Binge-watching Bond part 19: 'The World Is Not Enough'

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond 007

The World Is Not Enough is a marked improvement on its predecessor, Tomorrow Never Dies, but it falls short of being a great Bond film.

That said, for a lot of Bond fans it is probably not the most memorable entry -- although it does have some worthy attributes.

Pierce Brosnan is in fine form here, much more intense and emotional than in his previous outings as 007 and he's matched by one of the more sophisticated Bond girls ever, played by Sophie Marceau. Unfortunately the film is almost totally derailed by its other leading lady, the horribly miscast Denise Richards.

The film kicks off with a characteristically impressive opening that helps set up an intriguing storyline. Although this film, like all of the Brosnan Bonds, is saddled with far too many puns and cheesy jokes, it's got more depth thanks to the Marceau storyline.

Denise Richards

She plays an heiress who survived a kidnapping with a grudge against the people who failed to rescue her, instead of her captor. It's a difficult role to play, with some hairpin emotional turns, which Marceau handles with aplomb.

Oh, and she looks incredibly glamorous too. Just sayin'. But I digress.

The film makes great use of its gorgeous scenery and even though some of the action sequences go on a little too long and at times feel excessive, they are exciting for the most part and they don't detract from the character development, the way they did in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Judi Dench has more to do in this film as M than she did in the previous films, which is a good thing. She raises Brosnan's game and the two of them deepen the relationship between the characters. I also enjoyed John Cleese's debut as the new Q, although I did tear up a little when the veteran Desmond Llewelyn bid his farewell.

Now, Richards is another story. She may be the most ill-conceived female character in the history of the series, and this film's reputation has been permanently damaged by her presence in it. Everything about the character is awful -- her dialogue (she robotically recites exposition, terrible one liners and/or reminds us that she is a nuclear physicist), her name (Christmas Jones, which provides a particularly crude closing joke in the film), even her look (she is perpetually damp or tousled).

There have been air-headed Bond girls before, but this was 1999 and Richards' role just insults the audience's intelligence. It doesn't help that Marceau gives such a lively performance -- there was a moment during the film's climax where I literally forgot about Richards' character -- and didn't care what happened to her next.

Sadly, because she dominates much of the last act of the film, the whole movie leaves a bit of a bad taste. Brosnan is redeemed in his last outing, the camp classic Die Another Day, but this one for me is near the bottom of the pack.

1) From Russia With Love
2) The Spy Who Loved Me
3) Goldfinger
4) For Your Eyes Only
5) Live and Let Die
6) Dr. No
7) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
8) The Living Daylights
9) GoldenEye
10) Octopussy
11) You Only Live Twice
12) Diamonds Are Forever
13) Thunderball
14) Moonraker
15) The World Is Not Enough
16) The Man with the Golden Gun
17) Tomorrow Never Dies
18) A View to a Kill
19) License to Kill

Liz'a take: This is one of the most frustrating Bond films to me because it had so many awesome elements and some pretty terrible ones too. Sophie Marceau's character, Elektra, was really cool and I liked that she was in a similar vein to Famke Jansen's character in GoldenEye, she really relished being bad. She really sold the insanity and off-kilter, scary quality of a villain.

Pierce Brosnan continues to be handsome as hell. The plot was really intriguing and unlike Tomorrrow Never Dies the action felt like more of a natural fit for the story. This also felt the least dated of the Brosnan 007 films so far. It cuts down a little bit on the techno babble and keeps it old school with nuclear bombs, which seem to pop up in every other Bond movie.

And then there's Denise Richards and it's all downhill from there. I just don't even have the words for how infuriating her character was. There have been other ditzy Bond girls, but at least they were kind of fun, whereas Richards was just stupid. I found myself rooting for Marceau's bad guy more than her. The weakest 007 women for me are the ones who have no investment in the story. She's just kind of there. She pops up inexplicably and has no real reason for tagging along.

I think this one will rank pretty high for me because I really did enjoy quite a bit of the movie that even Richards couldn't ruin for me. It also felt like classic Bond.

Liz's rankings:

1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2) For Your Eyes Only
3) Goldfinger
4) Dr. No
5) Live and Let Die
6) The Man with the Golden Gun
7) The Spy Who Loved Me
8) The World Is Not Enough
9) GoldenEye
10) The Living Daylights
11) Octopussy
12) Moonraker
13) A View to a Kill
14) License to Kill
15) Tomorrow Never Dies
16) You Only Live Twice
17) From Russia With Love
18) Diamonds Are Forever
19) Thunderball