The World is not Enough (1999)

Brosnan's Bond seems to have to pose as a banker every time. But the intro starts of decently with  brutish 007 and no less than two hidden killers. With a nifty escape, you'd think they were pleased. But no! There's another cool assassination, before it falls stupidly apart with a brilliant sniper suddenly unable to both pick a decent weapon,or hit anything with any weapon. Then there's a lengthy boat chase with tiresome music and the most ridiculous stunts of the series, and finally we can get going.

One of the finest actors of the franchise was, of course, Desmond Llewellyn. At 85, he grooms John Cleese as his replacements and leaves us with "Always have an escape plan" as his final words after 35 years as Q. He was killed in a car accident later that year, and will never be fully replaced. Another nice revisited character is that of Robbie Coltrane. M is more personally involved this time, and albeit good, I prefer Dench when arrogantly on top of things. Denise Richards was never a good actress, and to cast her as a genius physicist in a film that has Dench as well as Sophie Marceau (though the latter not at the top of her game), is beyond stupid. And she's not exactly helped by being dressed in clothes to short for Lara Croft.

Director Michael Apted does what was popular in the 90's if you lacked quality: You exaggerate stunts and action to the point where the crowd simply roll their eyes. Every time two things bump into each other here, a gasoline bomb goes off. So extreme that the exploding items usually crash into oil-drums of gasoline.

The pipe-line chase is good tension with lots at stake. The flooding scenes in the submarine even better in that respect, and the film has plenty of action and some smart writing. But there's just as many glaring mistakes in the writing, so I suppose it evens out. It feels more like an action-film most of the time, and not really a Bond. And it's not really a great action-film either

4/10

Best car used: BMW Z8
Most memorable drink served: Vodka Martini. Shaken not stirred.
Henchmen:  Robert Carlyle as Renard. A most vicious psychopath.
Villain: Sophie Marceau as Elektra King. WAY down on the list.
Best one-liner: "One last screw".
Song: "The World is not Enough" by Garbage. Not at all bad.
Bond-girl: Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist . Oh the humanity