Pierce Brosnan is much more than James Bond

[FormerBondFan]

http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/commen ... james-bond

Pierce Brosnan is much more than James Bond
In Focus by Richard Crouse
FOR METRO CANADA
March 12, 2010 6:00 a.m.


Pierce Brosnan has never been nominated for an Oscar. He has a couple Golden Globe nods to his credit and an MTV Movie Best Fight Award statuette on his shelf, but so far the heavy gold has evaded him.

Perhaps because of his dapper good looks he doesn’t get spoken about in the same breath as Colin Firth or Morgan Freeman. Perhaps a resume dotted with films like Dante’s Peak knocks him down a peg or two in the Academy’s opinion.

Or maybe it’s his predilection for doing shamelessly populist fare like Mama Mia and this weekend’s Remember Me (co-starring as Robert Pattison’s father) that keeps him from being taken as seriously as say, George Clooney, another genetically blessed actor, who, like Brosnan, got his big break on television.

He could have been nominated for his work in The Matador, a little seen, but critically lauded film from 2005. In it, Brosnan plays Julian Noble, a jaded hit man, or “facilitator of fatalities” who finds a confidant in a struggling businessman, played by Greg Kinnear.

Brosnan’s performance as Julian, the hit man who develops confidence problems, is a revelation. We have seen Brosnan as the slickly comic private eye Remington Steele on television, the sophisticated James Bond and even as the suave jewel thief in The Thomas Crown Affair, but until now we have never seen him in Beatle boots and a Speedo traipsing across a hotel lobby.

His Julian is a manic creation — amoral, rude and unlike Bond, the character that has defined his career for the last decade, unshaven.

With this one performance Brosnan entered a new phase in his career, effortlessly leaving the urbane Bond behind.

Maybe next year he’ll finally get the recognition he deserves when the Academy gets a load of his work in The Ghost Writer. As ex-prime minister Adam Lang he embodies the role, like he was born for photo ops in front of private jets, waving to his constituents.

It’s good work that effectively erased the image of him as a half man / half horse in the recent film Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Despite the odd misstep, he is an interesting actor who deserves more respect than he gets.
If the movie gods can allow Mon’ique to go from co-starring in Beerfest to winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, surely they can ignore Brosnan’s silly beard in an ill-conceived Robinson Crusoe remake, or the non-thrilling thriller Live Wire and finally give him his due.


Richard Crouse’s Movie Show can be seen every Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on the E! Channel; mrchaos33@hotmail.com.

[Omega]

Pierce is getting a ton of good press. I think he is getting the rep you wanted him to have with a big action movie. Living well is the best revenge and I think he is getting his.

[FormerBondFan]

Pierce is getting a ton of good press. I think he is getting the rep you wanted him to have with a big action movie. Living well is the best revenge and I think he is getting his.

It's just not right for him to quit making action blockbusters altogether after DAD. Sure his time may be passed for Bond but NOT as an action hero. He deserves an action blockbuster (if not another Bond) that will outmatch GoldenEye in terms of both reviews and box office returns. Two reasons: first, his last 3 Bonds didn't live up expectations to be better than GoldenEye, and second, he got a completely unfair dismissal from Bond, leaving him nothing to be remembered as classics other than his first Bond. The way EON did to him is like leaving him to rot. Since EON doesn't want to do anything with him anymore and that there are zero chance for him to do unofficial Bond (due to all Bond rights now own by EON), the best bet we have now is a regular Brosnan action blockbuster......something like Connery's The Rock minus Michael Bay (like Doc said). If he can't do another Bond to showcase his dark and gritty side, then a non-Bond action blockbuster is the only place there is. Also, Pierce has been showing a lot of character depths over the years in drama and comedy (we can forget about Mamma Mia in terms of singing) roles so this shouldn't be a problem for action roles. Let's just forget about The Thomas Crown sequel for one second and think outside the box. Just imagine Pierce starring as the lead in Tarantino's gritty projects. How cool can that be?

[Kristatos]

It's just not right for him to quit making action blockbusters altogether after DAD. Sure his time may be passed for Bond but NOT as an action hero.

But i don't think he WANTS to be known just as an action hero. The projects that really interest him now seem to be the smaller independent films. I think The Topkapi Affair, if it gets made, will be his swan song as far as the action genre is concerned.

[FormerBondFan]

It's just not right for him to quit making action blockbusters altogether after DAD. Sure his time may be passed for Bond but NOT as an action hero.

But i don't think he WANTS to be known just as an action hero. The projects that really interest him now seem to be the smaller independent films. I think The Topkapi Affair, if it gets made, will be his swan song as far as the action genre is concerned.

It's a good thing he's getting plenty of work these days. I'm just afraid that he'll lose his status as one of the top bankable stars and end up in the cult status.

Speaking of TTA, I'm very hopeful to see that being made, but as much I want that happening, I want to see him do something like Connery's The Rock (minus Michael Bay). Like I said before, he's been showing a lot of character depths in drama and comedy roles over the years, and I want to see him do the same for action roles. And again, just imagine him star as the lead in Tarantino's gritty projects.

[Kristatos]

It's a good thing he's getting plenty of work these days. I'm just afraid that he'll lose his status as one of the top bankable stars and end up in the cult status.

I think that's already happened, but I don't think he cares. He seems happy where he is.

[FormerBondFan]

It's a good thing he's getting plenty of work these days. I'm just afraid that he'll lose his status as one of the top bankable stars and end up in the cult status.

I think that's already happened, but I don't think he cares. He seems happy where he is.

Did that happen to Sean as well when he left Bond?

[Kristatos]

Did that happen to Sean as well when he left Bond?

Sean hasn't been an A-list star for a long time. Even in The Rock, which you cite as the sort of thing you want Brosnan to appear in, he was not the lead role - Nicolas Cage was the star, Connery was just a supporting actor. His post-Bond filmography shows a mixture of supporting roles in blockbusters such as Highlander and leading roles in independent dramas, from Robin and Marian to Finding Forrester.

[FormerBondFan]

Even in The Rock, which you cite as the sort of thing you want Brosnan to appear in, he was not the lead role - Nicolas Cage was the star, Connery was just a supporting actor.

Sean is listed first in the credits of The Rock.

[Omega]

I think Connery was considered the star in that one. Nicolas Cage was still in his Amos & Andrew Guarding Tess phase. Maybe I am wrong but I thought The Rock helped make Cage a big name. I know Entrapment is a Connery start and Co-staring Catherine Zeta-Jones. Zeta-Jones and Cage became bigger names after the Connery movies looking back we tend to remember them as Cage movies when we thought of them when they were new as Connery movies with Cage.

I might be wrong because I was young but that is how I remember them.

[FormerBondFan]

Let's hope Pierce goes one step further in his post-Bond career as a lead actor by venturing into other genres besides drama and comedy, and that includes action genre.