MI6 looks back at the GoldenEye world premiere in 1995, and what the press had to say about Bond`s re-emergence in the 90's...

GoldenEye - Premiere & Press
13th November 2003

On 13th November 1995 GoldenEye premiered in America at the New York's Radio City Music Hall. After a six year hiatus after Timothy Dalton starred in "Licence To Kill", the 007 number was taken over by Pierce Brosnan and was put on general public release in the USA on November 17th 1995.

The UK royal premiere was attended by The Prince of Wales took place on the 22th November at the Leicester Square Odeon London. The Prince of Wales was reported to cheer and clap at during the action sequences. The film then went on general UK release on the 24th November. Left: HRH Prince Charles at the UK Premiere with (left to right) Michael G. Wilson, Izabella Scorupco, Tina Turner, Pierce Brosnan.

Bond Was Back And Back With A Bang

GoldenEye was a global hit for the franchise and by May 1996, 6 months after going on general release, GoldenEye had grossed a massive £106,429,941 at the US box office and £350,731,227 worldwide.

In 1995, GoldenEye became the UK's highest non-holiday opener, going out on 448 screens and earning an extraordinary $5,554,206. GoldenEye's opening weekend in the US was to the tune of $26,205,007 on 2,667 screens.

Above: Famke Janssen, Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shae-Smith at the Premiere.

Larry Gleason, President of MGM/UA Distribution Co. said, "We are delighted with the film's success on both sides of the Atlantic. GoldenEye has once again put the James Bond films into the record books and has proven a worthy addition to the most successful film franchise in history." The French however were not able to attend the planned gala of GoldenEye on home soil, even after the extensive cooperation by the French Navy. Pierce Brosnan's verbal support for Greenpeace's anti-French / anti-nuclear-testing standpoint resulted in the quiet cancellation of the gala. "Unlike the rogue Russian general in GoldenEye, Jacques Chirac's threat to world peace is anything but fiction," said Greenpeace US Executive Director Barbara Dudley. "We are very grateful that Mr. Brosnan has taken this opportunity to join Greenpeace in telling Mr. Chirac to end his insane nuclear testing program once and for all."

What The Critics Said...

The Good

"No one could say that the plot wasn't forged out of conventional Bond material. Nor that the fantasy hasn't a tinge of realism to give an edge to its absurdity. That's the strength of the movie. It gives its audiences what they've always wanted, while obliquely suggesting that Ian Fleming's hero is a bit of a cad by modem standards ...If Four Weddings and a Funeral suggested Britain could still make highly commercial films, GoldenEye proves the point." - Derek Malcolm, The Guardian

"This is the best Bond movie since On Her Majesty's Secret Service," - Kim Newman, Empire magazine

"Goldeneye's greatest success, especially in the light of how The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill failed, is in modernising Bond... The Dalton Bonds attempted to catch-up with the times. Goldeneye does not attempt to change Bond by making him a New[ish] Man as the Dalton Bonds did... [Brosnan is] arguably as handsome as any of the the previous Bonds and he's a much better actor than George Lazenby. He doesn't read all of his lines as if they were in quotation marks as Roger Moore did, or seem embarrassed to be playing the role like Timothy Dalton. Brosnan is the fittest Bond we've had since early Sean Connery. He is elegant and moves well" - Jose Arroyo, Sight and Sound

"Brosnan shares none of Connery's virtues, but has also been careful to avoid Moore's vices. It doesn't give him much room for maneuver, but then maneuvering in tight corners is the one thing Brosnan is quite good at... It's the sort of skill that comes in handy amid the swift, crisply defined action sequences of the film - by far the best since The Spy Who Loved Me. The director, Martin Campbell, comes to Bond from such dull blockish thrillers as Criminal Law, Defenseless and No Escape; but he has also served a stint on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street, whose fast, fleeting style has helped toughen Goldeneye into an impressively urgent film" - Tom Sonne, The Sunday Times

"Six years in the wilderness and Bond returns, dapped, sprightly and raring to go. The rest has done the old chap good. This is no Goldfinger, granted, but Goldeneye is so much more than any us could have hoped for... Brosnan does the sensible thing and never tries to touch Sean Connery. Instead he revamps that indomitable British spirit - ditching the earnestness of Dalton - plays the humour adroitly and is as comfortable winning at Baccarat in Monte Carlo as he is mowing down Russian extras in a Moscow prison... 'You're a relic of the Cold War' growls Dench's cynical M at her shaken but, most definitely, never stirred secret agent. How he has proved her wrong. Die Hards? They don't even come close to 007" - Ian Nathan, Empire

The Bad

"After six years off the screen, James Bond's return in the form of Pierce Brosnan is a decidedly mixed affair: the action sequences are as spectacular as ever, but the trademark humour is in short supply. Still, Goldeneye does just about enough to fend off critics who thought Bond too old-fashioned for the 90s... As the fifth official Bond, Brosnan handles the action with aplomb and generally cuts a convincing figure as 007, less mannered than Roger Moore and not as anonymous as Timothy Dalton, he can't equal Sean Connery, but he gets all the decent lines... Goldeneye isn't classic Bond by any stretch of the imagination, but it's competent entertainment and will surely keep the 007 franchise alive and kicking for a while yet" - David Eimer, Premiere

The Ugly

"MGM executives actually created blurbs for the 007 film "Goldeneye” then went shopping for critics who agreed to put their names on them. Gire was contacted, but told that he couldn't have "The best Bond of them all" because some other hack already snared it." - Dann Gire, Daily Herald and President of the Chicago Film Critics Association

"From the first shot until the actor Pierce Brosnan opens the door, it's all a (stunt) double. Even the shot of him running is doubled--he wouldn't go to the location. The shots are of the back of his head or from overhead. This is 007, he should at least run or jump or do something." - Jackie Chan, Los Angeles Times