Product Description

2 Disc Collectors Edition

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15141 in DVD
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: NTSC, Widescreen, Closed-captioned
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Running time: 130 minutes

Customer Reviews

Visually Impressive Bond Film
For a 2 Disc DVD there really is not that much noteworthy material on the second disc of extras. There is a short on director Martin Campbell where you get to see footage of him in action directing scenes from the film. There are also some deleted scenes with introductions by director Martin Campbell which are somewhat interesting but they are minor in nature. Actually there was one scene with Bond and CIA agent Wade in the car in Petersburg that could have remained in the film that would have helped the transition into the next scene. The making of GOLDENEYE feature was a hodgepodge of footage slapped together and it was not narrated. I was disappointed with this disc.

GOLDENEYE is Pierce Brosnan's first film as James Bond. I think many of the older Bond fans expected a performance in the vein of Roger Moore. Surprisingly, Brosnan seems more like a hybrid of Sean Connery, combing his own instinctive talents with the best elements that Connery brought to the role. Brosnan possesses intelligence, wit, charm and dedication and delivers these with no-nonsense passion and drive. However, Brosnan's physical appearance does look lightweight especially when compared to his beefed up physique in TOMORROW NEVER DIES. Martin Campbell's direction is on target. The overall plot is weak and the film's strong points are its vignettes of very well staged scenes strewn together. Over ten years later with CASINO ROYALE Martin Campbell was given that outstanding script based on Ian Fleming's novel to fulfill what he was trying to achieve here in GOLDENEYE. However, GOLDENEYE is a great looking film beautifully filmed by Phil Meheux for mood, atmosphere and action. Some of the film's high points are the miniatures by Derek Meddings. This is probably Derek Meddings' best work in the series. Production Designer Peter Lamont shows greater depths with each Bond film he works on. This is some of his best work since OCTOPUSSY and the massive underground mine he designed for A VIEW TO A KILL. The return of the Aston Martin DB5 is a very welcome sight. Eric Serra's original if controversial score is good in retrospect complementing the work of Meheux and Lamont. Serra's interpretation of "The James Bond Theme" over the opening gun barrel trademark is powerful and very innovative. Serra's contribution to this film seems more impressive with time and seems akin to David Arnold's score for CASINO ROYALE. This is an interesting Bond film and certainly revitalized the series.

An excellent package for an excellent Bond film - but a flawed transfer
After six years in limbo as EON and the new owners of MGM/UA found themselves and the series locked in legal action at lawsuits, Timothy Dalton decided too much time had elapsed to renew his licence to kill, ushering in the Brosnan era. At the time hailed for `saving' the series (just as Dalton and Moore had been before him), the star's own bitter feud with the producers and the success of Daniel Craig in reinventing the role seem to have combined with disappointment with some of Brosnan's subsequent Bond films to the point where it's harder and harder to find any Bond fans with a good word to say about his tenure. But in 1995 GoldenEye was certainly welcomed with open arms and blockbuster business and it holds up remarkably well.

If there's a problem with Brosnan's take on Bond, it's that there really isn't much of one. He looks good in the suits, does what's required but where every other Bond actor brought something new or of their own to the part, Brosnan is more of a composite of previous Bonds, an across-the-board demographic-pleasing but nothing radical Bond, veering more towards the unflappable suavity of Roger Moore than the danger of Connery or Lazenby or the gritty bleakness of Dalton. But then, if Brosnan brings nothing new but his face to the part, in many ways, like The Living Daylights, GoldenEye is a kind of transitional Bond film rather than anything as radical as Casino Royale, the old Bond formula recognisably in place with all the surface gloss and expected ingredients but with a post-Cold War spin to dust off some of the more clichéd aspects.

While the plot isn't exactly realistic, revolving around a scheme to use a stolen Russian electromagnetic pulse satellite weapon to wreak a lucrative revenge for past wrongs done to the villain's family, the treatment isn't as over the top or as arch as it could have been (for that, you need to see Brosnan's final outing, Die Another Day). The writing is much stronger than usual, the film plot-led and finding a good mix between the action you expect and some insights into the characters you don't, for the first time in the series' history the leading ladies really do have decent roles, and Martin Campbell's direction is particularly powerful: while it is a little short on long shots, betraying his TV background, it's got none of that going-through-the-motions feel to many of the more prolific Bond directors' efforts. Terry Rawlings' editing is also interesting and often highly effective, while even Eric Serra's much criticised score - that hideous post-title sequence car chase aside - is often stronger than it's given credit for even if it is perhaps too giant a leap from the traditional Bond sound for most purists.

