Goldeneye (1995) dir. Martin Campbell

Nine years ago, MI6 agents 006 Alex Trevelyan (Sean Bean) and 007 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) infiltrated a Soviet chemical weapons plant hidden inside a dam. A alarm was tripped early, and 006 was caught and shot by the base commander, Colonel Ourumov (Gottfried John). Bond shorted the timers on the explosives he'd planted and managed to escape by the skin of his teeth. The plant was destroyed, but James has been haunted ever since by the death of his colleague and friend.

In the present day, things have changed. There no longer is a Soviet Union as such. And MI6 has a new "M" (Judi Dench) in charge. So there's an evaluation of 007 going on to make sure he's still fit for service. After an exciting car chase with a mysterious woman (Who will turn out to be Xenia Onatopp (Famke Jannsen)), James is able to seduce his pretty evaluator into giving him a passing mark.

Onatopp is suspected of working for Janus, a new organized crime group working out of the Russian Federation and named after its mysterious leader. Bond investigates, but is unable to prevent her from murdering an admiral and stealing an experimental helicopter shielded against radiation and electromagnetic pulses.

This turns out to be part of a plan to steal control of "Goldeneye", a secret Soviet space weapon capable of creating EMPs on demand (once); because it was super-expensive and violated treaties, only two were ever placed in orbit. They're controlled from a Space Weapons facility in Northern Russia.

This is where we meet our female lead, Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), systems engineer and computer programmer for the base, paired with Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming). Boris is a genius hacker, but alas poor in social skills, creating a hostile work environment for Natalya with his juvenile sexual jokes and crude innuendo. She puts up with him because he's sometimes genuinely funny and also she doesn't have a lot of choice in her career field.

Colonel (now a general, apparently) Ourumov arrives at the facility for a surprise inspection. Once having secured the Goldeneye key, he and Onatopp kill everyone except Boris, who was outside for a smoke break, and Natalya, who'd gone for coffee and tricked Onatopp about her hiding place. The criminals then use the first Goldeneye to destroy the base itself and any evidence that might have been there, but Natalya manages to survive that too.

Shortly thereafter, James Bond is in St. Petersburg, investigating leads to Janus. He learns that part of the gang leader's motivation is revenge against the Soviet and British governments, due to the Brits sending refugees back to the murderous government they were fleeing. (Topical!) Bond admits, "not our finest hour."

Natalya is able to get to St. Petersburg as well, and uses her computer skills to try to locate help. She's surprised to learn Boris is still alive, but when they meet she's bitterly disappointed to find out he was working for Janus all along. Fortunately, James is there to rescue her, but she is understandably suspicious of him. And the leader of the gang, Janus, also is revealed and it's someone 007 has met before.

Can James Bond convince Natalya that he's one of the good guys and prevent Janus from using Goldeneye on London?

This was the first Bond movie for Pierce Brosnan--it had been delayed by legal difficulties and other issues, so Timothy Dalton had asked to be released from his contract. The script still was tuned to Dalton's darker take on the character. The fall of the Soviet Union did require some major changes to the story, and it became focused on "what do we do now that our main enemy is defeated? Is James Bond still relevant?")

Janus helps ease this transition. He's not just a random bad guy that 007 is fighting because that's his job, he's one of the few people James Bond considered a close friend. That makes it personal, and Janus takes advantage of his knowledge of Bond's vulnerable spots to score some nasty emotional blows. The backstory makes Janus' bitterness and betrayal understandable, though he loses any sympathy points by his greed and willingness to kill innocent people.

Onatopp is also memorable, as her character type was still rare at the time, a fighting woman who gets off sexually on violence and killing. And crushing men with her thighs. Ahem.

Boris is the comic relief for the villains, a nerd who suddenly finds himself very much in demand for his computer skills and gloating about it. His sexism and immaturity make it satisfying when he declares himself "invincible" once too often.

Brosnan is an acceptable Bond, though he's still not completely into the role. Natalya gets to be pretty darn competent, somehow managing to get from the destroyed base all the way to St. Petersburg without getting caught, and her computer skills being actually just as good as Boris'. (Bond does have to solve a password for her.)

As always for Bond movies, exciting, well-staged action scenes, stuff blowing up and nice scenery (including actual footage of St. Petersburg, the first time a Bond film had actually shot inside Russia.)

