After a six year hiatus, the James Bond bandwagon started rolling again with this slick, funny and highly entertaining movie. In Pierce Brosnan, the producers have found a perfect Bond, at least for the time being. He looks - and plays - the part almost to perfection. Now I have to admit that I've liked everyone of the actors playing James Bond in one way or another. They all brought something different to the role, and it worked (most of the time). Brosnan certainly doesn't disappoint in his first outing as the famous British agent. The movie itself is definitively one of the better Bond movies - it contains almost all the required elements, and then some. The locations are wonderful - Monaco, St. Petersburg and the Caribbean, to mention some of them - and the action is certainly up to today's standards. There is also quite a bit of humour here, which I definitively think every Bond-movie should contain. After all, what would Bond be without those clever one-liners?
The villains are very good in this film - particularly Famke Janssen as the evil Xenia Onatopp, whose speciality is killing her victims by crushing them between her legs during intercourse (you simply have to love the Bond series just for coming up with such incredible characters...). Sean Bean is also very credible - for once, it is interesting to have a villain of Bond's own age and physique, not some old fuddy-duddy with a white cat on his lap. Power-hungry Russian general Ourumov impressively completes a strong villain triangle.
The downside to the movie is, first and foremost, the musical score. Maybe not a major point to all of you, but it certainly sets a mood to the film - or in this case, it doesn't. The fabulous James Bond theme is played to a minimum, and the rest of the time there's some heavy drum-beat which sounds like it's made on oil cans or something. The wonderful, tantalizing John Barry-themes from most of the Bond-movies is sorely missed here. Second, I didn't quite warm up to Judi Dench as M. She somehow reminded me too much of my grandmother...but this may improve in the coming Bond movies.
All in all, it's a strong return for James Bond, and it makes you look forward to the next movies. I'll rate this a 5 out of 6 on my dice.
The villains are very good in this film - particularly Famke Janssen as the evil Xenia Onatopp, whose speciality is killing her victims by crushing them between her legs during intercourse (you simply have to love the Bond series just for coming up with such incredible characters...). Sean Bean is also very credible - for once, it is interesting to have a villain of Bond's own age and physique, not some old fuddy-duddy with a white cat on his lap. Power-hungry Russian general Ourumov impressively completes a strong villain triangle.
The downside to the movie is, first and foremost, the musical score. Maybe not a major point to all of you, but it certainly sets a mood to the film - or in this case, it doesn't. The fabulous James Bond theme is played to a minimum, and the rest of the time there's some heavy drum-beat which sounds like it's made on oil cans or something. The wonderful, tantalizing John Barry-themes from most of the Bond-movies is sorely missed here. Second, I didn't quite warm up to Judi Dench as M. She somehow reminded me too much of my grandmother...but this may improve in the coming Bond movies.
All in all, it's a strong return for James Bond, and it makes you look forward to the next movies. I'll rate this a 5 out of 6 on my dice.