One of the greatest movie franchises of all time in my opinion are the action adventure James Bond series which has now seen six different men assume the role (Sean Connery,George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig). Out of all the Bond’s, Pierce Brosnan is the one that has played Bond that I have not see very much of so I took the chance and watched GoldenEye for today’s film. After following a couple of leads, James Bond learns that someone is trying to steal GoldenEye, a weapon that destroys through electronic devices. He teams up with a Russian woman (Izabella Scorupco) who survived the first attack with the weapon to try and stop the syndicate that is using it. Although when Bond meets the man behind the syndicate, he turns out to be a familiar person Bond thought was dead. The film also stars Sean Bean (Game Of Thrones) as Alec Trevelyan, Famke Janssen (X-Men) as Xenia Onatopp, Joe Don Baker (Cape Fear) as Jack Wade, Judi Dench (Skyfall) as M, Desmond Llewelyn (Thunderball) as Q, Samantha Bond (Downtown Abbey) as Miss Moneypenny, Alan Cumming (X-Men 2) as Boris, Gottfried John (Proof Of Life) as Gen. Ourumov, and the film was directed by Martin Campbell (Green Lantern).
There was definitely something special going on with this film especially seeing as it’s the first film Pierce did in the series that took six years to come out. They literally almost went with a whole new staff with a new M (Dench) who was the first female to play M in the series and a brand new Moneypenny. The only thing that didn’t change was Q who was once again played by the legendary Desmond Llewelyn. The film had plenty of action scenes to satisfy any Bond fan, it had the perfect Bond girl(s) in Famke Janssen (She is vicious and strange and Izabella Scorupco as well as a good enough Bond villain in a former 00 agent. Who better to match wits with James Bond then another former agent. The only thing I’m not really sure about is how I feel about Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. The only other film in the series I had seen that I didn’t like was Die Another Day. I thought the film itself was very good and I can see why people hyped this one up a lot (I was told that I had to see this one). I think I’ll have to see the rest of his films to really judge where I think he fits among the other Bonds. He’s got suave which I will give him, but he doesn’t exactly have the swagger like Connery or Moore. The car racing scene in the beginning of the film is very cool to watch and the scene with the army tank is another must see. The film was enjoyable to watch which is why I am going to give the film an A- because it may be the best Brosnan-Bond film for now.
For today’s film, I picked one from one of my favorite actors of the 21ST Century in Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, The Machinist). The film I chose for today is Equilibrium which is a Sci-Fi, action, drama film. It is sometime in the future after the third world war and we know live in a fascist society where feelings are being monitored to prevent war, greed, and uprising. Christian Bale plays John Preston, an agent who is in charge of destroying artifacts that invoke feelings and destroy anyone who violates the law and feels. After missing a dose that prevents him from feeling, he starts to realize why his dead partner (Sean Bean) and a prisoner (Emily Watson) would sacrifice their lives for feelings. Preston then goes on a crusade to protect the resistance and correct all of the wrongs in the world. The film also stars Taye Diggs (The Wood) as Brandt, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) as Seamus, Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers) as Father, Angus Macfadyen (Braveheart) as Dupont, William Fichtner (The Dark Knight) as Jurgen, Maria Pia Calzone (Gomorrah) as Preston’s Wife, Matthew Harbour (I’m Not There) as Robbie Preston, and the film was directed by Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen).
First of all, I have to say that I loved the concept of the film, but I have a couple of issues with it. My one problem with the idea is despite being given a dose to try and prevent you from feeling, how is it that you don’t feel anything? There are a couple of instances where Taye Diggs’s character cracks a smile at Bale during the film and you are meaning to tell me that is not a violation? I do however understand that the drug makes you a mindless drone who carries on with a mundane life in a world where everything is mundane including the color of cars (all cars are completely white with no details). There are instances in films that you see an actors performance and you instantly see similarities in other roles. For example, much of the way he carries himself in this film is very similar to the way he portrayed Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight trilogy. I am not saying that is a bad thing because this is definitely one of my top Bale films besides American Psycho and The Machinist. The action in the film is something else that I wanted to talk about because I wish I saved this for Ass Whoopin Wednesday it is so bad ass. Christian Bale is a total bad ass and the action sequences are truly amazing. The whole film overall is amazing from top to bottom and check out what happens to Taye Diggs in the film. The film is currently on Netflix as we speak, but I have no idea for how long. I am going to give the film an A for a final grade because it’s special effects, acting, and action sequences are all amazing.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 