renard, rescues Jones, kills Renard and prevents the meltdown. Then, Bond conducts an experiment to see if a cliche about Christmas being true.

So, this one. This is a really hard film to either tear apart or praise. It has moments and it has some really bad stuff in it. It's a major disappointment, from a story standpoint, as it makes little sense. The basic, barebones plot is that Elektra, suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, aids Renard in his anarchist terror. The twist was that she seduced Renard into her own vengeance and anarchy. That's all well and good. However, the execution is all over the place. Once again, the script seems cobbled together to feed too many agendas, instead of telling the story, which is the whole point.

The cast is good, again, though why Goldie (a British musician and DJ) is involved, as he isn't an actor and demonstrates that fact. However, his presence is minor. The unfortunate addition is Denise Richards, who is the least credible nuclear physicist ever (and that includes in porn films) and is at the level of a bad high school actor, who seems to get jobs because of her looks. Well, that has never stopped Eon before and the tradition continues and she drags the film down every time she is on screen. Poor Robert Carlyle is pretty much wasted, as Elektra is the real villain and he is reduced to henchman. Also, the whole brain injury gimmick means that Carlyle is pretty much emotionless. The guy who built his rep as Begbie, in Trainspotting, Hamish MacBeth, and Adolf Hitler is stuck playing a Russian zombie.

Now, Sophie Marceau is fantastic and would have made a great villain, without Carlyle, without the daddy issues. She plays manic wonderfully, is gorgeous and charming and sexy as all hell. She turns a torture sequence into something sexual (though Hollywood has a long tendency of that). She is such a great actress (Forget Braveheart, watch Revenge of the Musketeers and Female Agents) and she is charismatic on the screen. It also nice to see M being an active figure in the story, proving why she runs this organization.

This was Desmond Llewellyn's last film. He died in a road accident, in December, following the premiere of this, returning from a public appearance. He was 85. His age meant that he did not have the stamina for long scenes and John cleese, as R, was added to add some comedy to the tech briefing scenes and be groomed as a replacement. Cleese is his wonderful self and would take over as the first new Q, in the next film. Desmond was not a tech person and having to play an expert caused him no end of embarrassment, when he encountered real tech problems, in public. At one appearance, he was supposed to drive out the Aston martin car and it stalled. Poor Desmond had no idea what to do, yet the crowd expected him to be able to fix it. He was terrific in his brief scenes, through the years, playing headmaster to naughty schoolboy Bond. However, the audience knew that they were deep friends, as Q is there for his wedding to Tracy and is the one person who comes to his aid when his license if revoked (License to Kill). Q gets to have a sort of exit, in the film, signalling this was probably it for him, though no one really expected for the real world reason. Lewellyn had been an actor since his college days. His career came to a halt with WW2, where he served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. In 1940, he was part of a contingent cut off and captured by the Germans, in France, and was a prisoner of war, in Colditz Castle, for 5 years.





The music is again by David Arnold, with title song performed by the band Garbage (including a music video, with clips from the film). It's fine, though it strikes me as rather generic, compared to some others. I'll take it over more recent era songs, any day. The video features a sort of title sequence mini-film adventure, with a robot duplicate, which hides a bomb. Quite frankly, that would have been a more interesting plot.

The actual MI-6 building was featured in exterior shots, while stunts were also performed on and around the Millennium Dome. The stunt boat was amazing to watch in action, executing barrel rolls and jumps at high speed. The parahawk attack is another exciting sequence. The only problem is the connecting elements.

As usual, the film did well, but it leaves me rather unsatisfied. i like parts and am bored by parts and never really feel like it comes together. Too many good actors have nothing much to do and some bad ones have way too much screen time. Three films into brosnan's run and we already see a need to get back to basics, a subject which Brosnan championed. Unfortunately, it wasn't to come, for him.