Samantha Bond Movies
A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, husky-voiced British actress Samantha Bond has an all-too-fitting surname for her onscreen career. She is most known stateside for her repeat performance as Miss Moneypenny, associate to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond. Her first appearance was in GoldenEye 1995, and she repeated the role for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day. She is the fourth actress to play the small yet established super-secretary role, most notably played by Lois Maxwell. Bond's acting credits are predominately on the stage, however, ranging from touring companies to Broadway to London's West End. She has shared the stage and screen with veterans like Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, and David Suchet, although she has gained more high-profile roles in her television career. Mostly appearing in British murder mysteries and thrillers, she gained a starring role as Detective Sergeant Maureen Picasso for the BBC series NCS: Manhunt. Bond appeared opposite Dame Judi Dench in the award-winning play Amy's View, and also shared a bill with her for Die Another Day in 2002. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
Not Tonight Darling runs the gamut from soft-core silliness to turgid melodrama. Luan Peters plays a beautiful suburbanite, tired of her husband and her empty lifestyle. Businessman Vincent Ball enters Luan's life, armed with little more than a smooth line. Luan falls in lust with Ball-the first step towards her descent into the world of crime. The moral (?) of Not Tonight Darling seems to be "get a hobby and stay with hubby". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An unusually principled young Viking becomes increasing uncomfortable with all the killing and plundering that goes with the job, and sets out on a magical journey in order to bring about world peace. Former Monty Python member Terry Jones attempts to have his story of Erik's seemingly hopeless quest operate as both witty, lunatic satire and sincere children's fantasy. However, despite a good cast and some interesting design elements, the film fails to completely succeed at either of its goals. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Gary Cady, (more)
- 1991
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At the turn of the century, a widow decides to set her dead husbands business back in the black column. Her efforts to get the mill going again, however, are somewhat submarined by problems with an employee who is accused of murder and her sister who has married a spoiled rich boy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
Pierce Brosnan made his first appearance as James Bond in this action thriller, the 17th in the series (excluding the 1967 Casino Royale and the 1983 Never Say Never Again) featuring the suave British super-agent. As the story begins, Agent 007 and his partner, Agent 006 (Sean Bean), pull a daring raid on a chemical weapons plant in the Soviet Union; however, they are captured by Russian troops, and while Bond is able to escape, 006 is not so lucky. Several years later, the Soviet Union and the Cold War are a thing of the past, but Bond is still at work ferreting out evildoers everywhere. Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), a beautiful but vicious villain working with the Russian Mafia, spearheads the theft of the controls to GoldenEye, a high-tech satellite weapons system, and with her gunmen, she kills most of the soldiers and guards at a top-secret military facility in the process. Bond joins forces with Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), one of the base's few survivors, to help track down Onatopp's minions and the controls to GoldenEye, which can destroy all electronic circuits in a given area in a matter of seconds; however, in time, Bond discovers the true identity of the criminal mastermind who is behind this bid for unholy power and world domination -- none other than Alec Trevelyan, the man Bond once knew as 006. In addition to Brosnan, GoldenEye also marked another significant cast change for the Bond series -- Judi Dench made her debut as M, Bond's superior. Minnie Driver also has a cameo as a nightclub singer. Sadly, this was the last film in the Bond series for special-effects supervisor Derek Meddings, who died in the midst of production; the film was dedicated to him. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, (more)
In this made-for-TV adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, Emma Woodhouse (Kate Beckinsale) is a clever young woman from a wealthy family who fancies herself a matchmaker and tries to find a husband for her shy friend Harriet (Samantha Morton). However, Emma's skills in bringing romances together are not all she imagines them to be, which causes no small annoyance for Harriet. What's more, Emma's interest in the affairs of others nearly causes her to miss out on the love of her life. This adaptation of Emma was first shown in the U.S. on the A&E cable network; it followed both Douglas McGrath's acclaimed film version starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and Amy Heckerling's considerably updated variation on the story, Clueless. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong, (more)
Roger Spottiswoode (Air America) directed this film, the 18th chapter in the 35-year-old James Bond series (excluding Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again). James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) learns billionaire media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is manipulating world events via an exclusive flow of information through his satellite system reaching all corners of the planet. With a stealth battleship sinking a British naval vessel, Carver sees that the Chinese are blamed. Crashing Carver's party in Hamburg, Bond meets "journalist" Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), later revealed as a Chinese agent. In a brief tryst, Bond renews his past relationship with Carver's wife Paris (Teri Hatcher). Carver dispatches Stamper (Gotz Otto) and other goons to cancel Bond, who eludes attackers with some of his new gadgets. In Southeast Asia, after Bond and Wai Lin scuba dive into the sunken British ship, they are captured by Stamper, handcuffed, and taken to Saigon where they make a motorcycle escape. To thwart Carver's plans for WWIII, the two agents head for Carver's stealth ship where a cruise missile is aimed at Beijing. Principal photography began April 1, 1997 in the new Eon Productions studio facility at Frogmore, northwest of London, and on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios. Locations included the UK, Hamburg, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and off the Florida coast. The trademark Bond pre-title sequence was filmed in the French Pyrenees snowfields, centered around one of the few high-altitude operational airfields in Europe. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, (more)
