Khoi Vinh’s review published on Letterboxd:
Say what you will about the Broccoli family’s stewardship of the Bond franchise, but they’ve gotten a ton of mileage from journeyman directors like Martin Campbell. This debut outing for Pierce Brosnan in the 007 role works in large part because Campbell is dutiful and unimaginative in his fealty to the franchise—it’s pretty much everything audiences wanted from their new Bond at the time, without a lot of surprises. What’s interesting, and a little depressing, is watching Brosnan’s attempts to both own and surpass the role. He looks determined to turn in an interesting performance, despite both his limited range and also the periodic Bond-isms, e.g., corny bon mots, vain adjustments of his tie, etc., that he has to obediently perform every ten minutes or so. This is particularly painful to watch when Sean Bean is clearly having so much fun as his antagonist; this would have been a much more interesting movie from the villain’s point of view, sadly.
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