Goldeneye Parent Guide

After a six year hiatus, Bond is back in the form of Pierce Brosnan. While the actor has changed, the latest Bond holds hard to its formula plot: A madman is about to take over the world. Utilizing a high power satellite which will bathe London with radio waves (rendering anything that plugs in useless), his goal is to transfer massive amounts of money into his own account from disabled bank computers.

Goldeneye is like ordering an attractive dessert at an upscale restaurant—the first few bites are great, but by the end it takes everything you have to finish. And when you are finished, you wonder why you ever started in the first place. The first few minutes provided a couple of incredible stunts (along with the usual credits featuring those never quite revealed naked women), but the rest of this 130 minute epic was a literal fight to the finish on the screen, and for the viewer. Watching the same six people chase and hunt each other becomes monotonous, even with millions of dollars of stunts and effects.

Another inescapable issue is that Bond is becoming obsolete. In one scene, one of his women complain of his cold, calculated swooning. His reply, “It’s what keeps me alive,” seems to be an aside joke where the writers have acknowledged that the Bond image is what remains attractive to audiences, even though the stories seem out of date in the post Cold War era.

Male teens are especially attracted to the adventurous Bond, and for this reason I am even more bothered with the stereotyped sexually aggressive portrayal of women in this film. The main villainess in this movie kills men by crushing their ribs during intercourse, and gains sexual delight in murdering. Showing a need for violence in order to gain sexual pleasure is a dangerous combination, and some of the many adolescent males that view this type of movie in excess, may reach adulthood still believing the lie that sex and violence are inseparable.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.