After six years of silence, 007 emerged in 1995 better than ever with a new face and a new direction. Irishman, Pierce Brosnan was finally cast in the role he won a decade before, but had to bow out thanks to opportunistic television network goons who renewed his NBC television series, “Remington Steele” at the last moment only to cancel the series a few months later. The first Bond to showcase all the best traits of his predecessors; Sir Sean’s charisma, Lazenby’s physicality and Moore’s wit, is a vast improvement over the gloomy gus Dalton. Brosnan gives Bond humor again and sincerely seems to be having a blast as he smirks, kisses and continues drinking his martinis (shaken not stirred) his way back into the movie going consciousness. He no longer smokes and his views toward woman have slightly evolved, but not too much as we want him to stay the sophisticated scoundrel. The story, typical Bond comic book theatrics, tries nonetheless to dig into the ashes of the Cold War yet tries valiantly to remain (then) current. The Russian mafia obtains a space- based weapons system called Goldeneye (named after Ian Fleming’s Jamaican beach house) that works by exploding a nuclear device in orbit, then crippling a ground location with the resulting electromagnetic pulse. It's up to Bond to save London from a retaliation-crazed megalomaniac. No Bond film is worth the film it’s edited on without plenty of colorful supporting characters, there are plenty; a beautiful computer programmer (Isabella Scorupco), a former partner (Sean Bean) as 006, a wisecracking CIA agent (Joe Don Baker), an ex-KGB officer with a score to settle (Robbie Coltrane), the beautiful, Zenia Onnatop, (Femke Janssen) a woman who likes squeezing men to death between her legs. The best Bond henchwoman since Pussy Galore, Janssen is equal parts erotic and insane. Old favorites, M, Q and Moneypenny return and are better than ever. M’s secretary is played ironically by Samantha Bond and takes her flirtation to almost extremes with her Bond fixation, yet it remains fun. M is played for the first time by Judi Dench. She’s a tough old bird who rails against Bond’s “sexism”, calling him a “misogynistic dinosaur” and mocking his cold war style tactics. A real ball breaker, yet she keeps Bond grounded in reality giving her character and Bond a modern take without changing him radically. Some impressive stunts are spread throughout, the stand out being a tank chase busting through several walls running through the streets of St. Petersburg, that is staged with plenty of skill and flair by Director Martin Campbell. The pre-credit sequence takes some liberties with logic and believability, even for a Bond flick, but we don’t really care as it’s all done with fun and energy. The film succeeds on nearly all levels except its bloated running time which is longer than Fisher Steven’s neck! Composer Eric Serra’s score is one of the series best by being both modern and traditional, using plenty of brass and strings. Tina Turner comes very close to reaching Shirley Bassey’s ballsy greatness. A critical and box-office smash, the film became the highest grossing Bond since Moonraker.