Star: Pierce Brosnan

Die Another Day (2002) – Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry

This is the last of Pierce Brosnan‘s four James Bond movies, and the one which made the production team conclude that something needs to change. I don’t disagree that something needed to change, but they changed it in totally the wrong direction for my taste. I can’t stand Daniel Craig personally. Brosnan makes a great Bond compared to him. Still, the mass market of soppy drama fans seem to approve of Craig, even if they are a totally new audience and the loyal niche market of slick action hero movie fans who tolerated Brosnan in the hopes of someone better coming soon have become completely disenchanted by the whole Bond brand now.

Die Another Day gets off to a poor start, with an awful attempt at remixing two classic Bond tunes into one piece of deafening noise within the first 30 seconds of this movie. This sets the tone for the rest of the movie, since the musical direction is pretty wack throughout.

This leads straight into an extravagant surfing scene that’s hard to understand the context of until it’s all over. This makes a change from the popular ski chase scenes, such as the one that opened one of Roger Moore’s best movies, The Spy Who Loved Me. I’m not saying there’s anything terribly wrong with not knowing what’s going on until an action scene is over, but it’s a bit unusual for a Bond movie, and probably not the best idea for this genre. We can’t even see anyone’s faces while they’re surfing, so it could be anyone (although obviously Brosnan didn’t get his feet wet in the filming of that scene). I guess we’re just expected to admire the surfing for a minute while waiting patiently to find out who it is and why they’re doing it. There’s a much better surfing scene 90 minutes in, as Bond escapes an avalanche designed to kill him, and rides the tsunami wave that follows.

Fortunately, this soon turns into some interesting scenes, as James steals a suitcase full of diamonds and impersonates the previous owner, pretending to be an arms dealer in North Korea. James’s disguise is unsuccessful, so he attempts to escape, wrecking a bunch of hovercrafts and seemingly killing the general’s son, so he gets taken in for waterboarding & interrogation. General Moon is played adequately by Kenneth Tsang, his son (Colonel Moon) was played alright by Will Yun Lee, his son’s main assistant (Zao) who Bond goes after once released (since his freedom was traded for Zao’s) was played alright by Rick Yune.

Then we get the theme tune by Madonna, who also takes a on minor role in this movie (as a fencing instructor called Verity). It’s not the best James Bond theme tune by any means, but is certainly one of the catchiest. It’s basically just a cheap uncultured pop song that’s liable to stick in your head sometimes, especially if you’re a James Bond fan, and I dare say that makes it about equal to Madonna’s best work.

We meet a few good characters in the first half an hour, then we meet the main woman in this movie – Halle Berry. She immediately spends the night with James and their romantic scenes are quite classless, inkeeping with the poor humour throughout the Brosnan era of James Bond. The following and preceding scenes are not bad though. A lot of fuss was made on TV around the time of this movie coming out, about the appearance of Halle Berry as she comes out the water and meets James Bond for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not unattractive – she’s above average for a Bond girl, and not terribly far from the best of them – but the only reason she swings her hips so wildly is to compensate for the lack of natural width in her hips which would roll plenty within her natural unexaggerated stride if there were really anything to rave about.

Brosnan is also noticeably carrying a belly in this movie, while looking generally worse for wear due to his age and his untoned physique – I’m guessing this contributed to him being let go in favour of Daniel Craig who was younger and trained hard to achieve a good physique even though his personality is nothing like what Bond should be. Brosnan’s demeanour is a bit closer to the mark, in how it’s not the polar opposite of what we want, but it’s a bit dead & dry still – far from ideal for this role.

A third of the way in, as James enters Zao’s new lair, we see a rotating mirrored wall, probably inspired by Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon from 1973, much like the similar set in Roger Moore’s The Man With The Golden Gun in 1974 – since that one came out just one year after Enter The Dragon, the similarities are clearly far from coincidental.

The swordfighting scene was pretty good, after James joins the fencing club and meets Madonna’s character Verity agrees to a challenge from the main man in the club which starts off quite sporting with all the kit then comes lethal with real swords and no protection. It’s quite obvious sometimes where the stuntmen fill in for Pierce Brosnan though, as the faster scenes are very fast with his back to the camera then become terribly laboured when we see his face. This reflects his lack of real swordfighting ability of course, and probably also his lack of general martial arts acumen and even athletic capability.

