Every James Bond Movie, Ranked Worst to Best

The year: 1995

The 007: Pierce Brosnan

The (non-UK) location(s): Russia, France, Monaco, Cuba

The theme song: "GoldenEye" performed by Tina Turner

Released following the longest gap (six years) in franchise history (at least until the pandemic struck decades later), GoldenEye marked the debut of Pierce Brosnan—then best known as the star of the 1980s NBC detective dramedy Remington Steele—as 007. Brosnan had actually been signed to play Bond two movies prior (for The Living Daylights) but had to give up the role (to Timothy Dalton) when he couldn't get out of his TV contract. But it worked out for the best: GoldenEye is a better film.

Directed by Martin Campbell (who would later return for Casino Royale), GoldenEye didn't exactly reinvent the idea of a James Bond movie, but it did breathe some new life into a franchise that had gone stale, thanks to a well-received performance by Brosnan (and by Judi Dench as the first female M) and some strong action sequences. The result, at the time, was the highest-grossing Bond film to date and the best-reviewed title in Brosnan's four-film tenure as Bond.

But hese days the word "GoldenEye" (originally, the name of a planned but not executed WWII operation to be led by Ian Fleming and later the name of the author's Jamaican estate where he wrote his Bond novels) is perhaps most closely associated with a 1997 spinoff videogame. Though there had been over a dozen James Bond-related games released previously, none before (or since) matched the commercial or critical success of GoldenEye 007, considered one of the best games ever released for the Nintendo 64.

“A mildly successful attempt at updating a relic, its appeal depends greatly on an audience's willingness to go along for a familiar ride.” —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times