In 1995, OO7 fans had suffered the longest drought in the series history after legal entanglements and MGM's bankruptcy stalled production on the next installment.
On top of that, the last entry, 1989's "License To Kill" had floundered at the box office against 'Batman" with Michael Keaton and the first "Lethal Weapon" film.
In November of 1995, Bond fans and audiences alike swarmed to a brand new OO7 in GOLDENEYE.
Pierce Brosnan had, by far, his best effort in the role in his debut here. The film starts perfectly, with a great pre-credit title sequence that teases us with glimpses of Bond before finally seeing Brosnan in action, alongside Alec, 006, at a Russian dam/power plant.
Kicking off with a bungee jump off the top of the dam and ending with Bond riding a motorcycle off a cliff full speed to try and catch a pilot-less airplane, it was a great start.
Brosnan quickly establishes himself in the role, witty, suave and looking every bit the part, he's effortless and a much lighter touch than Timothy Dalton's underappreciated serious take on Bond in the previous two films.
As Bond delves into a complicated globe hopping plot surrounding a new Russian satellite weapons system called Goldeneye, we meet a new M (Judi Dench in her first film in the role she would play for 18 years, through "Skyfall") a strong new Bond girl Natayla (Izabella Scorupco) a great new Bond villainess Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen with her thighs that are non-licensed to kill) and the great Sean Bean as 006/ Alec that re-emerges later in the film in a key role.
Goldeneye gets a lot of things right.
* A fantastic title sequence (Daniel Klienmann's first, taking Maurice Binder's classic style into a new century while paying homage)
* A classic title song written by Bono and The Edge and sung by Tina Turner
* Several big action set pieces with a Russian Tank chase through downtown St Petersburg and the conclusion atop a massive satellite dish
* The right mix of girls, gadgets, martinis and action to let you know OO7 was going back to a traditional fun Bond style
Brosnan makes it look easy and seems born for the role, tossing off one-liners, beating up bad guys and brandishing weapons of all sizes.
The only truly bad piece of the film is Eric Serra's horrible music score, all timpani's and synthesizers and lacking all the John Barry brass and big orchestrations that make a Bond film. It sits along Michel Legrand's godawful "Never Say Never Again" score as OO7's most off key music scores.
Director Martin Campbell proves the right man to launch Brosnan as Bond, just as he would be the right director again 11 years later to kickoff Daniel Craig's tenure in "Casino Royale".
He sets Bond on the right path. Too bad the writers would let Brosnan down with lesser and lesser scripts as his films went on.
But his first is definitely a terrific Bond film that made all of us OO7 fans breathe a sign of relief back in 1995.
Goldeneye gets an A. (Shaken not stirred please...)
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