GoldenEye (1995)

**Goldeneye is the gold standard of spy movies and Bond films.**
Goldeneye edges out Casino Royale and Skyfall as my favorite Bond film of all time. After decades of campy James Bond movies like Octopussy and A View to a Kill, Bond felt more like a punchline than a suave master spy. The franchise seemed to have lost its way, but Goldeneye brought gritty action, mind-blowing stunts, beautiful and capable Bind girls, and an outstanding cast back to Bond, returning the spy to his iconic and sterling reputation. Pierce Brosnan's Bond convincingly outwitted criminal masterminds and decisively overcame enemy opposition with precision and brutality while also believably charming and romancing beautiful villains and allies. Goldeneye nails every classic Bond element with more tenacity and realism. 006 betraying his country and becoming the evil mirror to 007 provides a deeper antagonist than Bond typically faces. The Bond girls are not helpless damsels but capable enemies or skilled partners that help him save the day. The action set pieces are astonishing, from driving a tank through the busy city streets of St Petersburg to dangling hundreds of feet above the ground in Costa Rice to the incredible base jump in the opening sequence. Even after all these years, Goldneye's effects and action still hold up. It is also the first movie with Judi Dench as M. Goldeneye is quintessential Bond at its absolute best!

This 007 movie begins with Bond and a fellow agent performing heroics, and the other agent is killed.
However, even when this movie was made, it is quite obvious that the other agent wasn't killed, and that he is actually the villain. That isn't even a spoiler.
Bond deals with Russians mostly here. Not surprisingly, any good Russian becomes a dead Russian with the immortal godlike villain at work.
One saving grace is a bit of dark humor with a computer nerd at the end.
That's about it. Otherwise, it's just another depressing Hollywood formula movie, the usual "darkest before the Dawn" that just goes overboard and gets too self indulgent and too contrived every step of the way.