The James Bond films haven`t been “films” since FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Or, to put it more precisely, they have become “James Bond films,” a sort of genre unto itself with a well-established formula and a level of audience expectation that cannot be ignored without peril. Elements like credibility and drama take a back seat to exotic locations, beautiful women, clever quips, fast-paced action, exciting stunts, lavish sets, and elaborate effects. While movie audiences eat this up with each new entry in the series, the Bond purists, those who remember the character as he appeared in Ian Fleming`s novels, yearn for a return to a more serious Bond. Not that the novels were without their outrageous elements (come on, 007 fought a giant squid in the novel of DR. NO), but Fleming captured a sense of gritty reality amidst all the glamour. In fact, it was this sense of continual danger that was at the core of the books. As Timothy Dalton was fond of pointing out, Bond`s vices (smoking, drinking, women) were an oasis from his everyday reality. This was a man who could die any day, at any moment, so he took his pleasures where he found them.

In the films, these elements, which had been for Bond a mere respite, became instead the true focus of attention. Especially during the Roger Moore era, Bond became a fantasy of what a secret agent would be: an infallible, good-looking superhero who never got his hair mussed, always won the fights, and never seemed in real danger (although Moore did perfect a comic grimace he used whenever faced with a supposedly imposing enemy, such as Richard Kiel`s Jaws).

Of course, Sean Connery had shown that it was possible to play this character as if it were the real thing. Maybe the actor wasn`t exactly what Fleming had in mind, but he did sell the character to the audience. Although he was ever ready with a quip, his sense of humor somehow never attacked the integrity of the film itself: while you were watching, you were in that world, and your suspension of disbelief remained in place.

With Dalton, fans got a return to a hard-edged, serious Bond. Unfortunately, the actor was ill-served by his film, especially LICENCE TO KILL, which was, theoretically, designed as a showcase for his interpretation of the character. What emerged from that debacle, however, was an abject lesson in how resistant the series had become to change. While we were supposed to take the film seriously, the same outrageous stunts and action intruded at regular intervals (in the film`s low point, the incredibility of Bond`s actions actually becomes a plot point, making the villain distrust the henchman relating the events). While we are supposed to be thrilled by the personal vendetta between Bond and Sanchez (an excellent Robert Davi), that element is all but eclipsed by a closing chase scene that replaces the actors with stunt men and abandons drama for action.

Sadly, Dalton never got another chance to make the role his own. Instead, after a six year gap, we got Pierce Brosnan as a new Bond for the `90s. What immediately became apparent in GOLDENEYE was that Brosnan, despite his REMINGTON STEELE background, was not going to play the lethal secret agent like a walking self-parody. Unlike Dalton, he imbued his Bond with humor, but unlike Moore, he wasn`t reluctant to explore the serious side of the character. In effect, he tried to combine the best elements of Moore and Dalton, creating a new version of 007 that in some ways harkened back to Connery.
TOMORROW NEVER DIES was a considerable improvement over GOLDENEYE. Somehow, the Bond elements clicked into place: great villain, great women, great action, great Bond. Yet somehow, in the build up to the release of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, the previous film has become the whipping boy-dismissed as all action and no story-and WORLD has been presented as the antidote, a film that alters the traditional Bond formula by infusing it with greater drama and characterization.

Well, I`m here to tell you that it just ain`t so. The film tries very hard, and sometimes the effort pays off, but overall this is a compromised effort that recalls LICENCE TO KILL in the wrong way: it`s a film that tries to be different but lapses back into the same old, obligatory set pieces. This is really too bad. After all, both Connery and Moore hit their stride with their third outing as Bond (GOLDFINGER and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, respectively), Maria Grazia Cucinotta as the murderous Cigar Girl in the film`s stunning precredit sequence and we had every reason to hope that the same would be true of Brosnan. As he has aged with each subsequent appearance, he has grown into the role: he has lost some of that boyish charm that threatened to make his Bond appear lightweight, and replaced it with a more seasoned sense of experience; in short, he`s starting to project the image of a man who`s been around the block a few times and knows where the bodies are buried.

