- Featuring Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones, Robert Carlyle as a Russian terrorist named Renard, and Michael Apted as an action film director, The World is Not Enough feels like a game of moviemaking Mad Libs gone wrong. The film's backstory involves the kidnapping of oil pipeline heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) by Renard, who earned a bullet in the head that rendered him completely immune to pain. The incident left King's father (David Calder) and British spymaster M (Judi Dench) looking rather inept, so now everybody wants revenge on everybody else, including James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), who seeks to avenge the death of a fellow agent. Too bad the film starts at this point since its actual plot, focused on some stolen nuclear material and the sabotage of King's pipeline, is less interesting that what apparently preceded it.
- While The World is Not Enough isn't terrible enough to land at the bottom of the Bond pantheon, it is an undeniably dull and forgettable outing. The highlight of the film is a chase scene involving paragliding snowmobiles that is admittedly original, even if it doesn't make much sense. A treecutting helicopter-led attack on a warehouse belonging to Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) comes in a close second in both enjoyability and absurdity. Other action sequences involving a boat chase and a pipeline pursuit aren't nearly as effective, and the entire submarine-based conclusion is nothing we haven't seen handled better in other films. As far as I'm concerned, the most memorable thing about this film may be that it eventually led to Denise Richards' appearance in 30 Rock as a spokesperson for idiots: "I played a nucular psychiatrist in a James Bonk movie!"
- Also featuring Goldie, Samantha Bond, John Cleese, and Desmond Llewelyn in his final appearance as "Q".
