25 years later, this enjoyably bad James Bond movie is still not enough

Barbara Broccoli, the longtime producer of the Bond franchise, recently revealed that the search for the next 007 is underway. Bond is one of those IPs that will never die, no matter how much time passes in between projects or how good or bad they might be. Indeed, the franchise is full of undeniably high peaks, like Goldfinger and Casino Royale, and embarrassingly low valleys, like Moonraker and Die Another Day. Most of Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as 007 is somewhere in between, with his four-film stint as the spy with a license to kill offering an uneven blend of well-executed action and unadulterated and quite unintentional camp.

Of his four movies, the third, Michael Apted’s The World Is Not Enough, is the hardest to pin down. On the one hand, it’s absolutely awful, with a ridiculous story that embraces the worst aspects of the franchise and clumsy action sequences that have aged like milk. And yet, the film is so shamelessly entertaining and deliriously silly that it’s hard not to fall under its spell. On its 25th anniversary, let’s look back at the complicated legacy of The World Is Not Enough and discuss how this deliciously awful movie is still one of the most purely enjoyable James Bond outings.

Nowhere near enough

The World Is Not Enough stars Brosnan as James Bond, the suave and expert spy with a license to kill on behalf of Her Majesty’s Secretc Service. This time, he finds himself involved in the aftermath of the murder of billionaire businessman Sir Robert King at the hands of the dangerous terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle). Bond is assigned to protect King’s daughter, Elektra (Sophie Marceau), who was previously Renard’s captive. During the assignment, he meets American nuclear physicist Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) and discovers a plot to increase the price of oil by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters off Istanbul.

From that plot alone, you can pretty much assume the type of movie The World Is Not Enough ends up being. Whereas Brosnan’s first outing as Bond, GoldenEye, was a genuine spy thriller, and the sequel, Tomorrow Never Dies, was a Hong-Kong-influenced action spectacle, The World Is Not Enough is camp embodied. The film is bizarre, like a teenage version of James Bond: overly horny, clumsy, silly, and corny. And yet, it has an ove-complicated plot that thinks so highly of itself that it descends into absurdity. The script goes into some truly puzzling places. It wants to seem like an intense political thriller, but failing, it must be said, quite miserably.

Brosnan also looks woefully confused at the whole thing, but, ever the consummate pro, he doesn’t let it derail his performance. Sure, he often looks like he wants to give a The Office–style look at the camera after every dumb line he’s asked to say, especially when he name-drops the title with all the subtlety of a hammer. Still, Brosnan sells it, which is more than can be said for many other actors in similarly bad movies. Carlyle, too, does incredibly well with what he’s given, chewing scenery left and right as the KGB agent-turned-terrorist at the center of the film’s plot. Supporting players like Dame Judi Dench and the late Robbie Coltrane are also reliably good at bringing some logic to the nonsense.

I also must stick up for Richards, whose performance as Christmas Jones has long been the subject of ridicule. Sure, she’s not the most believable nuclear physicist, and sure, she really struggles to get her dialogue right, let alone make it believable. Yet, there’s a quality to her performance that fits the film’s campy tone. She delivers every line with the confidence of a toddler in high heels, and I, for one, love her for it.

The Bond Girl has never been particularly well-developed, and Christmas Jones is about as complex as a 2 x 2 multiplication problem. However, Richards does a lot to prevent Jones from becoming a walking joke by opting for a self-aware approach that not nearly enough people acknowledge. The film has her deliver a bunch of physics terms in hotpants and bathed in baby oil, for crying out loud; it’s to her credit and the dignity she brings to the role that Jones isn’t the joke the movie tries to turn her into.

If she can’t have it all, then nobody will

You might have noticed that I have yet to mention the strongest aspect of The World Is Not Enough, and rightly so, for Sophie Marceau deserves a section to herself. The César Award winner plays Elektra King, the film’s apparent leading lady who is more than meets the eye. Indeed, Elektra is actually the film’s primary antagonist — she kills her father and uses Renard to execute her ambitious oil plot. Marceau’s task is challenging, as she plays both sides of the traditional Bond Girl: the damsel in distress and the femme fatale. The actress comes out on top, crafting a deliciously wicked villainess that not only ranks as the best antagonist in the Brosnan era, but one of the overall best in the 007 series.

And yet, she’s barely an actual antagonist. Marceau spends most of the movie playing the lying game, pulling a delicate balancing act of scarred kidnap victim and manipulative seductress and making it look effortless. Her eventual reveal as a villain comes late in the second act, leading to the now-famous scene where she tortures Bond with a garrote while looking absolutely stunning in a gray Ungaro see-through bodice and lilac Versace skirt. Elektra is the embodiment of what the Bond Girl should be: beautiful, always made up, utterly flawless, and dangerously lethal — someone who can torture and fire a gun while flaunting stilettos and a full face of makeup. Elektra runs and climbs endless flights of stairs in heels;  it’s wholly ridiculous, even by ’90s standards, but Marceau sells the hell out of it, and one can’t help but give in to her spell.

Elektra’s motives and point of view are further explored in The World Is Not Enough‘s spectacular theme song courtesy of rock band Garbage. The eponymous orchestral rock tune is performed with slow allure by vocalist Shirley Manson and deals with themes of seduction and ambition. “There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive,” sings Manson as the anthemic orchestral arrangement plays in the background. Composer David Arnold described it as “a steel fist in a velvet glove,” which is also a perfect description of Elektra King.

King represented many firsts in Bond. Female villains are few and far between in the series. Usually, the female antagonist plays second fiddle to the male villain — think Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp or Rosamund Pike’s Miranda Frost. Indeed, in Bond’s 60-plus-year history, there have only been two main female villains: Lotte Lenya’s Rosa Klebb in Bond’s second outing, From Russia with Love and Marceau’s Elektra King 36 years later. Since Elektra, there has not been another main female Bond villain. And what a shame because both Rosa Klebb and Elektra King are among Bond’s most iconic and memorable villains, easily outshining the average Bond bad guy. Do you genuinely remember General Georgi Koskov? Exactly.

Ready and yet unprepared

Is The World Is Not Enough a good Bond movie? Well, it’s a campy Bond movie, the kind that would’ve excelled in the Roger Moore era before he descended into self-parody. Yet, its flaws are too big and noticeable for me to confidently call it “good”; so bad it’s good is more on the nose. Marceau can only do so much, and believe me, she does a lot.

If I had to describe The World Is Not Enough in one word, it would be “confused.” It has something of an identity crisis, wanting to be fun and silly, yet feeling obligated to deliver the sort of larger-than-life spectacle expected of both the Bond series and the average late-1990s action romp. It thinks too highly of itself to give in to the ridiculousness, but has too inept of a screenplay and too amateur of a direction to pull its ambitions off. The best way to watch The World Is Not Enough is through rose-tinted glasses.

Come for Brosnan’s charm, Richards’ unintentional humor, Carlyle’s scenery-chewing baddie, and Marceau’s spectacular villainess. Come for the nonstop action and unexpectedly funny setpieces. Come for the cringeworthy dialogue (how many times does Christmas come a year?) and the excess of it all. The world is not enough, and neither is this movie, but you know what? It is a pretty good place to start, my love.

The World Is Not Enough is available to stream on PlutoTV.