This film is perhaps best remembered by fans as having inspired the best tie-in video game for a James Bond movie, but it's a good installment in the series, and recommended for action movie buffs.

For Your Eyes Only (1981) dir. John Glen

James Bond (Roger Moore) is visiting his wife Tracy's grave when he's informed that a helicopter has come to take him to "the office." This turns out to be a trap, as the pilot is murdered by his own headphones so that a man who is clearly Blofeld (John Hollis), having survived the end of Diamonds Are Forever though with severe permanent injuries. The villain flies the helicopter by remote control, taunting Bond with almost-death, but gloats too long and 007 is able to disable the remote and turns the tables. Blofeld is probably really dead this time.

Meanwhile, the St. Georges, a British Navy surveillance ship disguised as a fishing trawler, is sunk in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. It happened to have on board the ATAC, a device for controlling Britain's ballistic missiles. The Soviet Union in the person of General Gogol (Walter Gotell) would be very interested in obtaining the device, and commission "our Greek friend" to pick it up. Marine archaeologist and crossbow champion Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) witnesses her parents being assassinated by Cuban hitman Hector Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha). She does not know that this is because they were helping the British locate the sunken ship.

Bond is called in to investigate the murder of the Havelocks and find the ATAC. While he's surveilling the pool party Gonzales is hosting in Spain, he witnesses someone hand the killer a suitcase full of money. He then allows himself to be captured, but before he can learn more, Melina in disguise murders Gonzales and they're forced to escape together.

James and Melina argue about her revenge plans, as her bloodthirst has temporarily left Bond without solid leads. She's focused on her personal loss, while 007 sees a slightly larger picture, but won't at this moment tell her about it.

Using a fancy identikit-type program guided by Q (Desmond Llewellyn), Bond is able to determine that the payoff man is Belgian mercenary Locque (Michael Gothard). He jets off to Italy and the former Winter Olympics site of Cortina. There he meets with his local contact Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno), who introduces him to wealthy Greek businessman and informant Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover). James is also introduced to Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), an aspiring figure skater sponsored by Kristatos, and her exacting coach Ms. Brink (Jill Bennett). Kristatos suspects his former partner in the Greek resistance, now his business rival and smuggler, Milos Columbo (Topol) of employing Locque.

The baddies have figured out who Melina is, and lured her to Cortina with a faked telegram from James. This sparks several winter sports-themed assassination attempts by Locque and his associates, including Eric Kriegler (John Wyman) East German bi-athlete and KGB agent. Bond and Melina survive, but Luigi does not, and that man's body has a dove pin on it, symbol of Columbo's organization.

So it's off to Corfu, Greece, where Columbo owns a casino. Columbo's mistress, Countess Lisl von Schlaf (Cassandra Harris) and Bond seduce each other for information. As they walk along the beach afterwards, the "Countess" (she's actually from Liverpool) is assassinated by Locque, and then Bond is captured by Columbo's men. The smuggler claims that Kristatos, not him, is Locque's employer!

Now James Bond must figure out who's telling the truth, recover the ATAC, and make sure that Malina's revenge doesn't kill the wrong people.

Roger Moore plays 007 with more humor than his two predecessors, not just hardboiled one-liners, but as aware of how silly some of the situations he gets in to are. By this point, his fifth or so Bond movie, he was beginning to feel his age, and James very pointedly does not sleep with Bibi, who's depicted as too young for his tastes.

After a couple of very flashy films, including outright science fiction in Moonraker, it was decided to dial back the stakes and the use of gadgets in this movie. The tricked-out car is blown up very quickly, and the climax involves Bond using standard climbing gear and improvisation to get up a mountainside. We're back to the Cold War with the Soviet Union as the larger scale villains, but they're not planning to destroy the world, even if they do get the Macguffin of the plot.

The opening song is cool, sung by Sheena Easton, who actually appears in the opening credits.

As always with the Eon series of James Bond movies, excellent action and chase scenes, with a good variety of locations. The hockey assassins are very silly, but make Luigi's death just afterwards more of a gut punch.

Oh, and there's also a silly bit with (unnamed) Margaret Thatcher, who is depicted as a housewife who just so happens also to be Prime Minister. Your mileage may vary on just how much of a mis-portrayal this is.

