Thursday 12 May 2016

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Michael Adept

Country

UK | USA

Cast

Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, Colin Salmon, Desmond Llewelyn, John Cleese, Samantha Bond, Serena Scott Thomas, John Seru, Ulrich Thomsen, Goldie, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, David Calder

Storyline

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) uncovers a nuclear plot when he protects an oil heiress (Sophie Marceau) from her former kidnapper (Robert Carlyle), an international terrorist who can't feel pain.

Opinion

In the past, the franchise has already had difficulties in finding new ideas. At the nineteenth episode, it seems almost a mission impossible, and I believe the title does its best to let everyone know. Indeed lacking originality, "The World Is Not Enough" is dull, slow and silly, unevenly acted, but is partially saved by the action scenes.

Completely predictable and devoid of new ideas, the story could be summed up with one simple sentence: James Bond must stop a villain who wants to dominate the world. Sure, there is a plot twist, but it isn't much of a twist as it is quite predictable. The paper thin plot jumps from location to location without any reason, doing nothing but confusing me.

Like the previous entries with Brosnan, this film too follows the modern stream that is to use current themes. This time the attention goes to oil used as a basis to economy, and the film does a decent job on that front.

The characters are another big issue. The villain neither seemed evil nor intimidating - a guy who can't feel pain, I mean, what's the deal? - and any comparison to previous Bond villains would be an insult. The Bond girls are no better.

As if the poor script was not enough, the acting had to be awful too. Most of it anyway. Robert Carlyle proves that he is not good at playing the bad guy. Sophie Marceau clearly doesn't know what to do as her character goes from being an intelligent woman to a spoilt brat. Denise Richards should stay away from cameras. She is georgeous, I won't deny that, but man she can't act.

Partially saving the film is the action, like I said before, that is not spectacular but way too good for the film. Also Pierce Brosnan still does a good job as Bond, and Judi Dench keeps doing great as M.

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