Half way in, we get better acquainted with the second Bond girl in this movie – Miranda Frost played by Rosamund Pike (who also played the main baddie’s wife in Jack Reacher), who we briefly met earlier at the fencing club where Madonna’s character (Verity, the instructor) said Miranda was the most talented fencer in the club. Rosamund Pike has to be one of the least attractive Bond girls of all time, although due to her very prominent jawline I’m sure she appeals very much to certain types of people. To call her a tomboy would be an understatement. She also has a very bland demeanour and a face full of whitewashed makeup which creates a certain style that probably matches the role she’s playing quite well, however unappealing it may be. Having said that, she does make an interesting contrast with Halle Berry.

James’s car in this movie goes a level beyond any Bond car before, by being completely invisible. He can even sit inside it, and watch things happen around him, with people nearby being oblivious to his presence.

We know a James Bond villain loves a satellite weapon, and this movie’s villain is no different. The main villain, on the brains side, is Sir Gustav Graves, played alright by Toby Stephens, and he has a satellite that he uses to shine light on certain parts of the world, which can be used to assist agriculture in poor countries, but it can also be used as a deadly heat gun. According to the plot, Gustav Graves is actually Colonel Moon after a DNA changing operation.

The World Is Not Enough (1999) – Pierce Brosnan

I rate this movie on a par with the other three Bond movies starring Pierce Brosnan. I rate it just OK – no better or worse – on a par with most Bond movies from the previous three strong eras (Connery, Moore and Dalton).

The main women in this movie include French actress Sophie Marceau who plays Elektra King, with vibes of Liz Hurley with a French twist – not quite as beautiful as Hurley but not terrible far off. Not the best Bond girl of all time, but comfortably above average. She’s roughly on a par with Polish actress Izabella Scorupco (playing Natalya Simonova) from Brosnan’s first Bond movie, GoldenEye. An hour in, we meet the second of two Bond girls from this movie, the silicone-enhanced American actress Denise Richards who plays Dr Christmas Jones. Sshe’s also not the best Bond girl ever, but is probably above average if you can forgive her plastic components. She provides a nice mix of styles when contrasted with Sophie Marceau here.

We know a James Bond movie loves a ski chase, and this one is no different. It’s pretty good one too, with parahawks (paraglider snowmobiles with extra parachutes and guns) chasing James & Elektra down a snowy mountainside.

We know a James Bond movie loves a boat chase, and there’s a decent one in this movie too, near the start.

Cool gadgets James is equipped with here include a protective bouncy ball that wraps around him and Elektra when he sees an avalanche coming, and x-ray vision glasses.

The main antagonist, called Renard, played by Robert Carlyle, comes across as a fairly feeble guy acting like a hard man, which is never impressive to see. He has vibes of Richard Hammond (from Top Gear) on steroids. Brosnan acting slick is bad enough.

The ending is quite hard to rewatch when you’ve seen it a few times before and remember the rough gist of it. By the time James gets captured by Bullion and led to Elektra & Renard, all the good stuff has pretty much passed and it’s a hard-to-rewatch ending from there on out.

Bullion himself is a secondary character (not a main character, but it’s not a very minor role either – somewhere in the middle) played quite well by British DJ, Clifford Joseph Price aka Goldie. He stands out with his golden tooth caps and could have been just as good a main antagonist as Robert Carlyle, if not better. Probably much better in fact.

The closing catchphrases and punchlines are also a bit more explicit and over cheesy than they ought to be, for my taste, not only because the characters don’t deliver them well. The humour is really substandard in the Brosnan era altogether, with the exception of the odd genuinely funny line in each movie. Still, these movies are far more watchable than those from the Daniel Craig era, for my taste – I’ve never actually managed to watch a single one of his Bond movies for more than a few minutes – that’s how much worse it gets when Brosnan’s gone, as if the intrinsic quality of the series hasn’t nosedived enough already. No amount of crazy high budgets can turn Brosnan into a better Bond than Connery, Moore or Dalton, and no amount of crazy high budgets can make Craig remotely convincing as James Bond.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) – Pierce Brosnan

This is the second of four outings by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. It follows GoldenEye (1995) and is followed by The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). He’s the fourth best Bond to my taste – not on the level of Connery, Moore or Dalton, but is still comfortable watchable in an otherwise well made action movie, unlike George Lazenby or Daniel Craig whose Bond movies I personally find insufferable.

A clever & captivating opening, leading into one of the best theme tunes in James Bond history, sees Tomorrow Never Dies get off to a pretty good start. The movie then continues along similar lines, with a script that’s focused more on an intriguing idea rather than action, but doesn’t lack action either. As a result, it does both to a fair standard, but doesn’t do either masterfully – the main weakness is the lack of strong characters in these early scenes.

The odd attempt at cheesy humour is pretty weak again, just like in GoldenEye. Sometimes even stooping to prolonged exchanges of toilet humour. The scene where Q introduces James to his new remote-controllable bulletproof shock-protected missile-clad BMW ends pretty nicely though, with a healthy mix of action and humour, even if it begins with terrible humour. As always, Desmond Llewelyn does a great job as Q.

The main baddies in this movie are Elliot Carver (brains) played quite well by Jonathan Pryce with vibes of Pope Francis, and Mr Stamper (brawn) played sufficiently but far from outstandingly by Götz Otto with vibes like a cross between Andreas Wisniewski, the KGB milkman from The Living Daylights, and Everett McGill from Under Siege 2 (Seagal’s main rival on the brawn side). Stamper could equally be described as a cross between Dolph Lundgren and Timothy Olyphant. Incidentally, McGill also played a minor role in Licence To Kill but looked quite different there.

Around the half hour mark we’re introduced to both of the Bond girls from this movie: Mrs Paris Carver (the main antagonist’s wife, and an ex lover of James Bond) played by Teri Hatcher (best known for playing Lois Lane in the epic 90s series The New Adventures Of Superman); and Miss Wai Lin (undercover Chinese agent) played by Michelle Yeoh (from Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) alongside Jason Statham and Jessica Alba). They both do a decent job here. Hatcher in her early 30s here, contributes beauty and familiarity, while Yeoh in her mid 30s here, is hardly a bombshell – she’s more of a girl next door type, but the chemistry is still somewhat believable between her and Brosnan. Yeoh is also a very familiar face to fans of Hong Kong action movies, having starred in movies throughout the 80s, 90s & 00s alongside Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, etc. More recently she was in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) by Marvel Studios.

Joe Don Baker returns as charismatic CIA logistics champ Jack Wade. He’s no Clifton James (Sheriff JW Pepper), but he’s a nice addition to the cast nonetheless. Fun fact: Joe Don Baker also played Brad Whittaker, one of the main antagonists in The Living Daylights opposite Timothy Dalton.

We know James Bond movies love a scuba scene, and this movie is no different, except this time Bond jumps out of a high altitude airplane wearing his wetsuit and oxygen tank, diving straight into the ocean to explore a wreckage.

You may also spot Simon Pegg for a second towards the end, in the smallest of vocal roles.

The ending gets a bit longwinded and one-dimensional, especially for those who have seen this movie many times before. Still, overall I rate it an OK movie, on a par with most Bond movies.

The closing credits say ‘In loving memory of Albert R “Cubby” Broccoli’. For those who don’t know, he’s been the owner of Eon Productions and the main man behind the whole saga since the start. His kids have been running the show ever since, and I guess that explains why it was able to go from something outstanding prior to Brosnan, to something respectable with Brosnan, to something embarrassingly unwatchable with Daniel Craig and has remained that way ever since Brosnan retired from the role. Cubby must be turning in his grave at the state of what the Bond franchise has become under his kids’ supervision. Having said that, the Daniel Craig era has been performing outstandingly at the box office, so I guess in killing the cool, calm & collected work of art that was James Bond, they created a commercial monster that appeals to a different but larger audience of soppy drama fans, so in purely financial terms it would be deemed a success (until it dies out, because it’s got nothing really cool about it any more). There may also be a deeper strategy at work, since the soppy new James Bond of the Daniel Craig era represents the kind of emasculated woke wetwipe that our world’s leaders seem to want to turn us all into.

GoldenEye (1995) – Pierce Brosnan and Gottfried John

I believe Pierce Brosnan makes a relatively bland & robotic Bond compared to the three greats before him; and this, probably by no mere coincidence, is exemplified in the first minute of this movie, when he does the “turn left and shoot” pose. Sean Connery holds his spare hand out to the side as a counter-balancing hand, a bit like would be done in fencing but with his hand facing down as if holding a pad for a boxer to throw an uppercut at, kind of like a surfer’s balancing pose; Roger Moore holds his gun with both hands; Timothy Dalton lets his spare hand hang to his side, with a realistic balance of tension & relaxation; then Pierce Brosnan leaves his spare hand down, similar to Dalton but more floppy, and his whole body flops round at the same time, very nonchalantly like a careless lifeless teenager or a synthetic dummy, or someone who has never trained any kind of martial art before but wants to portray dominant tactical movement nonetheless. The way he pulls the door open 25 minutes in, is no different. It’s like he’s huffing & puffing while trying to act slick, when really he’s all floppy and the door is the dominant entity between the two of them! Having said that, as bland and uncoordinated a Bond as he may be, the fact his movies are much more highly funded than his outstanding predecessors’ movies were, kind of brings his movies up to the same level as most of those Bond movies before him. The fight scene at 25 minutes in, for example, when James gets through the door on the boat he’s sneaked on, is all flashy camera switching. There’s no genuine martial arts acumen or even athletic acumen on display, but good cinematography has ways of compensating for this, and the tempo and general vibe of that fight scene was not bad to be honest.

Backtracking now – the opening scenes at the very start of this movie are a bit ‘Mission Impossible esque’ with jumping down cliffs and entering rooms through ceilings.

In the first 5 minutes we’re introduced to one of the other main characters – Alec Trevelyan (Agent 006) played by Sean Bean. I’m usually a fan of his but I’m not a fan of his demeanour in this movie – he hasn’t reached his prime as an actor yet, and he’s got a rather repulsive smug look on his face in this movie in my opinion. Either the role doesn’t suit him, or it came too early in his career for us to really see the best of him. Anyway, he’s one of the main supporting actors in this movie.

Another of the main supporting actors we meet in the first 10 minutes is Gottfried John who is best known for his performance as the main villain in this movie – General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, who is also head of the Russian Space Division but turns on his own countrymen and goes rogue.

After we get a ridiculously unrealistic mid-air recovery of a nosediving passengerless plane to end the opening scenes, this leads into the theme tune by a croaky voiced Tina Turner in her mid 50s. It’s a funky tune but it’s not got quite the same kick as the best Bond theme tunes, for my taste. Another singer could have sang the same lyrics to the same tune and yet done it much better than Tina, I think.

One of the main Bond girl from this movie is Xenia Onatopp, who is played quite well by Dutch actress Famke Janssen (she also played Liam Neeson’s wife in the Taken movie series, and Phoenix in the early X-Men movies of 2000, 2003 and 2006) and now she plays the main female baddie in GoldenEye – she’s General Ourumov’s sidekick, who together with him, steals a state-of-the-art EMP-proof helicopter from a miliary demo after killing and impersonating an admiral then a couple of pilots. She also makes orgasmic noises after shooting & killing people.

Before the end of the first half hour, we meet the second of the main women in this movie, Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova, who is played by Polish actress Izabella Scorupco – she’s not a bad actress and is quite pretty too – definitely above average for a Bond girl but not on a par with the best of them for my taste. She’s a non corrupt programmer at a Russian top secret base that Ourumov & Onatopp shoot up. To their surprise, she manages to survive, then gets caught, escapes, gets caught again, and befriends James Bond who she’s being held prisoner with around half way through the movie. When we first meet her, we also met her colleague, a Russian programmer & hacker called Boris Grishenko (played alright by Scottish actor Alan Cumming, the main baddie in Spy Kids) and he is working with Ourumov & Onatopp.

The script & screenplay get pretty intense & captivating as Bond & Simonova are questioned by Defense Minister Dimitri Mishkin (played pretty well by Tchéky Karyo, who also plays corrupt Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard, the main antagonist in Kiss Of The Dragon, a Jet Li classic). Simonova then points the finger at General Ourumov who then walks in, acts suspicious, tried & fails to argue, then kills the minister and tries to kill Bond & Simonova but they manage to escape. Simonova soon gets caught again, but Bond makes his way out in a tank. The scene where bond bursts through the wall in a tank, hot on the tail of Ourumov & Simonova, is quite epic. In fairness, any actor could have pulled off Bond’s role in that scene – all credit to the writers and cinematography there for making one of the most outstanding & memorable scenes in the history of the James Bond movie saga. The following scenes of Bond in his tank brushing past buildings and knocking chunks out are quite wild too.