Content notes: Women in skimpy outfits, implied nudity. Bond and several other characters have extramarital sex. Bibi mentions she's not a virgin, but specifically doesn't do it with Bond or Kristatos. Lots of murder and violence, as per usual, some bloody. Sex trafficking is mentioned.

This isn't one of the great James Bond movies, or the most memorable. But it's still plenty interesting and

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) dir. Peter R. Hunt

James Bond (George Lazenby), agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service, is a bit at loose ends. He's spent the last two years trying to track down Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Telly Savalas) with no luck. M (Bernard Lee) would like 007 to move on to other threats. Happening to see a woman on a lonely beach walking into the ocean, Bond saves her from drowning, only to be attacked by men while she runs away. He runs into the woman again at a casino, saves her from a gambling debt, and they become better acquainted. But the next morning she's gone, and Bond is abducted by criminals.

It turns out they're working for Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate. The woman, Contessa Therese "Tracy" Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), is his daughter. She was neglected growing up, and did things to spite her father, including marrying the late Count. Tracy, too, is at loose ends, and Draco thinks Bond would make a good husband. James demurs, being a confirmed horndog who doesn't like to be tied down, and also a secret agent with a dangerous job. The offer of money is scoffed at, but Bond is interested in information about the current location of rival crime syndicate SPECTRE's boss Blofeld.

Tracy sees through this, and while she actually is interested in James, insists her father give up the information rather than dangle it for weeks. After a whirlwind romance, James acts on that info, breaking into a lawyer's office and learning that Blofeld is now going by 'Count Balthazar De Bleuchamp' and is trying to get his title recognized officially. (Blofeld seems truly invested in getting his title "for real", it's never proven one way or the other.) Bond goes undercover, posing as a genealogist to get invited to the secret hideout.

This location turns out to be Piz Gloria, in the Swiss Alps, which can only be reached by helicopter or private cable car. The Count sends his right hand woman Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) to pick up Sir Bray, and it's explained that this is a medical research institute specializing in allergy treatment. There's a dozen young women from around the world under treatment, some of whom find "Sir Bray" quite tantalizing. Turns out that Blofeld is actually brainwashing these women to spread biological weapons to targeted animals and crops to destroy the supply. If the United Nations doesn't bow to Blofeld, he will release his weapons one by one.

Bond's cover is blown. How will he get out of this one and save the day?

This was the only George Lazenby Bond movie, after Sean Connery had done the part in five previous films. Rather than have a regeneration process ala Doctor Who, Lazenby briefly refers to "the other fellow" in the cold open, and then the movie proceeds as though he's the same character. (The opening titles show bits of the previous movies, and later we see props that had been used previously to emphasize the continuity.)

He's a perfectly acceptable Bond, and might have grown into the role if he was able to continue. Her looks good in a kilt. Diana Rigg is good as Tracy, and Telly Savalas does a decent Blofeld.

The cinematography is very good, especially the aerial shots during the ski chase scenes, which were done using a special harness for the camera operator. (A man dedicated to his job--he'd lost a leg while shooting the previous James Bond movie.) Awesome action sequences and stunts as well.

The music is also of note. The title theme is instrumental so that no one had to try to work "on her majesty's secret service" into lyrics. And Louis Armstrong gives his final film performance singing "All the Time in the World" over the romance sequence, heartbreaking if you already know how the film ends.

That ending is one of the most notable ones in the film series, and is an influence on Bond's character going forward.

Gadgets are played down, with the only important one being a combination safecracker/photocopier that Bond has to have delivered by construction equipment.

The scenes with the patients at the institute, the "Angels of Death", are rather tedious and make the film drag a bit in the middle. Blofeld's plot involving them has a lot of failure points, but Bond would prefer to just make sure it fails at Step One.

Content note: Violence, often lethal. One kill is particularly gory. Female nudity, usually in shadows or otherwise obscured. (As an in-joke, James picks up a Playboy magazine (where this novel was serialized) and looks at the centerfold rather than reading it for the articles.) As always in Bond films, extramarital sex. Some old-fashioned sexism. There's a bullfight going on in the background of one scene, but it's a Portuguese bullfight, which is specifically non-lethal to the bulls. Still could be seen as abusive to the bull.

This isn't one of the top Bond movies, but it's solid and important to the character development. (And is unusually close to the book it was adapted from!) Recommended to James Bond fans, and action movie fans who want the romance treated a bit more seriously.