Review - The World is Not Enough (1999)

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and after a very eventful HallowScream, it's nice to get back to just regular old movie reviews. And since this year celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the James Bond franchise, I thought I'd share my review of my personal favorite Bond film: 1999's The World is Not Enough. Directed by Michael Apted, the nineteenth Bond film stars Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Colin Salmon, Michael Kitchen, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, John Cleese, and Desmond Llewellyn in what would be his final film role. 

        So, we open in Spain, where James Bond is visiting a bank owned by a Swiss banker. The banker informs Bond that he's retrieved a large sum of money for oil Baron Sir Robert King. Unfortunately, Bond only came for information about the murder of an MI6 agent, and is forced to take out the banker's men, only for the banker himself to be killed by an associate known as the Cigar Girl. Leaving with the money, Bond returns to MI6 in London, and meets Sir Robert, who is actually an old friend of M. Bond, whilst having a drink and talking with M, makes a startling discovery regarding the money, but is too late to stop Sir Robert from getting to it, and he is killed when the money explodes. Bond then goes after the Cigar Girl, who was there to finish off the job if the money didn't also kill Bond. A massive boat chase through the Thames ensues, ending in a hot air balloon near the Millennium Dome. Cigar Girl, refusing Bond's offer for protection, blows herself up along with the balloon, and Bond lands pretty hard on the Millennium Dome. 

         It's here where we jump into the opening credits for this movie, and I'll be honest, the imagery centering on oil is pretty neat. The title song, however, is something of a divisive point. The song, performed by the band Garbage, is among my ten favorite Bond themes, but not everyone enjoys the song. I enjoy it, myself, but I get that not everyone does, and there's nothing wrong with that. 

         The attack on MI6 in London forces them to temporarily relocate to an MI6 facility in Scotland, and it's here where we have a meeting with M, Tanner, Robinson, Moneypenny, Bond, and several other agents of MI6. The money that killed Sir Robert was rigged as a fertilizer bomb, with his lapel pin being replaced with a duplicate with a transmitter to set the bomb off. Bond, unfortunately, is considered inactive until medically cleared to return to work. The doctor, Molly, informs him that his collarbone is dislocated. But since the doctor is a woman, Bond is able to work his charms to get her to clear him to return to the field. Bond then meets with Q, who tells him about his upcoming retirement, and introduces Bond to his successor, whom Bond jokingly refers to as R. Q and R show off Bond's new car for the movie, which is yet another BMW, as well as a new jacket with an inflatable protective bubble, and a new pair of glasses that.can see through clothing. Nice. And I'll just say it, John Cleese is hysterical as R in this movie, and he definitely made for a terrific successor to Desmond Llewellyn's Q. 

         Anyway, Bond does some research on the kidnapping of Sir Robert's daughter, Elektra King. And after running the sum of money picked up in Spain with the ransom amount for Elektra, Bond finds the amounts to be a perfect match, and goes to speak with M about his discovery. It's here we learn that the kidnapping was carried out by a terrorist named Renard the Anarchist. When Sir Robert came to M for help, she sent 009 to kill Renard, and Elektra escaped in the scuffle. Weeks later, 009 caught up with Renard and put a bullet into his head. Unfortunately, the bullet was irremovable, and is slowly moving through his brain, killing off his senses, making him immune to pain. But, the bullet will eventually kill him. 

         Upon getting clearance, M sends Bond to Azerbaijan to meet with Elektra, as both M and Bond believe that Renard will eventually go after her. Elektra heads to a small village, where she has the King oil pipeline, still under construction, rerouted to go around the village and a sacred church. Bond then speaks with Elektra, and the two head up to the mountains for a bit of skiing, and checking where the two ends of the pipeline will eventually meet. The two are attacked by a set of parasail-guided snowmobiles, all of which are eventually destroyed by Bond. After using his jacket's bubble feature to protect Elektra and himself from an avalanche, Bond digs out of the snow pack above them, and the two eventually return to Elektra's home in Baku. That evening, Bond heads to a casino owned by an old friend: Valentin Zukovsky, who gives him information about Renard. Shortly after, Elektra herself shows up and loses a card game against Zukovsky, in which the prize is a check for $1 million that Zukovsky initially gave to Elektra. 

         We later see Elektra's chief of security, Davidov, meet with Renard and the two plan to head to a nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Bond, ultimately, kills Davidov and takes his place. It's at the nuclear site that we meet American nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones, who directs Bond to where he needs to go. Now, okay, I'll say what everyone else has already said. Denise Richards is, honestly, the oddest choice to be playing a nuclear physicist. Don't get me wrong, she's hot as all Hell, and her outfit makes her look like Lara effing Croft from the Tomb Raider games, but a lot of the things she says regarding nuclear physics just comes off as forced and stilted. Really, I think that she was only cast because she was just featured in Starship Troopers, and she's insanely hot. Aside from that, I honestly think that any other actress at the time would have been more believable as a nuclear physicist. 