If the film is still highly enjoyable, the Ultimate Edition DVD, however, is a definite mixed blessing. The new extras are particularly good - 4 deleted scenes and several new featurettes, including ones on the tank chase, car stunts, model work, pre-production, location scouting and Campbell's directing (which much footage of him in a bad mood on a particularly bad day). There's also the press conference introducing Brosnan, the original TV promo `GoldenEye - The Secret Files' and all the extras from the original release (though curiously the extra TV spot from the laserdisc release is still is missing). All of which SHOULD make this a perfect disc - with one notable caveat. Unfortunately the new transfer is not, with the picture wildly overcropped - it's still in the 2.35:1 ratio, but top, bottom and both sides have been cropped, which is very noticeable on the computer readouts in the film. For that reason, if you aren't bothered about the extras you might want to stick with the previous special edition, which IS in the right ratio.

Campbell's "GoldenEye" embraces many of the best-loved motifs and situations from the classic Bond movies...
Brosnan has the look, the style, the intelligence and the bravura that James Bond should have... As charming, sophisticated, and always in control of the situation, Bond called upon all his ability for improvising escapes from truly impossible situations... The new Bond drives a BMW, remains preferring his vodka martinis 'shaken but not stirred,' and uses a Walther PPK, 7.65mm... The famous announcement "Bond, James Bond" is changed...

The plot line of "Goldeneye" revolves around an international terrorist organization calling itself Janus that steels a top-secret Russian weapon system named GoldenEye and threatens to use it to destroy a major European city unless paid off...

Bond's mission was to find and stop the GoldenEye, struggling with a sadistic assassin, a treacherous general, an 'invincible' computer hacker, and most dangerous of all, a colleague and friend...

The opening scene is spectacular with a great bungee jump from a top of a dam to an exciting racing over a cliff in a motorcycle and skydiving into a crushing private plane... Martin Campbell's film comes with a phenomenal tank chase through the streets of St. Petersburg; a brutal showdown in the jungle; and a battle to the death on a high gantry...

Goldeneye's female characters are honestly beautiful with particular techniques... The bad one is Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), an ex-Soviet fighter pilot who tranquilly smokes big cigars and knocks off her victims with her 'killer thighs.' In one scene, she challenges Bond's legendary Aston Martin DB5 to a wild road race outside Monte Carlo with her red Ferrari; in another she was so smart that she snatches a top-secret helicopter from under the noses of the French navy...

The good Bond girl is the irresistible Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) who 'tastes like strawberries.' Natalya possesses all the technical ability to neutralize Janus' scheme or to destroy all computer records with the GoldenEye... As one who survived a mass murder, this lovely beauty is suddenly a marked woman...

The other supporting actors are all fine:

Sean Bean plays a potentially fascinating bad character, the embittered and cynical traitor who was believed to have been killed on a mission... Alec Trevelyan has sworn revenge on the country that was responsible for his parents' suicide...

Alan Cumming plays the 'invincible' Boris Grishenko who sees crime as a chance to show off his skills; and Gottfried John, the renegade ambitious general who provides inside access to Russian military secrets...

Award-winning Judi Dench is terrific as Bond's unshaken spy chief...

Samantha Bond as MoneyPenny puts forward for consideration that Bond's behavior might be interpreted as sexual harassment...

Serena Gordon as the neurotic MI6 assessor Caroline evaluates 007 for just 'trying to show off the size of his... ego.'

One familiar face among the MI6 staff was that of the redoubtable Q, played once again by Desmond Llewelyn who introduces 007 to his latest chariot, the BMW Z3... Although convertible, this agile vehicle doesn't play a significant action role in the film... Q doesn't forget to deliver Bond a typical leather belt, a watch that expels a laser beam, and a silver pen used to clever effect...

The 17th Bond film takes us from Russia, Puerto Rico, Monaco and back to England... It features one of the best title tunes performed by the "Queen of Rock & Roll," Tina Turner...

For trivia buffs: Kate Gayson appears as an extra at the Chemin De Fer table at Monte Carlo's gambling casino; she's the daughter of Eunice Gayson, who played Bond's fetching girlfriend, Sylvia Trench in the first two Bond films, "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love." It was to Sylvia Trench that Sean Connery uttered his first line of dialog, "I admire your luck, Mr. ...?"