Is there a more definitive fictional British character than James Bond? I say no. You could argue Sherlock Holmes, I guess. What about Ebenezer Scrooge? Robin Hood and Macbeth deserve consideration as well. However, none of those personae has reached the same pop culture icon status as 007. Ian Fleming’s suave spy was a hit in print, but became an institution on the big screen.
Including 1983’s ill-conceived Sean Connery resurrection in Never Say Never Again, there have been 23 movie incarnations of James Bond. Six actors have carried a license to kill. Some have been good: Connery and Daniel Craig. Others have sucked: George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton.
But none of them grabbed more headlines playing the role than Pierce Brosnan. A brief flirtation in 1986 had Brosnan lined-up to take over for Roger Moore, but NBC screwed the Irish thespian by renewing the sputtering detective series Remington Steele. As a result, Dalton accepted the part and drove the successful franchise into the ground by 1989.
After a six-year hiatus, Brosnan finally landed the role many believed he was born to play. He would keep the tuxedo and Walther PPK from 1995-2002. If you’re a fan of Brosnan’s Bond and are eager for a fix, BBC America will begin airing his four chapters starting this Valentine’s Day, February 14, as part of its Five Weeks of Bond celluloid series, which airs the next few Saturday nights.
Brosnan’s efforts were mixed at best. Here’s a quick review:
GoldenEye (1995) – His first foray into the spy game was easily his best. The script uses the collapse of the Soviet Union as inspiration. The plot involves rouge MI-6 agent Alec Trevelyan, played by a convincing Sean Bean, and his attempts to destroy London using an advanced satellite weapons system called “GoldenEye.” There is great action throughout and a sultry villainess named Xenia Onatopp.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) – This one had potential but ultimately missed the mark. It was the first feature after the death of long time producer Albert R. Broccoli. Jonathan Pryce portrays maniacal media mogul Eliot Carver, an information-controlling fiend bent on instigating World War III. Michelle Yeoh adds credible support as a tough-as-nails Chinese spy. Alas, the story just isn’t compelling enough to sustain the two-hour runtime.
The World Is Not Enough (1999) – Ugh. Without question, one of the worst films in the series; I love the title, but that’s about it. It’s a real ho-hummer about a terrorist scheme to raise oil prices. Even the gorgeous Sophie Marceau couldn’t salvage this garbage scow. Denise Richards plays a nuclear physicist named Dr. Christmas Jones. Her monumental stupidity and skin-crawling acting rivals Tonya Roberts in A View To A Kill.
Die Another Day (2002) – The casting of Halle Berry – fresh off her Oscar win in Monster’s Ball – reeked of desperation. Brosnan wasn’t thrilled about doing this one, but his contract was binding. The script has something to do with a laser, North Korea and blah, blah, blah… forget about it. The fun thing to do while watching this installment is to pick out the references to the previous nineteen movies. To celebrate the 20th film in the series, the writers elected to pay homage by sprinkling in tributes. For example, the scene with Bond running through a mirror-filled room is taken from The Man With The Golden Gun.
The beauty of Bond is no matter how silly the movies get, they’re still entertaining. I’ve seen each of them at least three times and can always catch something new no matter which one I watch. So, grab yourself a martini – shaken, not stirred – and change the remote to BBC America this Saturday night at 8pm to enjoy the world’s coolest spy.
Clacked by Scott Tunstall 
on Feb 11, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
“Including 1983’s ill-conceived Sean Connery resurrection in Never Say Never Again”
Sorry but that was the best Bond for over a decade, with Kim Basinger. You can’t claim Dalton ran the franchise into the ground and with the above line imply that “Octopussy” was a better Bond than “Never Say Never Again”.
The scene where the henchman tells Klaus Maria Brandauer that the bomb is now armed is the coolest thing since cubed ice. I mean seriously, the title “Octopussy” alone makes the last Roger Moore Bond laughable.
Never Say Never Again was the best Bond after Moonraker and to me was maybe until 1999 when The World is not Enough came out. Ok or maybe until Goldeneye, the scene with the Tank crushing through that wall was done extremely well.
I don’t really like Brosnan as Bond to be honest and don’t really think Craig is any better. Connery is the definitive Bond, Moore as just another flavor.
But that’s just me :-)
Kim Basinger??? Please! She ruins everything she’s in. Almost managed to bury LA Confidential; instead, they gave her an Oscar. Proof that the Academy Awards are useless.
By the way, you implied Octopussy is better than Never Say Never Again, not me.
I agree, Brosnan wasn’t great. However, Craig’s performance in Casino Royale is amazing. Best since Connery in Goldfinger.
What?!? On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is actually my favorite Bond movie…. be kind to George Lazenby, please.
Oh, and Sebastian, A View to a Kill was Moore’s last Bond.
I’d say the Doctor from Doctor Who is also up there among the definitive British fictional characters, even if he’s not technically British himself. And the interesting thing is that it seems most people have *their* Doctor just like most people have *their* James Bond. While there are arguments over who’s the best Sherlock Holmes or Macbeth or Scrooge, I don’t think people tend to get quite as . . . I’m not sure what the right word is, posessive? personally involved? Anyway, *my* Doctor is David Tennant (though I think Patrick Troughton might give him a race for his money if more of his stories still existed in their entirety) and Timothy Dalton is usually *my* James Bond (I have to admit, every now and then I’m just really in a Roger Moore mood).
So clearly I disagree with you about Timothy Dalton running the series into the ground. Honestly, I pretty much hate Licence to Kill, but my problem with the movie has nothing to do with Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of Bond and everything to do with a fairly weak story and, even worse, the fact that they had Felix half-eaten by a shark. Though I do love getting to see Q take a more active role. The Living Daylights, on the other hand, is perhaps my favorite James Bond movie, though I’m not sure I could put my finger on why. I guess it strikes me as fun without being too over the top silly, plus it has John Rhys-Davies in it. And in general, I think Timothy Dalton captures the right balance for the character. He plays the role more seriously than Roger Moore generally does, but still with some humor and a certain sparkle, even in the darker Licence to Kill, that I find severely lacking in Daniel Craig (possibly more the writers’ and/or directors’ fault than the actor’s, since I think these were more present in his portrayal of Asriel in The Golden Compass).
As far as Pierce Brosnan goes, depending on my mood he’s usually either my second or third favorite James Bond, coming in just ahead of or behind Roger Moore and slightly ahead of Sean Connery (who I generally love, but for some reason not so much as James Bond . . . go figure). I quite like Goldeneye, but for reasons besides Pierce Brosnan’s performance as Bond, since I feel like he never quite settled into the role in that movie. Tomorrow Never Dies may not be quite as strong story-wise, but I think Pierce Brosnan feels more at home in the role in it. So it’s a toss-up between those two for which is my favorite Pierce Brosnan Bond movie. I more or less agree with you on The World is Not Enough, and I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch Die Another Day, which I own on DVD only because it came in the same box as The Spy Who Loved Me, A View to a Kill, and Thunderball (and Licence to Kill, but I could do without that one too).
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is my favourite bond film too! But thats inspite of Lazenby! But I have to take issue about the Dalton thing, he’s my favourite Bond – he did what Daniel Craig did with Bond 20 years earlier and a far more realistic Bond than the smarmy Moore take. I think I am a minority