Pierce Brosnan: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. James Bond - Goldeneye (1995)

Brosnan's best performance comes in his very first appearance as 007. He'd waited a long time to get to this point, having been passed over in favour of Timothy Dalton at the height of his TV fame on Remington Steele. And with the Bond series being relaunched after a six-year hiatus, during which time the Cold War had concluded, the pressure was certainly on for him to deliver. Fortunately for all concerned, he did, and as a result 007 is still alive and kicking today. Setting up Bond for the post-Cold War era, Goldeneye begins with Bond and fellow 00 agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) breaking into a Soviet facility in 1986; they are ambushed and Bond escapes, leaving Alec for dead. Nine years later, Bond is tasked by the new M (Judi Dench) to find Goldeneye, a satellite system which generates an electomagnetic pulse. His search leads him to the elusive Janus corporation, run by a frisky assassin and a familiar face... Goldeneye is directed by Martin Campbell, who later made Casino Royale, and can therefore claim to be the only director to have saved Bond's bacon twice. But for all his good work behind the camera, the film ultimately works because of Brosnan's performance. He strikes a perfect balance between the rougher, dangerous edge that Dalton brought to the part and the best elements of Roger Moore's high camp wit. For all the problems with his later outings, Brosnan's first bash at Bond is still a classic, and its influence is writ large over Skyfall. Having bonded with Brosnan over his best work, now let's take a look at some of his worst...