The World Is Not Enough Review

The revival of the Bond series after a 6-year hiatus couldn't have been better. When it was shelved for all practical purposes following the Timothy Dalton fiasco, no one was quite expecting it to come back with as big a bang. Brosnan has put the enigma back into James Bond.

The best part about Bond movies is that you know what you are going to get - a global crisis, stunning Bond girls, a snazzy car with out-of-the-world gadgetry and cool dialogues - and you want them. The same is true of The World Is Not Enough. I feel that this is a better offering than Tommorrow Never Dies, 'cos it is that much more uncomplicated and has a true bombshell in Sophie Marceau - something that Tommorrow Never Dies lacked.

The plot is as over-the-top as ever. Things get personal here, as M's (Judi Dench) apparent ex-flame is killed inside the MI6 premises. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is assigned the task of protecting his daughter, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), from Renard (Robert Carlyle), an international terrorist who probably killed Elektra's father. Elektra's relationship with Renard dates back to the time when he kidnapped her for a ransom but couldn't keep her till he could receive it.

But Bond discovers a deeper conspiracy in Renard's actions. The latter is trying to pilfer a nuclear missile from a team of scientists, led by Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Jones) (you get the catch behind the name, only in the climax). Renard has a bullet lodged in his head that's gonna kill him but it makes him that much stronger by the day - queer medical theories are not out of place in a Bond movie.

Bond comes to the rescue of all involved in his peculiar style - races involving fast boats, helicopters, skis and one inside a petroleum pipeline.

The suspense is not a big factor here. The screenplay doesn't hold back the big twist for too long. Bond is more phlegmatic than usual and at least Elektra's character is pretty strong. So, this instalment has something new to offer, after all.

The action sequences are slick as usual and all of Q's (Desmond Llewleyn) inventions come to Bond's rescue in the nick of time. Among the two two actresses playing Bond girls, Sophie Marceau is the one who impresses with her histrionic skills, not to mention, her looks.

All in all, The World Is Not Enough has all the idiosyncracies of a Bond movie that contrive to entertain us.