The Brosnan Bonds suffered a rapid decline after his promising OO7 debut in "Goldeneye". His third outing, 1999's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH is an odd balance of strong performances dragged down by a horrific one, great action scenes stifled by being shoehorned into an over complicated plot and a growing sense of deja vu.
The film's opening sequence is decent, with Brosnan effortlessly cool as he chases as assassin down the Thames in a high speed boat chase.
In the first sign of trouble, the film inserts a "funny" shot of Bond straightening his tie underwater when his mini jet boat goes UNDERWATER to avoid a crash. It's the first alarm that things are starting to slip dangerously into the crap-cartoon elements that made "Moonraker" the biggest turd in OO7 lineup.
We meet the daughter of our murdered oil magnate, Elektra King, very well played by Sophie Marceau. Her oil pipeline seems to have angered environmentalists, Russians and one Megalomaniac in our villain Renard, really well played by Robert Carlyle, but given so little to do in the screenplay that he seems more like an annoying neighbor than a great screen bad guy.
Judi Dench is excellent in an expanded role as M and Robbie Coltrane is hilariously perfect in his recurring role as Valentin Zukovsky.
Yes, they're all good, as is Brosnan as Bond, the near perfect blend of suave, dangerous and lethal. But...oh man....in a performance so bad that she makes Tonya Roberts look good, Denise Richards plays Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist. That's great casting. Huh?
She's horrible. My grandson has read the back of juice boxes with more passion two minutes after waking up than she delivers in her dramatic moments.
Do we really need another Bond movie in which a submarine is a key part of the conclusion? I would think that "The Spy Who Loved Me" had that covered. It feels repetitive and old.
And didn't "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "The Spy Who Loved Me" pretty much cover ski chases? This time, Bond and Elektra are skiing when jet skis with machine guns are parachuted onto the same mountain to set up a chase. Really? Jet skis with parachutes? Oye.
Then there is a massive attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory that is well staged and shot, but has so little to do with the plot, it feels like they sat around a table and said "this part is boring, let's throw in an action sequence". Blech.
It's kind of a shame, because Brosnan, Marceau and Carlyle are all very good, deserving of a much better film.
David Arnold's music score has grown on me, its decent, as is Garbage's theme song.
Too long and far too unoriginal, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH is a lesser Bond adventure and gets a C.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Brosnan would do one more in 2002, 'Die Another Day". And I thought THIS one was repetitive.....
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