The World Is Not Enough

_**The oil pipeline in central Asia episode**_ After a British oil tycoon is assassinated, agent 007 (Pierce Brosnan) traces the hit to a crazy ex-KGB terrorist (Robert Carlyle) and travels to the Caspian Sea/Black Sea area to protect a sultry oil heiress, the daughter of the murdered mogul (Sophie Marceau). Denise Richards is on hand as a nuclear physicist working at a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan while Robbie Coltrane returns from “Goldeneye” (1995) as Valentin Zukovsky, the former KGB agent turned gangster. “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) is Brosnan’s third installment in the series with the opening featuring an absurd-but-fun boat chase on the River Thames in London and a great title song performed by Shirley Manson & Garbage. Other highlights include a paraglider-snowmobile assault in the snowy mountains, underground mayhem at the ICBM base in Kazakhstan, a wild sequence inside a pipeline to deactivate a bomb and a thrilling climax in the Bosphorus strait near Istanbul. Many complain about Denise Richards as the nuclear physicist, Dr. Christmas Jones, but she does a fine job and looks great, especially in those short shorts at the ICBM base in the high desert. Meanwhile Sophie Marceau as Elektra King is alluring in a classy way. Also on hand in the feminine department are Maria Grazia Cucinotta as the opening femme fatale, Serena Scott Thomas as Dr. Molly Warmflash and Samantha Bond as Moneypenny. Judi Dench of course returns as ‘M.’ This is a competent Bond flick with all the requisite staples; it’s just kinda unmemorable in the grand scheme of the franchise. Like the previous “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997), the colors are muted, which casts a grey pall over the proceedings, although not as pronounced. The film runs 2 hours, 8 minutes, and was shot in Bilbao, Vizcaya, País Vasco, Spain (opening scene); London, England, & areas nearby; Baku, Azerbaijan, & the Azerbaijan Oil Rocks; Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France (ski scenes); Bosphorus River, Istanbul, Turkey; and Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland (new MI6 headquarters). GRADE: B-

I am afraid I struggled with this film right from the get-go. Not that Pierce Brosnan doesn't turn in a decent enough effort as "007", it's the supporting cast that are pretty average and the story - it is just so weak. Arch-baddie "Renard" (Robert Carlyle) has been shot in the head so gets stronger every day until he dies (any physicians please explain how a bullet near your brain can make you nigh-on immortal?). Robbie Coltrane is ordinarily excellent as a comic actor, but somehow his performance here as Russian hard-man "Zukovsky" is the wrong kind of funny and we see way too much of "M" (Dame Judi Dench) and the woefully cast John Cleese as "R" - luckily because Desmond Llewellyn was still round to amiably, and briefly, fill the role of gadget master "Q". To her credit, Sophie Marceau tries hard in the spirit of the old "Bond" girl role, delivering a feisty and adequate performance that is sexy but also pretty potent, too, as she tries to get to the bottom of who killed her industrialist father and is now trying to hijack her oil pipeline through some pretty lawless terrain. That plot, though, lurches from the silly to the ridiculous before an ending that took for ever to deliver what we all knew was bound to happen. There is plenty of action, car chases and pyrotechnics but sadly, the characterisations are what makes the "Bond" franchise stand out. Here they needed much better writing and a stronger hand at the tiller than was delivered by Michael Apted.