This review is sponsored by
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Category | Bond | Theatrical Trailer - 2.35:1 (16x9),
Dolby Digital 2.1
Audio Commentary - Martin Campbell (Director) and Michael G. Wilson (Producer) Booklet |
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Rating | |||
Year Released | 1995 | ||
Running Time | 124:05 Minutes | ||
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Martin Campbell |
Distributor |
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Starring | Pierce Brosnan
Sean Bean Izabella Scorupco Famke Janssen Joe Don Baker Judi Dench Desmond Llewelyn Samantha Bond |
Case | Amaray | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Eric Serra |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement | |||
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles | English
English for the Hearing Impaired |
Annoying Product Placement | Yes |
Action In or After Credits | No |
The film begins with James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) bungee jumping down the face of a dam, anchoring himself to a building at the foot of the dam's wall, and then entering the building in the style that we should expect from Bond. We are soon introduced to Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), who just happens to be Agent 006 at the start of the story. After the mission at the dam is completed, all without Bond so much as getting a hair out of place, we jump forward about nine months, at which point we are introduced to the film's femme fatale, a rather vicious and pyschotic woman named Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen). After Bond and Xenia chase one another around in their sports cars, with a psychologist who is meant to be assessing Bond a less-than-enthusiastic passenger in his BMW, we soon see what makes Xenia such a special villian. From there, we are introduced to the usual MI6 staff, with Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) giving her exchange with Bond a delectable twist by stating that someday he will have to make good on his innuendoes (and boy do we live in hope, given some of them). Next, we are introduced to the new head of MI6, known simply as M (Judi Dench), who also leaves a mark of her own upon the story. Finally, we are introduced to the man who has kept the series consistent on one level for sixteen episodes now, the great Q (Desmond Llewelyn), who sadly passed away shortly after the premiere of The World Is Not Enough. There's enough comic relief during Bond's meeting with Q to fill up three movies, which is not a bad effort considering that this particular exchange only spans about five minutes altogether.
Of course, no Bond film would make it past the opening sequence without there being a reason why Bond has to be called back into service once the original job is completed. The reason why Bond is called back into service nine months after his mission with 006 is simple: reports are filtering out of the crumbling Soviet Union that a space-based electromagnetic pulse weapon has been developed by the increasingly corrupt military. In a nutshell, this weapon is capable of rendering any electronic equipment within a thirty-mile radius of its blast area useless, making it a less-than-ideal weapon to fall into the wrong hands. Bond's mission, as explained by M, is a relatively simple one: find out if GoldenEye exists, and if so, try to prevent the wrong people from using it. Meanwhile, a Tiger-class helicopter developed by the Navy is stolen from the ship where it was meant to be demonstrated, right under the watchful eye of the Navy and its audience. Of course, the fact that the Tiger is a helicopter designed to be immune from electromagnetic interference, and that it magically reappears at the site of a GoldenEye blast, is far from a coincidence. This, of course, is the place where we are introduced to the last of the principal characters, a scientist by the name of Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), who is nowhere near as interesting as our previously introduced Xenia.
As I have already stated, I feel this this is a slightly weaker Bond due to the more juvenile approach taken by director Martin Campbell, who constantly cites problems with various censors in his commentary as a reason why the film is so pedestrian in its portrayals of sex and violence, the two quintessential ingredients of a Bond story. After listening to this commentary for a while, I sincerely wanted to beat Martin around the head and remind him that there are ratings in every civilized country other than PG. However, what GoldenEye lacks in the way of detailed excitement, it more than makes up for in character development and genuinely funny moments. I should stress that when I say "character development", I don't mean that you will see a whole new sensitive side to Bond, but rather that the story takes hold and makes the viewer care about the new incarnations of the characters. It is also quite interesting to see a moment where Bond has no snide remarks or pithy comebacks for his opponent, as Sean Bean puts it in one of the film's best scenes. Having only seen a handful of Bond films myself, I would have to say that this one ranks as a favourite, because of the way it made me see the whole Bond saga in a different light. Having previously given up on the series due to finding Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton to be unequal to the task, I found Pierce Brosnan's Bond to be much more palatable. Others may differ, and some have cited the more action-oriented mood of the more recent Bond films as a bad thing. Personally, the one comment by the detractors I will agree with here is that, out of respect for the late Desmond Llewelyn, the gadget-room schtick should end with this film. Time to move onto something else, United Artists.
The transfer is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, complete with 16x9 Enhancement, which is at some odds with the information on the packaging. Do not be fooled by the markings that state this film to be a 1.85:1 transfer, as I don't think I have ever seen a Bond film shot in this ratio, and cropping the film into this ratio would be a pointless exercise.
The transfer was mostly sharp and clear, but there were some scenes that exhibited a copious amount of haze that in turn translated into some grain that looks suspiciously like compression artefacts. After the sequence in which Bond leaps from the train with Natalya, the crawling of specks in the background really had me worried that the film was finally so starved for bits that the image was just going to dissolve into nothingness. Thankfully, the film's imagery never falls that far below the threshhold of viewability, but it does threaten from time to time. The shadow detail was excellent, with one critical scene in particular involving Alec handled exceptionally well. There was no low-level noise in the picture at any time.
The colour saturation was spot-on from start to finish, with each different location represented well.
MPEG artefacts were not specifically noted in this transfer, but the fact of the matter is that you can tell when scenes are pushing the compression just a little too hard for their own good. During some of the scenes after combat or car chases, the image seems to be falling apart under the weight of the compression, and this is one area where a recompression to an RSDL disc would have really made a difference. Film-to-video artefacts were not noticed except for some small amounts of aliasing on the grille of Bond's car, which again is a surprise considering how tightly compressed the film is. Film artefacts were exceptionally rare, with only a single black dot being noticed at one point in the picture.
The dialogue was always completely clear and easy to understand, even during Minnie Driver's deliberate effort to sing badly as well as she possibly can, which is the subject of some interesting discussion during the commentary. Even Famke Janssen was relatively easy to make out in spite of her broad accent. There were no audio sync problems on this disc.
The score music by Eric Senna is a typical piece of Bond scoring, ranging from the sophistication of background music for the dialogue sequences to the manic chase sequence music. Overall, this is one of the better Bond scores I've heard for a while. As I have mentioned before, one's reception of the opening title song is often indicative of how the rest of the film will be recieved, and Goldeneye is no exception. Tina Turner's performance of the theme song sticks in the mind long after it is over, and it is certainly a far better effort than Tomorrow Never Dies, which reminds me a hell of a lot of the aforementioned performance by Minnie Driver.
The surround channels were used quite aggressively for music and special effects, although the amount of ambient sound directed into these channels was very slightly disappointing. This was the only weakness during the non-action scenes, especially during the briefing room sequence, where some directed ambient sounds could have helped build a better atmosphere. The subwoofer was used frequently and copiously to fill out the soundtrack, with anything that made a bass-heavy sound exploding through the room like a bull on acid. Of this type of sound, you can expect an abundance, as the Bond series just wouldn't be the same without a series of vehicles crashing into one another.
The video quality is very good, but often starved for bits.
The audio quality is excellent.
The extras are reasonable.
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Plot | |
Overall |
© Dean McIntosh (my
bio
sucks... read it anyway)
June 26, 2000.
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DVD | Grundig GDV 100 D, using composite output; Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output |
Display | Panasonic TC-29R20 (68 cm), 4:3 mode, using composite input; Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite and S-video inputs |
Audio Decoder | Built In (Amplifier) |
Amplification | Sony STR-DE835 |
Speakers | Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Philips PH931SSS Rear Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer |