GoldenEye 1995

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: James Bond, the British spy with a taste for the high life and a license to kill, comes back in surprisingly hardy and supple form. Read more

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: It's not a good sign that what I remember most about the movie is the lovely blue color of 007's new BMW convertible. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Though GoldenEye is an acceptable Bond picture, it's a reasonable facsimile more than any kind of original, and it's hard not to feel a certain weariness while watching it unfold. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: In GoldenEye, [Brosnan's] performance achieves darker, Conneryesque tones. And the movie's relatively realistic take on Bond -- realistic, that is, by the series' flamboyant standards -- helps to give his work weight. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Giving 007 a sleek bullet of a BMW instead of his trusty old Aston-Martin isn't exactly going to turn the world of Bond upside down. And, as it turns out, neither does the casting of Brosnan. Read more

Doug Thomas, Seattle Times: Brosnan's right there, born to play the part. Perhaps by design, he captures a bit from each predecessor -- the panache of Sean Connery, the cheeky humor of Roger Moore, the serious grit of Timothy Dalton. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Brosnan, as the best-moussed Bond ever to play baccarat in Monte Carlo, makes the character's latest personality transplant viable (not to mention smashingly photogenic), but the series still suffers the blahs. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: There's something a mite pathetic about our culture still clinging to 007, but it's hard to deny that this is one of the most entertaining entries in the Bond cycle. Read more

Carol Buckland, CNN.com: James Bond's latest outing is big, and it's brash -- in short, it's double-oh-fun. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: I don't know whether the Bond series has a future, but if Xenia Onatopp ever returns to try for world domination, he may finally get a battle worth fighting. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Entropy, the inexorable running down of an energy system, may have overtaken the Bond saga. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Brosnan, however, looks set to stay. He'll never recapture the amused cool of the young Sean Connery, but he does overcome the handicap of looking like a humorless male model. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Daily News: Under the direction of Martin Campbell, GoldenEye is a film that respects its predecessors. No new heights are scaled here, but it's nevertheless a handsome, well-engineered film that gets the job done. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Perhaps the best entry in the series since The Spy Who Loved Me. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Watching the film, I got caught up in the special effects and the neat stunts, and I observed with a certain satisfaction Bond's belated entry into a more modern world. Read more

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle: Supercharged with spectacular, thundering, brain-numbing fun. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Richard Kiel, you are missed. Read more

Nigel Kendall, Time Out: Director Campbell keeps matters bowling along and even manages to recapture something of the look of the earlier films. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Among the better of the 17 Bonds and, perhaps more important for today's audience, a dynamic action entry in its own right, this first 007 adventure in six years breathes fresh creative and commercial life into the 33-year-old series. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: Directed with top-dollar proficiency (and some real wit). Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: At the most basic, crowd-pleasing level, Goldeneye does the trick. Read more