Movie Review: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

It’s the last Bond picture of the 20th century, so the producers made sure that The World Is Not Enough would feel like it was in a time capsule, to be neatly stored away and unearthed decades later. This is Brosnan’s third turn as the secret agent, and while the movie doesn’t match up to previous classic third outings (Connery’s Goldfinger, Moore’s The Spy Who Loved Me), there is a very fine film hiding somewhere during this 125 minute feature.

TWINE Notes:

• While Goldeneye is Brosnan’s best Bond flick, TWINE gives us Brosnan’s best acting performance as James Bond.
• There are a few similarities between TWINE and Skyfall: MI6 explodes, Scotland used as a hideout, M in the crosshairs of the villain’s plot, Bond hurt and needing medical clearance.
• James Bond wearing eyeglasses (even if it’s all a ruse), looks odd to me.
• Just how long are those blind strings in that Spanish office?! Where’s Bond’s Goldeneye belt when he needs it?!
• The Clinton/Lewinsky cigar joke still gives me a chuckle, and makes me nostalgic for the late 90s.
• This is easily the longest pre-title sequence in the history of the franchise. Even if it feels like it takes forever, I think it’s one of the best overall PTS.
• Bond hijacks Q’s retirement fishing boat. I’d pay good money to have seen Q try to operate it.
• Love the tie-straightening under water. It’s a classic Moore/Brosnan move.
• Bond chasing the “cigar girl” assassin from the Thames to a hot air balloon is the icing on the action cake for this opening.
• I do enjoy a hurt Bond. A broken collarbone is no joke.
• The title song by Garbage is above-average. The choice of the band is so late-90s alternative rock, that it goes back to my time capsule theory.
• I kind of dig the title credits, with the oil-soaked lady silhouettes.
• Sophie Marceau is one of the best actresses in the entire series. But how do we define her character Elektra King? Is she a Bond girl? Villainess? For that matter, is Robert Carlyle’s Renard the main villain or just Elektra’s henchman? Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) is certainly the Bond girl of the movie…yeah, we will get to that later.
• Bond having sex with his doctor (her name is Molly Warmflash!) in order to get medical clearance is something we would have seen Connery or Moore do.
• The final scene of Desmond Llewelyn as Q is ruined by the unnecessary lines of “two things” he always taught Bond. In all his years and scenes with Bond, he never told him to “never let them see you bleed” nor “always have an escape plan.”
• I wonder how practical that avalanche-proof ski jacket really is.
• Azerbaijan has to be the oddest location to shoot a Bond film.
• Renard has a bullet in his head that is slowly killing him. He grows stronger by the day and can’t feel pain. He needs more scars and bruises.
• James Bond has gone skiing five times in the film series. TWINE is the worst one of the five. It’s rather dull and lifeless.
• This is the first time we get to see Bond’s Universal Exports employee ID.
• Is Denise Richards the worst Bond girl ever? No. It’s Tanya Roberts in A View To A Kill. But it’s close. It’s not really her fault. Making her a nuclear physicist, who dresses like Lara Croft, is laughable. She was 28 during the filming, and next to a mature 46 year-old Brosnan, she looks barely 18.
• I love caviar, but I still get grossed out watching Robbie Coltrane’s Valentin Zukovsky nearly drowning in it.
• This film suffers from too many twists that we see coming a mile away, and a plot that an audience really doesn’t care about. Was the monopoly of oil pipelines really a major topic in the late 90s?
• Having just said that, when Bond and Christmas are in the pipeline, that does look like a fun theme park ride.
• Speaking of a fun ride, how about that sex/choke chair at Elektra’s place in Istanbul?
• Bond cold-bloodedly shooting, killing Elektra was a rare Fleming-type of moment for Brosnan’s Bond.
• The submarine fight between Bond and Renard does not rank up there with the best, but the sub crashing into the ocean floor was a nice touch.
• Yes, the last line is groan-worthy. But when you have a Bond actor like Brosnan (channeling his inner-Roger Moore) and you have a Bond girl named Christmas… this is what we get. And frankly, what we deserve.

Bond’s coolest moment? The opening scene in the banker’s office in Spain. Calm, confident, and dangerous.

Bond’s most embarrassing moment? Carrying a bag full of sneakers.

Bond’s best line? “I see you like to put your money where your mouth is.” – Pointing to the gold teeth of Mr. Bullion.

Best acting performance? Brosnan, Carlyle, and of course Judi Dench, all give solid performances, but Sophie Marceau is so good as Elektra that she makes Richards’ Christmas look even worse.

Bond’s most “sexual predator” moment? Bond playing peeping Tom inside the casino with the x-ray sunglasses. He might as well have been drooling.

Worst line in the movie? When Bond asks Christmas if she can operate the machine inside the pipeline she replies with “It doesn’t taking a degree in nuclear physics.” I always feel like Bond could have replied with “Oh so you can then.”

What I noticed for the first time after watching this for the 84th time? In the MI6 Scotland hideaway, there’s a portrait of former M actor Bernard Lee.

Best action sequence? The caviar warehouse scene. It helps to have David Arnold as composer.

Who or what is the title song about? I want to say this is sung from Elektra’s point of view. Almost as if she is seducing Bond.

Best looking cinematic moment? As boring as the ski chase is, I’m a sucker for some snow cinematography. One shot in particular looks straight out of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

How could the villain have succeeded? Not let her grudge against her father and M get in her way of controlling the oil company.

Which other Bond actor could have starred in this movie? With it’s shifting tone from serious drama to campy action flick, Brosnan is the best Bond actor to handle this type of screenplay.

Does Bond ever think he might die? A couple of times. When he is about to get shot in the Spanish office, and of course when Elektra has him strapped to the sex/choke chair. One last screw indeed.

What would have made the movie better? Casting a better actress than Denise Richards. I hate to keep picking on her. She’s beautiful and I think she is doing the best she can. But she sticks out like a sore thumb.

What’s in a name? Bond pretends to be an atomic scientist named Dr. Arkov.

What’s in a title? The World Is Not Enough comes from Bond author Ian Fleming. This is the family motto on the Bond crest. It’s referenced in both the novel and film OHMSS.

Drinking game: Take a shot of Belvedere vodka each time the line “There’s no point in living, if you can’t feel alive” is said. Including in the song.

“WTF?!” moment: John Cleese as “R”, Q’s replacement. He seems like too well known of a comedian for the part.

Fun fact: Originally, the pre-title sequence was just the office scene in Bilbao, Spain. After director Michael Apted tested the film, he decided to include the Thames boat scene.

Overall ranking: 19 out of 25 films.

Review synopsis: There’s a lot to like about The World Is Not Enough. It’s one of the few Bonds to be a “thinking man’s action movie.” It has elements of For Your Eyes Only and Skyfall. What weighs it down are scenes with different tones, one major casting error, and being too “late 90s” if that is even a thing yet. I like Pierce Brosnan as James Bond 007, but this movie along with Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day, should be considered The Mediocre Trilogy after such a promising start in Goldeneye.