Pierce Brosnan—an actor whose experience with bad James Bond movies runs several films deep, give or take a Goldeneye or two—has some thoughts about Spectre, the latest film in the long-running, variably lauded spy franchise. Talking to HitFix, the former license-to-kill holder applied his bad Bond expertise to Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig’s latest film, ultimately declaring its narrative power wanting.
Brosnan, who once presided over a two-hour Bond movie where an evil Ted Turner wannabe tried to start a world war to boost his cable news ratings, called Spectre’s story, “kind of weak’ and said, “It kind of went on too long.” (Because Pierce Brosnan kind of tells it how it is.) He also expressed his displeasure with the notes the series has taken from a more gritty and critically well-regarded spy franchise, calling Spectre, “neither fish nor fowl,” and “neither Bond nor Bourne.”
Still, Pierce Brosnan is a gentleman of the British Empire, the sort of man who would never slag off one of his tuxedo-clad brethren. And so he reserves his praise for the movie for Craig himself, calling him, “a mighty warrior,” and complimenting his ownership of the character and mastery of the classic Bond one-liner. (He also downplayed his fellow actor’s stated reluctance to take on the role again, saying, “By the time you finish making a Bond movie, you don’t want to hear the name, see the name or have anything to do with it,” a condition that apparently passes with time.)