'The World Is Not Enough' revisited

With 'Quantum of Solace' due to hit our screens soon, we take a daily look back at the 21 official Bond films. Day 19: 'The World Is Not Enough'

The World Is Not Enough (1999, Michael Apted)

Villain: Sophie Marceau as Elektra King
At Stake: Oil!
Candy: Sophie Marceau as Elektra King(!)
Gizmo: Inflatable ski-jacket
Theme song: ‘The World Is Not Enough’ by Garbage
Quote: ‘Revenge is not hard to fathom for a man who believes in nothing.’

You can usually judge if a particular Bond film is going to be your cup of tea or not by the pre-credits sequence. Some are lunatic confections of empty bombast while others hint at the more realistic exploration of spies and spying to come.

In the case of ‘The World Is Not Enough’, however, an opening double-whammy consisting of Bond’s daring but believable escape from an office building in Bilbao followed by an outrageous motorboat chase down the Thames leaves one none the wiser as to what tone the body of the film will subsequently adopt. It’s a confusion shared by director Apted who stitches together a schizophrenic Frankenstein’s monster of a movie that doesn’t know if it’s coming or it’s going.

Sophie Marceau impresses as Elektra King, a fickle oil princess straight out of the pages of Greek tragedy who intends to corner the world’s oil supply by blowing up a nuclear submarine anchored in Istanbul. It’s not as loopy as it sounds, but when 007 attempts to foil her scheme by teaming up with a nubile atomic scientist who dresses like Lara Croft on the pull and labours under the pun-tastic name of Dr. Christmas Jones, any modicum of interest in further plot machinations evaporates.

Marceau is abetted by Robert Carlyle as the dastardly Renard. A mysterious anarcho-terrorist with an even more mysterious accent, Renard has a bullet lodged in his brain which means he can has no sense of touch, smell, taste or decorum. He is quite the best thing about the film.

In a clamorous finale that’s every bit as contrary as what’s gone before, James murders a loved one, blows up a submarine in the middle of the Bosporus and manages to sufficiently salve his conscience to be found tucking into the champers, oysters and particularly grisly double-entendres by suppertime. The cad!

James Bond will return in… ‘Die Another Day’

Read our original review of 'The World Is Not Enough'

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