Pierces Brosnan’s Tenure as James Bond…

[TedShatner10]

Was the Brosnan era a successful period of the Bond franchise? I'd say it was a very mixed bag, but my general opinion of the Brosnan Bond films may differ to most - I'd say Tomorrow Never Dies was my favourite instalment and actually quite underrated, while I found GoldenEye damn overrated and it has deflated a lot in the last twelve years even though Famke Jansen was ridiculously hot in that (and still is). Die Another Day was a box office success but a resounding critical failure, but I like it like I like mediocre toss like Street Fighter. The World is Not Enough was overall semi-decent but patchy in places (with the strongest moments being the speed boat chase and title sequence).

 

[Kegek]

I'd also consider Tomorrow Never Dies one of the stronger outings of the Brosnan period; especially due to Michelle Yeoh's role as a Bond girl. Die Another Day was silly stuff but fairly amusing in the cinema; though it's one of those movies you never see a second time.

As far as The World Is Not Enough; well, for some reason my most prominent memory is the wonderful shots of Istanbul in that film. I thought it was a strong outing and I liked the villains. They were good fodder for melodrama.

As uneven as the films were, Pierce Brosnan exuded a likeable charisma and genuine charm that in my eye made him the best Bond since Connery. But the films were, sadly even at best not outstanding.

 

[Candlelight]

Die Another Day was my favourite, have watched it numerous times.

Goldeneye was ok but the FX were very dated. The shot of the Mig crashing into the building was some pretty piss-poor model work.

Tomorrow Never Dies had strong action but the villain had pathetic motivation to do what he was doing, and Teri Hatcher wasn't used very well. I visited some of the locations they filmed at when I was in Thailand two years ago.

The other one had a silly bond girl, and not very memorable sequences (although the micro-light parachute planes were designed by my uncle-in-law).

 

[davejames]

Overrated or not, the only one I really liked was Goldeneye.

The others suffered from weak villains and increasingly silly and over the top action sequences. Which is a shame, because Pierce Brosnan deserved SO much better. He was a badass James Bond.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies are excellent James Bond movies, but the other two are...not.

 

[CaptainCanada]

The first three I liked a lot (apart from Denise Richards in the third); the fourth was too over the top.

Brosnan, as an actor, was maybe my favourite Bond. I don't think the scripts ever quite got as good as Brosnan's performance merited, though; all the raves about Craig could just as easily have been for him had he gotten that sort of material.

 

[Smiley]

Brosnan's films are like ST films to me: the even ones tend to be better. I love TND and DAD, but GE and TWINE are passable at best.

 

[zenophite]

I was extremely disappointed by Brosnan's tenure as 007. While I'm not a fan of brosnan personally I was really expecting him to be a great bond but IMO he fizzled. I don't blame him though - I think the producers were blame for not revamping the series ala Casino Royale sooner. His last one with Haley Berry was just gods-awful.

 

[Harvey]

I think Brosnan gets a bad rap because of Die Another Day--it was simply awful. Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and (somewhat) The World is Not Enough were all great entries that started to try and have more inter-series continuity, something they're doing to a much greater extent now.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

I enjoyed all of Brosnan's Bond films. DAD is certainly the weakest of the three, but I own the DVD and rewatch it as much as I do the others.

And on the subject of a Bond actor suffering because of the material written for him, Timothy Dalton would likely have done better as Bond had his scripts not stunk so much. His performance as Bond is quite good, if only it weren't stuck in substandard screenplays.

 

[misskim86]

I think it definetly revitalized the franchise and Tomorrow never dies is my fav Bond movie

 

[tomalak301]

I liked All 4. They were fun, thrilling and Brosnan is such a charmer. Loved meeting the new Q in The World is Not Enough: "Than that makes you R?"

 

[I am not Spock]

I liked Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies...a lot.

World Is Not Enough is OK (it has a great villainess, and some good action), but a good actor like Robert Carlyle is wasted as the villain. And the less said about Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist, the better...

DAD was very mediocre. The script is very over the top and full of cliches from start to finish. The plot is so far-fetched and contains elements that we've already seen done before, and better (Icarus is basically the same as the Goldeneye satellite; Miranda Frost is a double agent just like Alec Trevalyn, yawn). Casino Royale did a 'For Your Eyes Only', and brought the series back down to Earth after DAD's 'Moonraker-esque' silliness.

Three out of four ain't bad.

My rankings for the movies are probably the same as the chronological order of production:

Goldeneye/ 9
TND/ 9
TWINE/ 7
DAD/5

 

[Jax]

It was a mixed bag for me, as Goldenye & Tommorow Never Dies, were good films IMO, but the last two were more downhill.

 

[Australis]

See, I don't get the love for TND. Like the others, though I admit they were patchy. They're still good fun though.

CR is a different kettle of caviar.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Brosnan probably gave the best performance of all the Bond actors, and TWINE was probably his best of the bunch--his performance was on par with some of his award-worthy ones.

However, the best performance in the world can only go so far with mediocre dialog in a weak plot.

 

[Trubinator]

Piere was always my favorite of the Bonds. I don't think I disliked any of his installments.

 

[Brikar99]

I love "Goldeneye", and I dig "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The World is Not Enough". "Die Another Day" is a little too silly for my tastes, though when the mood strikes me, I can totally get into it.

 

[davejames]

It's funny, because as bad as it is, I think Die Another Day has Brosnan's BEST work as Bond.

The beginning of the movie, when Bond is this bitter and angry man who's just been released from prison, is really well written, and Brosnan had a real EDGE to him that was just awesome to see.

It's too bad that didn't carry all the way through the rest of the movie...

 

[Starkers]

The only Brosnan film I dislike is TWINE. GE is flawed but brilliant, whilst TND is criminally underated. As for DAD, it's a celebration for f**k's sake, some people just really don't get that. Frankly if the film had a better ending it might rank as one of my favourites...I love eveything up until Bond and Jinx escape from the Ice Palace. Invisible cars I can deal with, ropey CGI I can deal with, but a badguy in a robot suit?

Considering I dislike her a lot, Halle Berry was nowhere near as annoying as I expected her to be (although I still root for Rosamund every time). The pretitle sequence is excellent, the torture and Bond's release are superb, especially his scenes with M on the boat. And much as I love Daniel Craig (now) I'd defy him to look as cool bearded, soaking wet and bedraggled walking into a plush hotel to the 007 music! The sword fight is bloody brilliant, the banter between Brosnan and Cleese wonderful, plus it has great bad guys in Graves and Zao, a hot chick in Pike...

By contrast TWINE is a dull, washed out film.

Brosnan's problem is that, unfortunately, he doesn't appeal to the Fleming snobs (much like a certain Roger Moore).

The only real problem I have with the Brosnan era is the repetition (GE, TWINE and DAD all repeat the good girl/bad girl riff- then again even Connery films do that)