The World Is Not Enough (Pierce Brosnan, Denise Richards) 1/2
James Bond movies are fun because they offer so much inanity. They don't claim to be anything more than purely action-oriented pictures. Some movie buffs enjoy ranking each of the installments, but this can also actually be a difficult undertaking, because of the way the genre is formatted. Yes, there may be a chase sequence that looks phony, a romantic plot that is too contrived, or a villain that hams it up beyond reprieve, but these are usually only one part of a whole. Bond flicks tend to avoid spending more than 5 minutes in any one setting or on any one plot point. The stakes are continually changing, and 15 or 20 minutes later we've forgotten the "bad" parts and have moved forward. It's why we keep coming back for more. The cool stuff outweighs the questionable stuff.
The most recent offering in the franchise is The World Is Not Enough, once again featuring the slick Pierce Brosnan as the debonair British spy. He's a bit colder this time around, a little tougher around the edges, but the stunts, guns, and puns remain.
The chase is on for a villain impervious to physical pain after an explosion at MI6 headquarters kills the millionaire Bond was hired to protect. The bad guy is Renard, played by Robert Carlyle, who has the dubious distinction of having a bullet lodged in his brain. The Bond girls are Sophie Marceau and Denise Richards. Robbie Coltrane returns as the suspect Valentin. I'd elaborate on the plot, but the twists and turns are numerous and basically if I write "Bond must save the world", it pretty much sums everything up.
Judi Dench returns as the head honcho "M", and this time around her character is further developped. John Cleese makes a brief appearance as "R", the heir to Desmond Llewelyn's "Q" (this sounds more like alphabet soup). Llewelyn passed away shortly after The World Is Not Enough was released, so it's nice to see him pass the proverbial torch of "gadget man" onscreen to Cleese. It does make one wonder though: If Llewelyn's "Q" has been in so many of the entries, why does his character continue to age, but Bond never gets old? And when did "M" become a woman? And why am I analyzing such trivial details?
The best moments in the film occur when dialogue is kept to a bare minimum; a boat chase that concludes in a hot air balloon, a ski chase that features a giant inflatable bubble, or a race to stop a bomb from exploding inside a pipeline. It's here that the viewer has the most fun, because we already know the outcome, and we're captivated all the same.
The World Is Not Enough is a worthy entry in the Bond pantheon, ranking somewhere just above Tomorrow Never Dies and just below Goldeneye. With a glib "007 will return" teaser at the movie's conclusion, it also shows the series still hasn't lost its steam. Yet.
