Variety
"...Solid work by the nicely matched Pierce Brosnan and Sophie Marceau..." 11/15-21/1999 p.88Total Film
"...The Bond machine, retooled and greased for the new millennium, still has a fearsome top speed..." 06/01/2000 p.100 Entertainment Weekly
"...[Brosnan] imprints his own personality on the role....Marceau gives Bond a real woman to deal with..." 05/19/2000 p.50 New York Times
"...Sophie Marceau does a smashing turn as Elektra, in a mischievously sexy performance..." 11/19/1999 p.E20 USA Today
"...One of the best post-Sean Connery Bonds....Solid and surprisingly sharp..." 11/19/1999 p.7E Chicago Sun-Times
"...A splendid comic thriller, exciting and graceful, endlessly inventive..." 11/19/1999 p.31 ReelViews 8 of 10
Ten years ago, when the second and final Timothy Dalton Bond movie, Licence to Kill, tanked at the box office, it looked like the venerable secret agent had finally run out of gas, driven into the ground by the likes of The Terminator and Rambo. A six year hiatus followed, and, when Bond finally returned in 1995's Goldeneye, Dalton had been replaced by Pierce Brosnan and the series was said to have been given a complete overhaul. Actually, as Goldeneye and its sequel, Tomorrow Never Dies, illustrated, the changes were more cosmetic than anything else. Bond still drinks his martinis shaken not stirred, still utters his signature "Bond, James Bond," and still sleeps with any gorgeous woman who crosses his path. The only differences are that he has traded in his Aston Martin for a BMW and "M" has experienced a sex change. With Brosnan in the lead role, the Bond series has undergone an unprecedented revival...The World Is Not Enough contains the usual array of eye-popping action sequences...Following The World Is Not Enough, Brosnan is committed to one more Bond film, after which he will probably leave the franchise. Unlike back in the late '80s and early '90s, the series' future is not in doubt. Only a dud would have jeopardized Bond 20, and The World Is Not Enough is far from that. For those who have enjoyed the other Bond movies (especially the most recent two) or for anyone who appreciates fast-paced action films, The World Is Not Enough should prove to be a winner. Director Michael Apted may be best known for documentary efforts (the Seven Up series) and dramas (Gorillas In the Mist, Nell), but he proves to have a deft hand managing the taut pace and pyrotechnics of this kind of motion picture. When it comes to action and excitement, actors, directors, and screenwriters may change, but there's still only one James Bond. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"The World Is Not Enough" is a splendid comic thriller, exciting and graceful, endlessly inventive...Instead of summarizing the plot, let's tick off the Bond trademarks and see how they measure up: 1. Bond himself. Pierce Brosnan. The best except for Sean Connery...2. Regulars. There's real poignancy this time, because Q, the inventor of all of Bond's gizmos, is retiring. Desmond Llewelyn has played the character in every single Bond film since "From Russia With Love" in 1963...3. Guest stars. Who could replace Q? John Cleese, of course...4. M. Judi Dench is back for the third time as Bond's boss...5. Sex bombs. Usually two major ones, a good girl who seems bad, and a bad girl who seems good. Both first-rate this time...6. Chase sequences. Lots of them...7. Megalomaniacal villains. There is a terrific early appearance of the arch-terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle). His oversized skull rises from the floor in a hologram, and then takes on flesh...8. Locations. Not simply the oil field of Azerbaijan, but Frank Gehry's new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which figures in a nifty opening sequence, and the Millennium Dome on the banks of the Thames, which becomes a landing pad after a balloon explodes...9. Weird ways to die. How about vivisection by helicopter-borne rotary tree-trimming blades? Or garroting in an antique torture chair? 10. Sensational escapes. There is nothing like a Bond picture to make you believe a man can safely bungee-jump from a tall building, after tying one end of a window shade cord to his belt and the other end to an unconscious body...All of these elements are assembled by director Michael Apted and writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein into a Bond picture that for once doesn't seem like set pieces uneasily glued together, but proceeds in a more or less logical way to explain what the problem and solution might be. - Roger Ebert
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