Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
Sometimes, good actors pursue bad projects and end up making a career out of it. Pierce Brosnan, the fifth actor take up the mantle of James Bond, has a filmography filled with seriously disappointing projects. Brosnan first came to prominence in the lead role on television’s Remington Steele, where he played the title private investigator for five seasons opposite Stephanie Zimbalist and Doris Roberts. After 94 episodes, the series ended in 1987 with Brosnan struggling to find his next project. It wouldn’t be until 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire that he really found something prominent to work on and from there, he parlayed it into a semi-successful run as the debonair Bond before falling into mediocrity as the 1990s waned. While he’s done some interesting stuff since, his career has never found anything in the way of success since the end of his Bond years. This week, he stars in a new fantasy film called The King’s Daughter. It looks slight and there’s little to suggest the film will be a surprise hit, so we only get to look back at what he’s done and take solace in the fact that he’s done some great things, but not always in great films.
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
At the height of Robin Williams’ popularity came this fascinating gem of a comedy about a father stripped of his parental rights who goes undercover as an overweight nanny named Mrs. Doubtfire in order to see his children. It’s an overly simplistic explanation of the plot as there’s a lot more depth and nuance than you might expect from a big budget comedy, but it worked amazingly well and Williams delivered one of his best performance as the cross-dressing nanny.
Pierce Brosnan was given one of his first major roles following his television successes and, in this film, he plays Sally Field’s newest boyfriend, a man trying to be a suitable replacement for her kids, but whom Williams’ character actively loathes, pegging him in the back of the head with a fruit and claiming it to be a “run-by fruiting.” Brosnan, for his part, brought his best to the role and although it wasn’t one that could stand out next to Williams, it was on par with Fields and that’s saying something.
No Original Review Available
GoldenEye (1995)
After two gritty Bond adventures with Timothy Dalton in the lead, Eon decided to try a return to the more glamorous Bond adventures of Sean Connery and, to a lesser extent, Roger Moore. Brosnan was a perfect embodiment of those aims and he brought a lot of strong skills to the role in GoldenEye.
With the Berlin Wall history and Communism seemingly fading as a threat to the global way of life, especially for Americans and their allies in the United Kingdom, the producers saw an opportunity to shift gears away from the Cold War spy thriller that had defined the franchise and give audiences a fitting conclusion to that era of cinema. With a smashing title sequence that symbolized the collapse of the Cold War, the film not only rebuilt the flashy excess of the Bond franchise with the able and charming Brosnan in the lead, they managed to revitalize the franchise after it had begun to fade throughout the 1980s. Unfortunately, that rise was short lived as this remained the high water mark for the franchise through the rest of the Brosnan years and even for most of the Daniel Craig films.
No Original Review Available
Mars Attacks! (1996)
At the time of its release, Tim Burton’s sci-fi comedy was reviled by many critics, its ludicrous situations seemed overly contrived and the film didn’t flow as it should. Since then, the film has gone through a bit of a re-evaluation in some sectors as it has become something of a cult classic. The film, based on a series of popular Topps trading cards, pictures a Martian invasion of planet earth over a miscommunication. It was stylized after the schlocky sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s and was the perfect embodiment of such efforts.
Jack Nicholson stars in a dual role as the President of the United States and Art Land, a sleazy land developer. The all-star cast includes Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan (as a prominent scientist), Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Natalie Portman, Sylvia Sidney, and several others. It was utterly ludicrous and not even remotely realistic, but it was a lot of fun with a wonderful score from Danny Elfman and some impressive production values, which we’ve come to expect from Burton’s films. Brosnan isn’t better or worse than anyone else in the cast, but such is the nature of a large ensemble piece like this.
No Original Review Available
Mamma Mia! (2008)
There are significant problems with Mamma Mia!, but in Brosnan’s filmography, it is one of his better films. Brosnan’s role in the film is seemingly minimal, albeit critical, as one of the potential father of Amanda Seyfried’s character Sophie. The others are played by Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. The film is built off a Broadway musical that was constructed around several of pop super group ABBA’s hit songs.
Along for the ride are Meryl Streep as Sophie’s mother, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters as Streep’s friends and former bandmates, and Dominic Cooper as Sophie’s fiancé. Their pending nuptials serve as backdrop for the musical numbers that make up the film including songs like “I Have a Dream,” the title track, “Dancing Queen,” and others. If you’re a fan of ABBA, you should give the show a chance as it works overtime to ensure each track is applicable to the events. Additionally, the dance numbers are solid, but the photography makes the environs feel fake and the vocalists aren’t all that good, most notably Brosnan, Firth, and Skarsgard.
No Original Review Available
The World’s End (2013)
Edgar Wright’s alien invasion comedy marks the final film in the Cornetto Trilogy, which stars Nick Frost and co-screenwriter Simon Pegg. Each film featured the pair in different roles, but they all felt interconnected by the lunacy of events. In this film, Pegg, Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan take part in a city-wide pub crawl to complete the famous “Golden Mile,” drinking a pint at each location on the journey and stumbling to the end incredibly drunk. Meanwhile, they stumble onto an insidious plot by a group of aliens to take over the world and, through sheer luck, Pegg and company try to thwart them.
Brosnan has a brief, but impactful role in the film as Pegg’s character’s favorite teacher from his youth, the last time he and his friends attempted this particular drinking excursion. The film is a funny one that fits nicely into the trilogy that also featured Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz even if their themes and characters don’t sufficiently overlap. Regardless, you’re bound to have fun following these hapless fellows on their strange journey. Rosamund Pike even makes a welcome appearance as Freeman’s younger sister. While it can stand alone, I would certainly recommend catching it after seeing the first two films, just to behold the evolution of Wright’s skills as a director, which clearly evolved over the course of the three pictures.