James Bond, the world's greatest secret agent, is sent once more into the breach in the name of Queen, Country, and a dry martini. In the 19th Bond adventure, 007 (Pierce Brosnan) must resolve a potentially deadly power struggle between two unstable nations, with control of the world's oil supply as the ultimate prize. Bond is assigned as bodyguard to Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), the daughter of a petroleum magnate who was brutally murdered, and is trying to foil the fiendish plot of Renard (Robert Carlyle), a villain who was shot in the head with an unusual result: he cannot feel physical pain, an apparent failing that proves to be a considerable asset. Denise Richards appears as Dr. Christmas Jones, an expert on nuclear weapons, alongside Desmond Llewelyn as Q, Judi Dench as M, Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, and John Cleese as R. Alternative rock band Garbage performs the theme song. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, (more)
- 2002
First screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival, the 60-minute documentary Bond Girls Are Forever made its cable TV debut a mere 16 days before the premiere of the newest James Bond theatrical feature, 2002's Die Another Day. (Coincidence? We don't think so) Through vintage film clips of past Bond movie epics, and with the participation of several former "Bond Girls" as interviewees (among them Dr. No's Ursula Andress and Diamonds Are Forever's Jill St. John), the documentary traced the evolution of the typical James Bond heroine from decorative damsel in distress to gutsy (but still decorative) participant in the action. In addition to the provocatively named romantic partners enjoyed by the various movie Bonds over the past 40 years, the viewer is treated with the input of Judi Dench, the most recent actor to play 007's no-nonsense superior officer, M. Bond Girls Are Forever was co-produced and narrated by Maryam d'Abo, who appeared opposite Bond number four, Timothy Dalton, in The Living Daylights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maryam D'Abo, Jill St. John, (more)
Pierce Brosnan makes his fourth appearance as suave super-spy James Bond in this espionage thriller, the 20th film in the official Bond series. While on assignment in North Korea, Bond is captured by government agents, where he's imprisoned and tortured for over a year. When Bond finally wins his freedom, not everyone is certain 007 is still capable of doing the job, but after Zao (Rick Yune), the North Korean operative who snared Bond, is discovered to be in cahoots with unscrupulous entrepreneur Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), Bond is back on the case, and he finds the two men have sinister plans which could decide the fate of the world. As Bond hops from England to Cuba to Korea to Iceland in pursuit of his quarry, he (as usual) makes the acquaintance of two beautiful and mysterious women, Jinx (Halle Berry) and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike). Judi Dench and John Cleese return in Die Another Day as, respectively, Bond's superior M and gadget-master Q; Madonna contributes the film's theme song and makes a cameo appearance as a fencing instructor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, (more)
Filmmaker Sally Potter directed this artful meditation on the dynamics of the romantic and sexual relationship. She (Joan Allen) is an intelligent and gifted genetic scientist of Irish-American heritage who feels smothered in her marriage to a British politician (Sam Neill). While dining at a friend's house, She meets He (Simon Abkarian), a handsome Lebanese exile who was a respected surgeon in his homeland but now supports himself in London as a cook. He flirts with her, and She is pleased with his advances; weeks later, she contacts him, and an affair begins. However, despite their mutual attraction, He and She find it difficult to set aside their political and national differences for very long, as love and lust wage a quiet war against the conscience and the intellect. Yes also features supporting performances from Shirley Henderson and Sheila Hancock. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian, (more)
Anders Ronnow Klarlund's fantasy-action film Strings tells the tale of Hal Tara, the son of a slain ruler who sets out to settle the score with those who dispatched his father. Interestingly, all of the characters in the film are marionettes, explaining the title of the film to some degree. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James McAvoy, Catherine McCormack, (more)
Directed by Richard Loncraine, Wimbledon follows the plight of aspiring tennis-star Peter Colt (Paul Bettany), whose bad luck seems to manifest itself just about everywhere. Professionally, Peter is near the very bottom of the world tennis ranks, and personally, he can't find love despite his best efforts to do so. In a rare turn of events, however, Peter is chosen as a wildcard to play at Wimbledon, the tennis world's most prestigious competition. While there, he meets American tennis ingénue Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), and his confidence on the court and off improves tenfold as he falls further in love with her. Driven by his newfound luck, Peter climbs to the top of the tournament players at record speed, until he actually has a fighting chance of winning the men's singles title -- the question is whether or not his good fortune will hold out long enough for him to get the trophy. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, (more)
The heir to London's Dupayne Museum has died in a suspicious fire and it's up to Commander Dalgliesh (Martin Shaw) to crack the case in this mystery based on the best-selling novel by author P.D. James. It seems that the infernal crime bears a striking resemblance to a notorious case from the Murder Room, and though Commander Dalgliesh soon begins to make headway in solving the difficult crime, the strain that the case is having on his relationship with Emma (Samantha Bond) is only exceeded by the endless hours he's been putting into the investigation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Shaw
Coronation Street scribe John Fay pens this three-part conspiracy thriller concerning a mobile phone engineer who blames his job for giving him an inoperable brain tumor, and who becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation when a drug dealer is shot dead and a mobile phone mast is destroyed. Set against the backdrop of the Iraq War, the film opens as mobile phone engineer Eddie (Neil Fitzmaurice) is diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor. Though his wife Donna (Julie Graham) and their two children vow to make his final days truly memorable, all vengeful Eddie can think about is making sure that someone pays. Eddie's efforts to track down the responsible party backfires though when a murdered drug dealer and a destroyed cell phone mast lead police to suspect that he may be responsible for a series of murders around the city. Also hungry for vengeance is broken soldier Maurice Stone (Jamie Draven), whose wife and son were killed by a driver that was talking on their cell phone. That driver has never been found, and Maurice won't rest easy until he's gotten his revenge. Later, when the identity of the hit-and-run driver is finally revealed, the true mastermind behind this mobile phone terror plot finally steps out from the shadows as a labyrinthine conspiracy slowly comes to light. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Kitchen, Jamie Draven, (more)
