Production issues and legal troubles delayed the production of this, the 17th official entry in the James Bond series. By the time it was made, 007’s greatest adversary, the Soviet Union, had collapsed. The writers took this into account, creating some interesting lines, but they still decided that Mother Russia was their best and most serviceable foe.
Renegade remnants of the USSR hijack a satellite weapon (this marking the THIRD time such a plot has been used) and threaten to wreak havoc with it. Enter Bond to the rescue. Pierce Brosnan fills in the tux for this go-around and he handles himself rather well. Judi Dench as Bond’s boss M also handles him very well, rightly keeping Bond in check and reminding him that the Cold War is over.
Overall, the film is a mixed bag. There’s lots of action and stunts, but the return of over-the-top gadgets, a recycled plot device and a bizarre bad girl (who gets sexual thrills from suffocating people between her thighs) holds it back from being one of the better Bond films. Surprisingly, despite being made in the mid 90s, GoldenEye has a very 80s look and feel to it.
An interesting subplot nearly develops, with Sean Bean playing a turncoat British agent masterminding the whole operation. Sadly, Sean Bean doesn’t exactly fill the role of a genius mastermind very well. He can play villain, sure, but super-smart villain? Not so much. I was also thrown off by the villain having a back story motivating him to do evil things, because Bond villains are usually just evil guys. Trying to rationalize and make us sympathize with the villain’s painful past may be a product of 90s emphasis on psychobabble and being in tune with everyone’s feelings. Stupid hippie talk I say, but hey, GoldenEye is a popcorn flick, and not too bad a one at that.
Brainless popcorn fodder is what this mess of bad science and inference amounts to. Essentially, it’s an attempt to create an American version of The Da Vinci Code. It even succumbs to America’s greatest vice- greed. Instead of a controversial, well-sought after relic like the grail in Da Vinci, the heroes and villains of National Treasure are after, well, treasure. It’s a meaningless search for something that has no radical impact on anything profound (okay, so some bad guys would get rich- whoop-dee-doo).
It pretends to be smarter than Tomb Raider, and at least manages to be a quest involving real historical stuff. But it is strung together like a Michael Moore ‘documentary’- there’s so much inference and dotted line dangling between each phase of the plot that you have to either believe that (as the filmmakers hope) these characters truly are geniuses for figuring all this out in only a few days time (in the movie), OR (as your brain should tell you) this is one ginormous festering mess of a film.
Case in point: The opening scene leads us to believe that a century-plus old wooden ship can survive (hull perfectly intact no less) the constant melting and refreezing of the arctic ice cap, would only be a few feet under the ice surface, and that gunpowder (at least 100 years old to boot) explodes in a giant fireball. No. Just…no. And besides, didn’t anyone in the casting department remember from GoldenEye that Sean Bean isn’t believable as a mastermind villain?
I enjoy pleasant surprises. One of the all-time US box office bombs, I picked up The Island expecting to watch a delightful disaster that would fit nicely in my lower ranks. As it turns out, there are only a few things wrong with The Island.
First, it should have been made for $80 million less than it was. Going low-tech on some of the special effects would have made the film grittier. There was just too much splash and polish. Second, Sean Bean is cast as a mastermind villain. This just doesn’t work people! He’s good at being a thug but Bean is simply incapable of portraying a highly intelligent person.
Third and lastly, Hollywood should know better than to release an intelligent film during the summer. Summer movie-goers just want flashy effects and pretty faces. Granted, The Island delivers this with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, but the movie has an intelligent concept at its core. This will make the summer crowd try to think, which almost always fails. Instead, the film puts up a brick wall and the crowds couldn't “get it.”
McGregor and Johansson are believed to be living in a colony of survivors from some devastating epidemic. In reality, they’re all clones of rich and famous people that will be used as a costly “insurance policy” when the rich folk need a healthy transplant. The colony has strict health guidelines and relationships are taboo. They discover what they are and escape into the real world but are pursued by the company that grew them.
Kind of a unique “fight for truth” and morally challenging film. I’m surprised there wasn’t more buzz over it, what with all the fuss over stem cell research and where it could go. This film takes it to one extreme and does so admirably. Shame on all of us for not making The Island a success.
Production issues and legal troubles delayed the production of this, the 17th official entry in the James Bond series. By the time it was made, 007’s greatest adversary, the Soviet Union, had collapsed. The writers took this into account, creating some interesting lines, but they still decided that Mother Russia was their best and most serviceable foe.
Brainless popcorn fodder is what this mess of bad science and inference amounts to. Essentially, it’s an attempt to create an American version of The Da Vinci Code. It even succumbs to America’s greatest vice- greed. Instead of a controversial, well-sought after relic like the grail in Da Vinci, the heroes and villains of National Treasure are after, well, treasure. It’s a meaningless search for something that has no radical impact on anything profound (okay, so some bad guys would get rich- whoop-dee-doo).
I enjoy pleasant surprises. One of the all-time US box office bombs, I picked up The Island expecting to watch a delightful disaster that would fit nicely in my lower ranks. As it turns out, there are only a few things wrong with The Island.
