“Ah yes, The World is Not Enough. Arguably the most infamous of Brosnan’s tenure as Bond, and not for any of the good reasons. For the good, we’ve got John Cleese starting his training under Q. Judi Dench’s M actually going out into the field (again, still love the fact that she’s not behind a desk in an office). Sophie Marceau’s Elektra is an interesting and different character. But she’s not the Bond girl this film is remembered for. Oh no. That would be Denise Richards as Dr Christmas Jones, nuclear physicist.
You prolly groaned or maybe even threw up in your mouth slightly. She’s generally regarded as the worst Bond girl in the history of Bond. Now, I’m not trying to just talk smack. Let’s actually take a look at why. It’s not all Denise’s fault, but it’s also not entirely the fault of the writers. “”I thought Christmas only came once a year”” is pretty par for the course as far as the one liners, and not nearly as punny as what Connery always spewed. It’s just sort of a perfect storm. Where to start? Her dialog is some of the worst that was ever given to a 007 companion, or really anyone in a 007 film. Most of it is just “”science””. She’s given little personality and a lot of big words and long explanations. And Denise, poor thing, whose character is supposed to be a genius, prolly doesn’t understand the words she’s saying. Or at least not those words when they’re constructed into those sentences. It takes all of her effort to get the phrases out that there isn’t much room for acting. Yet she still manages to try too hard. Another argument I hear against her is “”what nuclear physicist is going to look like that?”” Well, having known some nuclear engineers (if not physicists) they don’t necessary need to fit the visual nerd stereotype. They actually can clean up pretty good. The problem here is that they’re not gonna go out into the field looking like she does. They save it for the rare moments when they’re amongst so called real people.
Sad how much that really overshadows the whole movie. As I was saying before, I do like the storyline with Elektra. The whole pseudo Stockholm Syndrome, which side is she playing for. Also worth noting, because I’ve pointed this out in previous movies, it’s Brosnan’s turn to fake his death. Although it was a quick charade, just to fool a bad guy. Not the usual long con to escape duty.
As the movies get more present day, we also get to more familiar names involved with the theme songs. This time, Garbage. I was actually kinda obsessed with the music video (I can only find a remix on YouTube) back in the day. Mostly because MTV had a “”Making the Video”” special on it. I do like the music video more than the opening credits but only because that is a killer video. The credits are still pretty awesome. The whole liquid metal thing. Still not quite enough to make up for what happens later in the film, sadly.”