Easily the best Brosnan entry, with superb late-analog setpieces (courtesy 2nd unit master Vic Armstrong), some welcome goofball jokes and, despite repeated half-assed attempts over the years, one of the few to lend Bond some genuine personal stakes (his pre-credits wounding, the contentious relationship with M, and the terrorist with a grudge against her all prefigure SKYFALL, another example in a long line of this franchise recycling and refining story ideas). It also directly addresses the series' intrinsic misogyny if you're into that sort of thing, especially in a terrific scene where 007 mansplains Elektra's own sexual trauma to her and she responds by shaming him for basically recapitulating her assault for his own purposes (of course, in unpleasantly tantalizing…

Though it has never been on the receiving end of a lot of love, "The World is Not Enough" is definitely deserving. Featuring Pierce Brosnan at his most urbane and, for better or worse, memorable supporting characters, Michael Apted's entry in the venerable James Bond franchise easily thrills and entertains. It is a sleek and raucous action film with no shortage of fun.

The story is standard issue Bond: the Commander is charged with protecting an heiress, deterring terrorists, and, once again, saving the Empire. Allying himself with old friends and new distractions, Bond embarks on a series of adventures that find him coming face-to-face with his own, and others,' mortality. Bond, himself, runs into a fair amount of peril…

”There's no point living if you can't feel alive.

Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist who is working in the middle of Kazakhstan?! Can you even imagine something more idiotic than that? Worst Bond girl ever if you ask me.

Michael Apted takes control of the Bond franchise and delivers an action-packed yet somewhat mentally disabled movie which seems to be moving back and forth between smartness and stupidity. It has a pretty decent plot, the love/hate relationship between Bond and his “lady friend” offers enough complexity, tension and emotional distress, like any other Bond film it has some very good and convincing action scenes and Pierce Brosnan does his best to portray a complex Bond who has so many…

HIGH-GLOSS & LOW EXPECTATIONS

After a Promising Start, the Pierce Brosnan's James Bond Series of Four Films Never got Great and seemed to Tread Formulaic Water. Brosnan's Bond Films never became Cringe-Inducers like Roger Moore, but maybe that's because He wasn't around as long.

Here We have the Third out of the Four Brosnan's and the 19th Overall James Bond Film. It Looks Super-Slick and the Action Sequences are Supreme.

The Pre-Title Sequence is the Longest and is Half Up-Close Violent and Half another of those Boat Chases (this time on the River Thames) that goes Expectedly Over the Top.

With Howls coming from the Audience, Bond drives the Boat on Land like a Car through the Streets.

But it Doesn't…

“Unfulfilled potential” would probably be the most appropriate phrase to describe THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. Elektra should be a very compelling and complicated Bond leading lady. Renard should be an imposing antagonist. A “Bond’s emotional vulnerability compromises his judgment” angle should be a fantastic hook. And yet... none of that ever really comes together in organic or fully satisfying ways. The script feels several drafts away from achieving the maximum potential of the ideas it toys with. I think Pierce Brosnan is really trying hard here to make Bond’s headspace something coherent, but the screenplay just never provides enough clarity to help him sell it. And then there are elements - Christmas Jones (whose failure is much more in…

This is the only Bond film I hate with a passion. At least with other terrible entries there are moments dotted throughout. The World Is Not Enough is essentially a filmic premature ejaculation with everything worth watching occurring before the credits. The first fifteen minutes of this film are genuinely pretty excellent though, I really love the scene where Bond jumps out of the window of the banker’s, I love the boat chase, and that title song is truly fantastic, best song of the series for me. It’s a shame the film never gets good again after this. 

The writing isn’t terrible, there’s a couple decent dialogue exchanges like the one at the casino between Bond, Elektra and Zukovsky, but…

Outright misunderstood, since most people lump it in with Die Another Day's over-the-top shenanigans. There is a remarkable emphasis on story in The World Is Not Enough, a story that despite some obvious flaws is actually compelling. Brosnan feels the most dialed-in as 007 and his performance is accentuated by his interactions with Elektra King (Sophie Marceau plays such a great femme fatale with a plan). Watching Bond getting outsmarted and blindsided by a female antagonist is quite the subversion of the franchise's established villainous tropes. Things get personal and twisted here. The action may be a little front-loaded in quality - as nothing ever tops the spectacular opening boat chase - and the globetrotting doesn't feature that many alluring…