Alas, this was not to be. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH begins with an excellent pre-credits sequence that works because it undermines our comfortable expectations. After an initial adventure and narrow escape, the film doesn`t cut to the credits but goes to the headquarters of MI6, which are violated with a deadly explosion that precipitates an exciting boat chase down the Thames. The assault on a setting we are used to seeing used only as a means for exposition (to set up the plot) creates a genuine surprise, and the boat chase works with only a few gimmicks, instead opting for visceral impact. The whole sequence is over-the-top in the best Bond manner: thrilling in a fun kind of way but not so absurd as to render its hero in cartoon superhero terms.

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The problem, clearly, is that Michael Apted is no action director, so he apparently lavished his attention on the character scenes and left the second-unit people to do what they wanted, whether or not it meshed with his work. What was really needed was an approach like that of James Cameron or John Woo, who know that action is character-how a character behaves under duress or in danger is as much a part of storytelling as what he says when alone with another person.

With the attempt at drama thus undercut, the film`s pace drags woefully in the middle. The attempt to play Electra King (Sophie Marceau) as a believable love interest (rather than just a sex object) is partially successful, but it never generates as much heat at Teri Hatcher`s role in TOMORROW NEVER DIES-and she had much less screen time, to boot. The film`s twist, that Electra is the real villain of the story, does work fairly well (at least it`s not obviously telegraphed), but we never understand her conviction that Bond won`t have the nerve to kill her. Certainly, we in the audience never believe he will hesitate, and when the big moment finally comes, Apted throws it away with a reaction shot to M, instead of focusing his camera in on the faces we want to see in this critical moment of life and death: Bond and Electra.

At least, Marceau is more than just beautiful; her accent and European looks are appropriately exotic for a Bond movie. The same cannot be said for Denise Richards. Sure, she is gorgeous enough to be a Bond woman, but in the middle of a film striving for greater characterization, her Dr. Christmas Jones is an underwritten tag-along character with little to distinguish her. Worse, she is saddled with unspeakable techno-babbble dialogue that recalls a bad episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. The result, sadly, provokes laughter in all the wrong places. Again, using TOMORROW NEVER DIES as a point of comparison, Michelle Yeoh managed to present herself as a worthy colleague to Bond, and her martial arts skills gave an added punch to the film. With Dr. Jones, we wonder why Bond is even dragging her along. (Yeah, I know, she`s supposed to diffuse the atomic bomb, but Bond knows how to do that himself-or at least, he had learned by the time of OCTOPUSSY.)

Robert Carlyle pulls a few worthwhile moments of unexpected vulnerability out of the villainous Renard, but the character does not rank among Bond`s most memorable foes. Carlyle projects far more danger as the volatile barroom brawler in TRAINSPOTTING. Here, is almost subdued. This supposedly more realistic opponent simply lacks the larger-than-life flare that Jonathan Pryce brought to TOMORROW NEVER DIES.

The script has some good points. The dialogue is often witty, but for every clever line, there is at least one howler (like the film`s closing pun about Christmas coming more than once a year). At least Desmond Llewelyn and John Cleese make the most of the traditional gadget scene. Llewelyn is in fine form, finally with someone else to play off of rather than just Bond; in fact, it`s fun to see Q and 007 have a third party as the target for jibes so that at last they can stop sparring with each other. The hints of surrogate father-son loyalty actually fill the screen with some genuine warmth. And Cleese, of course, is a scream as Q`s apprentice. He gets more laughs in a few minutes than are to be had in the rest of the film.

Okay, so THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH aims to achieve something more than its predecessor and trips up on its own ambition. Does that make it a bad Bond movie? No, despite the lags in pacing, the film does deliver the goods. There are delightful moments, some good set pieces, occasionally surprising plot twists; Maria Grazia Cucinotta is so good as the lethal lady in the opening sequence that we miss her presence throughout the rest of the film, and Brosnan giving a more mature performance as Bond. There is even an effective torture sequence that recalls the grueling sense of pain and fear that Fleming put into his books. But in every way, the film is inferior to its immediate predecessor. It may be good p.r. to present the new Bond film as a dramatic antidote to the all-action formula of previous Bonds, but the truth is that some of those action packed movies (including TOMORROW NEVER DIES) did generate genuine emotional responses, often much more effectively than the current film. More than anything, a Bond film should be fun, movie-going entertainment. This film indeed delivers the goods; it`s just bogged down in an attempt to do more that ultimately delivers less.

–Steve Biodrowski