Movie Info
Movie Name: The World Is Not Enough
Studio: Eon Productions
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): November 8, 1999 (Premiere)/November 26, 1999
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Every good Bond has a gadget that you wish you had…
When Sir Robert King (David Calder) is killed, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and M (Judi Dench) realize that his daughter’s kidnapper Renard (Robert Carlyle) has returned. Now, 007 has been assigned to protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) at any cost as she finishes the construction of an important oil line. When he discovers Renard has a plot to steal nuclear material, he finds himself teamed with a nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) and a Russian mobster named Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) in a race to stop Renard…but is Renard working alone?
Directed by Michael Apted, The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth film in the James Bond franchise. Following Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, The World Is Not Enough takes its title from a line in Ian Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The movie was met with so-so reviews, but became one of the biggest moneymakers in the Bond franchise. The title track was performed by Garbage. The film also earned Razzie nominations for Denise Richards and the coupling of Richards and Brosnan.
I’m just trying to think of my clever “Christmas” pun…”comes once a year…got it!!!”
The World Is Not Enough is one of those Bond films that has some good and some bad. The movie feels a little more action packed than the previous outing and that is a good thing. The movie is hindered by what sometimes almost feels like Brosnan trying to do the humor of a Roger Moore Bond and a poor Bond girl.
Brosnan isn’t funny and doesn’t do funny well. He does deliver smart and snappy lines, but it feels out of place for him to be doing things like straightening his tie underwater during a chase and other “goofy” Bond stuff. Brosnan works best when he sticks to the straight jokes. With a great character like Renard, I expected more between the two actors, but Bond doesn’t get his normal interaction.
More of this, less Denise Richards
I do like Sophie Marceau as Elektra, but Denise Richards is awful as Christmas Jones. I can sustain a lot of disbelief (yeah it is a Bond movie, you have to), but Richards made the most unconvincing nuclear physicist ever. It is one thing to not understand the words coming out of a scientist’s mouth, but it is another if the actor playing them actually has no clue what she’s saying. Marceau was a good foil; Richards is a bad sidekick.
Goodbye, old friend…
The sad thing about The World Is Not Enough is that it is the last outing of Desmond Llewelyn as Q. Llewelyn didn’t die of old age; he sadly died in a car accident just after the movie came out. Q was allegedly planned to return (despite introduces John Cleese as his replacement in this film), but filmmakers had the forward thinking to give him a classic farewell line “Always have an escape plan”. It is bittersweet seeing him sink into the floor, and Cleese unfortunately never got to develop with the relaunch after the next film.
The World Is Not Enough is a fair Bond movie. It has a lot of area for improvement, but also does a nice job at points with some great action sequences. I wish that a stronger or at least a little more believable female lead had been selected, or I wish Marceau had been given more screentime. The World Is Not Enough was followed by Brosnan’s last outing as Bond in Die Another Day in 2002.
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