7 best Pierce Brosnan movies, ranked

With four James Bond movies under his belt, Pierce Brosnan’s place in film history is already secure. The 72-year-old Irishman played the suave 007 four times, including “GoldenEye” (1995), “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997), “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) and “Die Another Day” (2002).

But beyond that shaken-not-stirred world of spy action and sexual tension, the County Louth native has proven to be a varied actor, from disaster flicks (“Dante’s Peak”) to political thrillers (“The Thomas Crown Affair”) to dark comedies (“The Matador”) to splashy song-and-dance spectacles (the “Mamma Mia” franchise), shiftily using his considerable charisma and movie-star looks to seduce, scare or subdue.

And it doesn’t seem like the star is slowing down anytime soon. This year alone saw him play the patriarch of a London crime family in the Paramount Plus show “MobLand” opposite Helen Mirren; a law-abiding Western sheriff in “Unholy Trinity” opposite Samuel L. Jackson; a spy boss in Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender; and Pontius Pilate himself in the Christian animated flick “King of Kings.”

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With his IMDb page seemingly ever-growing, we ranked the seven best Pierce Brosnan movies.

7. ‘Black Bag’

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One of the latest entries on Brosnan’s decades-spanning filmography is this 2025 Steven Soderbergh-directed espionage thriller, starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Regé-Jean Page, Tom Burke and Marisa Abele as MI6 operatives all questioning each other’s varying degrees of loyalty.

Brosnan has a relatively small but vital part in the acclaimed spy drama (which has a cool 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its sleek design, dry wit and megawatt performers) as the spies’ boss Arthur Stieglitz, bringing a good deal of mystery and menace to a role that smartly subverts the actor’s own iconic spy screen lineage.

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6. ‘Seraphim Falls’

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Two icons of Irish cinema, Brosnan and Liam Neeson, come together for this 2006 action Western that focuses on a bloody bounty hunt in post-Civil War America.

Brosnan plays Gideon, a former Union officer who finds himself the prey of a vengeful manhunt led by a Confederate colonel, Carver (Neeson), trying desperately to survive in the snowy Ruby Mountains whilst on the run.

Though the film as a whole didn’t wow critics (the “brutal, slow-moving drama” has a 56% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), Brosnan’s individual performance was praised: “Neeson is all ‘true grit’, but Brosnan has the meatier role—practically doubled over with guilt,” writes Stella Papamichael for the BBC, while The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw proclaims “the cunning, resourceful, ruthlessly violent Brosnan gives his best performance for a long time.”

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5. ‘Fast Charlie’

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Based on the 2001 novel “Gun Monkeys” by Victor Gischler, this 2023 action thriller sees Brosnan play the titular Charlie Swift (fast Charlie, get it?), a fixer-slash-hitman for Orlando-based mob boss Stan Mullen (James Caan) whose dangerous 9-to-5 gets even more precarious when a rival mobster from Miami puts a hit out on Stan and his crew. Charlie, the sole survivor of the attack, teams up with mob wife Marcie (Morena Baccarin) to exact revenge.

“Thanks largely to Pierce Brosnan’s charming work in the title role, ‘Fast Charlie’ is a slickly watchable thriller that engages despite its standard story,” reads the critical consensus over on Rotten Tomatoes, where the crime drama boasts a healthy 83% approval rating. For the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper particularly praised the actor’s “wry sense of humor,” deployed in one of his “signature cool and economically effective performances,” for elevating the hitman flick.

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4. ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’

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Though largely a dramatic actor, Brosnan held his own against a true comedy genius — the late, great Robin Williams — in the beloved, broad-humored 1993 classic “Mrs. Doubtfire,” with Williams playing Daniel Hillard, a recently divorced voice actor who disguises himself as an elderly female housekeeper in order to spend time with his children.

As Stu Dunmeyer, the suave hunky new love interest of Daniel’s ex Miranda (Sally Field), Brosnan excellently played the humorless straight man part opposite Williams’s comedic supernova, gamely remaining steady as Robin’s improvs and Daniel’s antics (“It was a drive-by fruiting!”) whirled around him.

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3. ‘The Ghost Writer’

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First and foremost, yes, this 2010 political thriller was directed by Roman Polanski and yes, we feel icky about it, too. But it does feature a standout performance by Brosnan, who plays Adam Lang, the former British Prime Minister who commissions a nameless ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) to complete his memoirs after the previous biographer died in a supposed drowning accident.

As McGregor’s character becomes enveloped in Lang’s world, the former PM’s dark and murky political dealings come to light.

Benefitting from “stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor,” “The Ghost Writer” has an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but Brosnan also deserves some individual kudos for the unsettling mercuriality and icy power he brings to his Tony Blair-esque character.

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2. ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’

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It’s a bold move to try and step into the shoes of screen legend Steve McQueen; ditto Faye Dunaway. But both Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo did just that in the 1999 remake of the classic romantic heist flick “The Thomas Crown Affair.”

As the titular Thomas Crown — a billionaire thief who steals a painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and falls for the gorgeous insurance investigator (Russo) pursuing the criminal — Brosnan brings a relaxed sensuality and elegant confidence to the role, which is well-matched by his magnetic co-lead. It’s an easy, enjoyable cat-and-mouse watch: “Sleek, stylish, and painlessly diverting, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ is a remake of uncommon charm,” reads Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus.

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1. ‘GoldenEye’

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This one’s kind of a cheat, because honestly you can put any of Brosnan’s Bond appearances high on the list (we’re also partial to “Tomorrow Never Dies”), but “GoldenEye” was his first and a memorable introduction at that, showcasing the mix of physical power and personal charm that the Irishman would bring to one of film’s most famous characters.

Directed by Martin Campbell, the 1995 installment is widely considered Brosnan’s best showing as the fictional MI6 agent, with Roger Ebert (for the Chicago Sun-Times) praising the actor’s take as “somehow more sensitive, more vulnerable, more psychologically complete” than his predecessors.

Ebert also noted that Brosnan brought more warmth to the usually “cold and dispassionate” agent: “Brosnan’s Bond looks at home in the casinos of Monte Carlo, but he’s more knowing, more aware of relationships.”

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