The World is Not Enough: Movie, DVD, Blu-ray Disc Review (2009)

In Michael Apted’s “The World is Not Enough,” which now is available on Blu-ray disc, Pierce Brosnan proves he’s enough. The film, which is the 19th in the Bond franchise, is Brosnan’s best outing as James Bond.

The ersatz actor strikes just the right balance of emotion, wit, style and substance in a story that’s filled with all the ingenious action fans of the series expect.

After a smashing opening that finds Bond jumping from a building, chasing a mad woman across the river Thames in a speedboat, and then leaping from an exploding hot-air balloon to what is nearly his death (yeah, right), the film settles down to its real business: Electra (Sophie Marceau), the daughter of a recently assassinated tycoon, is building a pipeline across central Asia to Turkey, something her deranged former kidnapper, Renard (Robert Carlyle), will stop at all costs.

When M (Judi Dench, perfect in an enjoyably expanded role) sends Bond to the Caspian oil town of Baku to protect Electra, the film--literally and figuratively--finds its legs.

As Bond girls go, Marceau’s Electra won’t disappoint, but Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear scientist (ha ha ha ha!) who resembles Laura Croft, is no Ursula Andress’ Honey Ryder or Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore. She can’t pull off the puns and doesn’t have the bite or the shrewd intelligence the role demands.

Still, she’s backed by an otherwise excellent cast, including Dench and Brosnan, who were more than enough to rocket this series straight into the present.

Grade: B+