Christmas Jones, the absurdity of whose casting cannot be overstated. Highlights consist of a goofy hot air balloon chase, the threat of a nuclear bomb, and Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist named Dr. But it’s really a shrug of a Bond movie that attempts to bring back some of the smirk and flair of the Roger Moore films, but Brosnan doesn’t have the charm to pull it off he’s kind of just there in his suit and “acting really hard” face. It’s not all bad, especially when compared to what came after- Die Another Day. Pierce Brosnan’s third Bond entry continued his run’s downward trend.

Though the film’s real-world backstory is more compelling than its plot, it still offers certain charms: Briskly directed by Irvin Kershner ( The Empire Strikes Back), it moves far faster than Thunderball and replaces spectacle with humor, especially when winking at the very game Connery’s advancing age he nevertheless proves formidable opposite Klaus Maria Brandauer’s appropriately arch, oily villain, a saucy, scenery-chewing Barbara Carrera as the bad Bond Girl, and stunning then-newbie Kim Basinger, still finding her way on screen, as the good one. NSNA would’ve likely been a dimly recalled curiosity if Sean Connery, long out of the 007 game, hadn’t decided to reassume the role (for a big payday, and to needle Broccoli-it was released just months ahead of the Moore-headlined Octopussy). A rare 007 outlier produced outside the auspices of Cubby Broccoli’s Eon Productions: in essence, a lower-budget remake of Thunderball due to rights still held by a film producer who’d worked with Ian Fleming on early story points that the author later used in the novel.

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