Hopping back to ’99, here I take a look at the last Bond movie of the last millennium—one that at the time did try and shake up the formula somewhat while sticking to it in others. It was at least an interesting one to end the 20th century on, even if it has somewhat divided reception on—so, given that it does have at least one very bad Christmas pun, here’s a festively timed take on The World Is Not Enough.
Pierce Brosnan by now had settled into the role somewhat, even if director Michael Apted was brand new to it all—it certainly was an interesting choice to give a documentary director who had also made Gorillas In The Mist to make an action film. Still, the pre-credits sequence, which goes on pretty darn long, is actually quite fun and well made—complete with a boat chase along the Thames that ends in what was then the Millennium Dome in London, just to remind you that this was made in that era when Y2K was grabbing the headlines.
It’s a testament to how well practically shot sequences like this can turn out—they even bona fide submerged Brosnan for several shots, with him even ad-libbing an underwater tie adjustment. Need evidence for him being settled into the role, there you go
The plot takes us to Azerbaijan as Mr. Bond here ends up bodyguard to oil heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), seemingly targeted by the terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle, again very distinct looking!) over her pipeline construction. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler 25 years on to say that Elektra is indeed secretly the villain here—the only female one in the whole Bond series. Interestingly there’s no hint of Bond seducing her over or anything that you’d have back in the sixties—Elektra here is someone seemingly traumatized over a kidnapping ordeal, but there’s enough ambiguity here over whether that shook her or merely had the mask fall off. There’s a mixture of sympathy but with her plan having the nuclear-powered stakes you see often in these films, it’s down to the viewer to decide how much that justifies her, which actually makes for some interesting viewing.
She even has a relationship of sorts with Bond’s chief Judi Dench—something that foreshadows the character dynamics in the Craig era, and once again adds another dimension to this. While we have some cheesy seduction scenes earlier on, this was actually fairly forward-going for the series at this point.
And thennnnnnn we have Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones—who the film tries so hard to convince us is in fact some sort of nuclear scientist. Even as she’s taking off her coat to reveal her skimpy tank top below. Oh boy do they try, even though she spends most of it getting into various dresses and seems to be informed at the end about how an atomic reactor works! It’s one of those cases where even as it takes a step forward in writing, it also stumbles just a little bit on the way.
At least Robert Coltrane is fun putting on an absurd accent as a mob boss ally—and giving us some genuinely funny dialogue along the way. I will say that the pre-climax action involving him is one that’s more interesting than the barrages of escapades involving weird flying snowmobiles we have earlier—where for a moment we have some actual pathos over an antagonists’ death here, even despite everything they do. But once again we also stumble a bit as we end with that aforementioned pun that crosses the groan threshold even for this series!
That leaves The World Is Not Enough as a decent one overall—even if it is a bit inconsistent, it did try new spins on the formula and tried to give its cast more to work with over the escapades that preceded it. It’s sure as hell superior over the final Brosnan film that followed, Die Another Day, with its CG surfing and villains missing their bone marrow. How much you can enjoy this one depends on how far you can look back some shaky acting and lines here and there, but if you can, there is enough to enjoy here for my money.
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