        Anyway, Bond finally comes face-to-face with Renard, who said s something familiar that he'd heard before: "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive." Renard also pinpoints Bond's shoulder injury and takes advantage of it. Renard and his men escape with a nuclear bomb, and Bond and Christmas make their escape just before the base is destroyed. Later, after she calls in M, Bond confronts Elektra believing her to be in league with Renard. Elektra gets a call that the pipeline has been attacked by Renard, and the two head to a monitoring facility. Bond informs M of his suspicion, but is unaware of Elektra's motives. The monitors reveal an inspection rig moving fast in the pipeline, and Bond confirms everyone's fear: the bomb is moving through the pipeline. Bond and Christmas head to a second inspection rig, and they use it to get ahead of the bomb, and let it catch up with them to slow the rig and disarm the bomb. Unfortunately, the rig's controls are jammed, and half the bomb's plutonium is missing. Bond and Christmas leap off the rig, and the bomb detonates, destroying a fifty-yard section of pipeline. 

        Believing Bond and Christmas both dead, Elektra reveals that she IS working with Renard, or rather the other way around. You see, Elektra is the true mastermind of this situation, and Renard is a wild dog carrying out the mission. Elektra abducts M and takes her to her base at Maiden's Tower in Istanbul. Back at the pipeline, Bond and Christmas are revealed to have survived, and to get more information, they head to a caviar factory in the Caspian Sea. Oh, and do you know whose caviar factory it is? Yep, Zukovsky. Bond accosts Zukovsky for more information, only for the factory to be attacked by Elektra's helicopters carrying saw blades. Both helicopters, Bond's car, and much of the factory are destroyed in the ensuing scuffle, with Bond noting of the car's destruction: "Q's not gonna like this." Later, while nearly drowning in his own caviar, Zukovsky finally reveals the truth, he does occasional smuggling for Elektra, and the casino payoff was for a gig regarding his nephew, Nikolai, who was stationed in Istanbul. 

         In Istanbul, Zukovsky reveals that Nikolai is a submarine captain, and Bond finally put two-and-two together: Elektra and Renard plan to use nuclear reactor in Nikolai's submarine and put the other half of the plutonium from the bomb stolen in Kazakhstan into the reactor, causing a meltdown that would destroy the entire city of Istanbul, and also the three competitive oil pipelines going against Elektra's pipeline. Zukovsky is, apparently, killed by a bomb left by his toadie Bullion, and both Bond and Christmas are taken to Maiden's Tower. Elektra has Christmas taken to the submarine, where she's held prisoner by Renard, while Elektra tortures Bond with a medieval torture device that will break Bond's neck. Zukovsky, revealed to still be alive, shows up and saves Bond, but at the cost of his own life. Bond gets free of the chair and goes after Elektra, freeing M en route. When Elektra orders Renard to take off, Bond shoots her dead, and goes after the sub. 

        On the sub, Renard turns the plutonium into a rod shaped object, with the intent to place it into the coolant tank in the reactor. Bond, who has frees Christmas, stops him, the sub is destroyed, and Renard is dead. Bond and Christmas celebrate with champagne, dinner, and of course a bit of love-making, and the movie ends with the promise that "James Bond will return." 

       Okay, so aside from the unrealistic performance of Denise Richards, the rest of the cast was pretty good. Both Michael Kitchen as Tanner and Colin Salmon as Robinson were good, as was Judi Dench as M. It was great to see Robbie Coltrane return as Zukovsky, and I thoroughly enjoyed John Cleese as R. Desmond Llewellyn, whose final performance as Q, as well the final performance he'd give.on film, was great in this movie. It really was tragic what happened him, and what was to be a send-off to one of the longest tenured actors in the franchise, having appeared in seventeen of the (at the time) nineteen Bond films, turned into a memorial of a truly great man's career in the Bond series. Both Sophie Marceau and Robert Carlyle were great villains as Elektra and Renard. And, of course, the main stand out is Pierce Brosnan himself as James Bond. In spite of a overblown mess of a story, for the most part, Brosnan still gives his A-game to the character of James Bond, and honestly, I still enjoy his take on the character. 

           I'd like to point out the music score in this movie. David Arnold, who began scoring the Bond movies in 1997 with Tomorrow Never Dies, did a great job with the music in this movie. Unfortunately, he hasn't done a Bond movie score since 2008's Quantum of Solace, but I certainly would like to see him return to score future films in the franchise. Personally, I think that David Arnold is the best Bond film composer since John Barry, and I will personally stand by that statement. 

         Overall, director Michael Apted and writers Bruce Feirstein, Robert Wade, and Neal Purvis made a film that, as far as the Brosnan era of Bond goes, is probably the second best in his tenure, with GoldenEye still being the best. However, this film is the one that made me a Bond fan in the first place, so I definitely have to give it some credit. In truth, it's my nostalgia for the film that keeps me watching it's but other than that, there are definitely better Bond films out there. I'm giving The World is Not Enough a rating of 4.15/5. 

       Anyway, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll be back on Friday with my review of Enola Holmes 2.