Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511200087
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That line is used several times to describe James Bond and his antics in ``GoldenEye.'' It's the 19th Bond film (20th, counting the spoof, ``Casino Royale''), and one of the best.
``Boys with toys'' is also a legitimate summation of these escapist fantasies, but there's something more this time. The girls get to play with some neat stuff, too, and they've taken their position in the chain of command. Bond's boss, M, is a woman (Dame Judi Dench), and she's not about to tolerate any nonsense from 007, played with brash confidence by Pierce Brosnan.
More important than the cast changes, though, are the fresh ideas that the filmmakers have brought to the venerable series. They've left out some of the more cartoonish aspects, and gone back to the tone and mood of the earliest Bond films. ``Dr. No,'' ``From Russia with Love'' and ``Goldfinger'' are quoted directly and indirectly throughout.
New Zealand director Martin Campbell (``No Escape'') also punches up the big action scenes to ``Die Hard'' levels, but keeps the violence well within the limits of a PG-13 rating.
As fans expect, the film begins with a spectacular stunt involving a bungee jump (by stuntman Wayne Michaels) off a towering dam. The scene sets up a globe-trotting tale that moves from St. Petersburg, Russia - site of one of the grandest chases ever filmed - to Monaco and a fine finish on a huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
The villains are a crucial part of any Bond movie, and these are first rate. Sean Bean (``Patriot Games'') is the triple-crossing Alec Trevelyan. Famke Janssen redefines unsafe sex as his henchwoman Xenia Onatopp. Helping the good guys, Joe Don Baker provides comic relief as a tattooed CIA agent, and model Izabella Scorupco carries a fairly large part of the story as computer expert Natalya Simonova.
They're all involved in a plot that needs no description. Writers Jeffrey Caine, Bruce Feirstein and Michael France know what a Bond adventure is supposed to do. They keep the pace quick, the humor dry and understated. While they know they're going over familiar territory, they also give the film an energy that's been noticeably absent in the past decade or so.
In the end, perhaps the most useful comparison here isn't really the old Bond films, wonderful as they are, or the more violent and loud shoot-'em-ups of the 1990s.
``GoldenEye'' has the spirit and sense of adventure that made ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' so much fun. And toys are supposed to be fun, aren't they?
GoldenEye
*** 1/2
An MGM/UA release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 130 min. Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual material.
by CNB