GoldenEye

GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan's first outing as James Bond 007, felt like my generation had a James Bond for the first time, an idea helped along when the film turned out to be damned good.

For those of us who came of age in the 1980s watching the mummified corpse of Roger Moore and a wooden plank with Timothy Dalton's face painted on, Pierce Brosnan was a welcome addition. He is by no means the most charismatic, athletic, or even best looking of all the actors who played Bond, but he does have the best hair. Hair matters.

Easily the craziest, hair-raising opening to any Bond film, this is the one where Bond hops a motorcycle and chases after a runaway single-engine plane on a snow-covered runway somewhere in Russia. You might remember how this goes.

The plane rides right off the edge of a cliff, and Bond bikes off right behind, leaping off the bike in mid-air, somehow defying physics and falling faster than the plane in order to catch up, climb in, and pull the plane out of the dive. Impossible. Impossibly cool.

If I had one complaint with GoldenEye, I'd point to the scene that follows, supposedly several years later. Bond drives along with a woman who must be a librarian, while toying with another, much hotter woman, who follows in another car and eventually overtakes him.

Famke Jannsen's introduction as the hot woman in the red sports car reminds me of Clark Griswold's flirtation with the hot woman in the red sports car.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

In addition to Brosnan's first film as Bond, this is Dame Judy Dench's first appearance as M. I always have a tough time watching Dench, as she bears a striking resemblance to my late grandmother, whom I miss every day. When I see Dench, I'm taken out of the film a little each time. I'm not sure how to work on this.

Tonight, I noticed that Minnie Driver plays a Russian dancer in this film, adding her name to the long list of actors who passed through Bond films unnoticed early in their careers. I never spotted her before, and I've seen this film at least a half dozen times:

But back to the Bond-of-a-generation thing. After Timothy Dalton's two films, the Bond franchise needed a jolt (sound familiar?). Enter Brosnan, who had been courted to take over the starring role before. I have a hard time envisioning Brosnan in the Bond role for the two Dalton films, but that almost happened.

Regardless, Brosnan makes good here, as GoldenEye is not only the best Brosnan Bond film by miles, but might be the franchise's best since Connery (Daniel Craig's efforts notwithstanding).

I'm not too wild about any of the other Brosnan 007 films, but for me, GoldenEye stands up well to repeat viewings because of a solid script, inventive yet faithful direction, and good hair.