By all means, yes, Timothy Dalton's stint as James Bond is one of the franchise's most underrated, but there's no denying Pierce Brosnan was a clear step up.
With Martin Campbell helming a soft reboot of the Bond series in 1995's Goldeneye, Brosnan was brought in as Dalton's replacement and immediately set about turning in a performance as one of the most iconic versions of 007 going.
He's charming and lethal in equal measure, and though Brosnan's tenure as Bond would be marred by three disappointing follow-ups, Goldeneye's status as one of the all-time great spy films is a testament to the actor's magnetism in the role.
Add to that the fact his performances as Bond were all praised despite the declining quality of the series, and it's clear that, although Brosnan's Bond didn't signal a resurgence for 007 on the big-screen, he was certainly made to play that role.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
