The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Directed by Michael Apted. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards, Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Desmond Llewelyn, John Cleese, Michael Kitchen, Clifford “Goldie” Price, Serena Scott Thomas, Colin Salmon, Ulrich Thomsen, Maria Grazia Cucinotta. [PG-13]

After an overlong pre-titles sequence where an oil tycoon friend of M is killed, Bond is assigned to protect the man’s daughter (Marceau) from a terrorist (Carlyle) who kidnapped her years earlier. The intriguing story premise and a supporting performance from Coltrane (playing the same character first introduced in GoldenEye) are about all there are to celebrate in this muddled, unalluring action film. The chief villain, who’s given the promising (if absurd) gimmick of having a bullet lodged in his brain that’s slowly killing him but also making him impervious to pain, is surprisingly dull in Carlyle’s typically lively hands; as for the spy’s Bond girl co-stars, Marceau is uneven, and Richards is fatally miscast as a nuclear physicist in short shorts and a midriff-baring tank top (even if her character weren’t saddled with the stupid name of Christmas Jones—done so solely for the puns, no doubt—she’s almost entirely worthless in all categories besides eye candy). Most of the action scenes feel both perfunctory and gratuitous; the only one worth mentioning is a boat chase on the River Thames at the beginning, but it still goes on too long. Introduces the replacement for Llewelyn’s retiring Q: the equally sardonic “R,” played by Cleese (this would end up being Llewelyn’s final film, as he passed away shortly after the film’s release). Walk out a minute early if you want to avoid the most embarrassing Bond quip the franchise has yet produced. Longtime series producer Michael G. Wilson can be briefly spotted at a casino.

45/100