The World Is Not Enough

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Runtime: 128 minutes

Directed by: Michael Apted

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, (unfortunately for the film) Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane

From: United Artists

Yep, this movie... painfully average, or maybe it should be frustratingly average as it should have been better. I explain why in the Letterboxd review below:

I decided to watch one more Bond movie for now; I won't continue with that for... a few days, at least. This is another motion picture I haven't reviewed here before; to be honest, I had only watched it once before and after this second viewing, I realized there were large sections I had no memory of, and unfortunately for the film, the role of Christmas Jones was more substantial than I had remembered.

The plot tries to be different in several ways, and the general idea of it all seems fine to me. It's just the execution where it falls flat. It being about a murdered oil tycoon and his previously kidnapped daughter is targeted again so Bond has to protect her... only for things to not be as they seem (and when a woman is named Elektra King, you should probably be cautious anyhow), I can't complain about the concept. It's how they presented the story that I can carp about. A bad guy (Renard, played by Robert Carlyle) who via contrived reasons can feel no pain and yet you're mainly told this and it really plays no factor into anything, including the expected showdown with Bond? Just one of the litany of problems with this.

As others have noted, Michael Apted is not exactly an action director so it was an odd choice. Vic Armstrong returned as the second unit director. I don't know who is to blame for how many of the action scenes are not clear when it comes to such things as geography or how its laid out, or why some special effects not only look bad but there's an almost literal “we can see the wires” moments during the warehouse scene that's incredibly blatant and for a movie that cost almost 200 million dollars adjusted for inflation... how could such a thing happen? Then again, there are several story moments here which just make no sense and to me it's not adequately explained just how 007 gets out of more than one jam. And if you want comedy, look at the goofs section of the film's IMDb page; there are many mistakes and factual inaccuracies.

Also, the fact that Christmas Jones wasn't a minor character as I had misremembered and you see her quite a bit in the second half... I will never say that an attractive young lady couldn't be a PhD nuclear physicist, even someone who dresses like Lara Croft in one scene. However, to state the obvious Denise Richards isn't a master thespian so you don't believe that the character is real. Goofy and lewd puns about her name certainly can't hide it.

Still... I can at least rate the movie as average. I can't complain about Sophie Marceau or how she did with her role. It's not hard for me to understand why Bond would be rather randy at the sight of her. The long pre-credits scene was quite exciting and the action there was better filmed. The settings you see in the film are cool to me (Spain, the UK, Scotland, then Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan (although they didn't actually film there) then Istanbul. Robbie Coltrane and bringing back the minor character he played in GoldenEye was surprising but I can't complain about him. And the title song from Garbage is fine and at least is a more “hip”-at the time-choice for an artist.

Plus, while it wasn't planned as such it was a nice write-off for Desmond Llewelyn and the Q character. It's just a shame that they squandered what could have been a fun 007 movie with some nice twists and them going against type at times.