Shortly after 90 minutes in, we’re introduced to CIA operative Jack Wade, played quite well & charismatically by Joe Don Baker. He helps Bond & Simonova with their insertion into Cuba via the United States, and he has a bit of a jolly, low-IQ, all-sorted demeanour. This appears to be another attempt to replicate the outstanding humour of Sheriff JW Pepper from the Roger Moore era, and it falls short, but it’s not a bad effort either.

In the final half hour we see a satellite dish hidden under water, which gets raised out of the water when needed to control the GoldenEye. This is reminiscent of the space rocket base hidden within the seemingly water-filled volcano in You Only Live Twice (1967) – a Sean Connery classic from 3 decades prior.

Black Adam (2022) – Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan

Black Adam (2022) starring Dwayne Johnson

Powerful music and sound effects, and a top class lead cast, make this movie emotive and enjoyable from start to finish, and easily rewatchable. There aren’t really any boring bits. It’s let down somewhat by a pair of immature, low-IQ supporting superheroes (Cyclone and Atom Smasher) but the rest of the supporting cast range from decent to excellent.

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is made for this role as Teth Adam / Black Adam – he performs outstandingly in this movie. Pierce Brosnan was also a great fit for his role as Doctor Fate – he also gives a very strong performance.

Aldis Hodge does quite a good job as Hawkman.

America-born ethnic-Iranian actress Sarah Shahi (real name Aahoo Jahansouzshahi) does great in her role as Isis, the benevolent researcher who found the Crown of Sabbac and set free Teth Adam.

Bodhi Sabongui does a decent job as Amon Tomaz, the son of Isis, who befriended Teth Adam.

Mohammed Amer does a decent job as Karim – he’s a bit of a camp comedian playing a semi-serious role as Isis’s brother / Amon’s uncle.

Marwan Kenzari does a good job as the research team member who was hiding his true intentions to become Sabbac – the demon tasked with delivering hell on earth.

Continued… “Black Adam (2022) – Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan”

The Foreigner (2017) – Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan

The Foreigner (1997) poster

ACTION BUSYNESS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
MOOD SETTING ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
SCRIPT COHESION ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PLOT DENSITY ⭐⭐⭐

This movie is thoroughly entertaining – it’s one of Jackie’s slightly more gritty performances but still provides great action for his usual fanbase just with the omission of the usual comedic edge. The only letdown is the socio-political message being pushed by this movie. That aspect of it really stinks. Still, Jackie holds it down very well so it doesn’t upset the movie too much. We’re treated to a very strong performance by Pierce Brosnan too, as an Irish politician and former IRA leader who has to defend his farm-come-castle from an angry elderly Chinaman who happens to be ex special forces – a role played flawlessly by Jackie Chan with the help of a great all-round movie production.

It’s slightly minimal on plot aside from the core concept – hardly as many twists & turns as The Matrix – but that’s fine. It focuses on one theme – a slowly developing scenario – and does it exceedingly well.

We’ve previously seen how fantastic a movie can be when a top martial arts movie star teams up with a former James Bond, as happened when Van Damme worked with Roger Moore on The Quest (1996). The Foreigner is no exception to this trend – Jackie Chan makes a great team with Pierce Brosnan here, only this time they are adversaries.

There’s a good amount of combat but this movie, but the entertainment value comes more from the story. Action wise, it’s not nearly so complex or grandiose as James Bond, but it’s got a good amount of simple action throughout. Script wise, it’s a very simple story, well executed. Cast wise, there are several strong characters in this movie.

Rumour says Jackie had been craving a more serious romantic or dramatic role (minus the comedy) for a long time. Now that he’s finally had one, we can see why. He’s an outstanding actor. It’s a very moving movie. This follows the pattern of his first few American movies, where he wasn’t permitted to choreograph his fight scenes in the ways he knew would work best, because the directors couldn’t think beyond trying to imitate the old established style of screen combat, but when Jackie eventually gained enough authority to do his own thing, the world loved it, and I hope those early directors held their heads in shame.