GoldenEye

Pierce Brosnan is fantastic as James Bond in 17th James Bond film, which shows that the 90's were Bond's golden age. This film has it all: a great Bond, a very good plot, a unique villain, great action scenes, Moneypenny, Q, Judi Dench at her best as a female M, and the best villain sidekick in the series to date: computer geek Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming). The plot is a thing of beauty: Bond and 006/Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean of "The Field," "National Treasure," and the Lord of the Rings series) are on a mission when Alec is caught and, in order to finish the mission and make it out alive, Bond resets the 6 minute timers to 3 minutes and barely escapes, while Alec's face is mutilated and while he turns to the dark side. We rejoin Bond nine years later, sent on the scene to stop a crystal known as GoldenEye, which powers satellites to destroy cities. When he goes to find the villain, he finds the villain is Alec, now Janus, and he's supercharged and ready to take down Bond at all costs. And there are other dangerous sidekicks: Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) and Arkady Ouromov (Gottfried John). Also, there are other interesting Bond allies, Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) and Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who each reprise their parts, JW in "Tomorrow Never Dies," and VZ in "The World is Not Enough." As for a Bond girl, there is Natalya (Izabella Scorupco). Desmond Llewelyn is brilliant in his antepenultimate film as Q in his small scene that is hilariously gimmicky, and Judi Dench's first film as M is also top-notch, showing that she can take on comical parts as well as more serious roles. Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is also good. But the film's-and the franchise's-strong suits are the action scenes, which here are very, very good, the best involving a tank piloted by the agent himself. These scenes are strong not only in their way of being action-packed, but also adding witty and inventive touches to them, possibly courtesy of Martin Campbell, who crafts a great film here. The gadgets are also strong in this film, the best being a pen that can turn into an explosive with three clicks. In other words, this is the definitive Bond film, which hasn't been matched so far yet. "GoldenEye" is my favorite Bond film, a fast-paced, well-done, well-written piece that showcases a new Bond. A-