Among the Bond fan community this is an unpopular opinion, but I rank The World is not Enough a lot higher than most people. I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure and it certainly has its problems (Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist being the most frequently mentioned), but it is a product of the times when 90s action films were completely over the top and put explosive action ahead of plot coherence or character development. Also, what this movie gets right it does really well. Here is what I like about The World is not Enough.
1. While most of the action in this movie feels like the writers developed first and then figured out ways to get the characters in position for said moments, the one sequence that works perfectly is the boat chase on the Thames in the pre-title sequence. Originally the titles were going to run after 007 made his escape in Spain, but the producers felt it wasn't a big enough stunt so they delayed the titles and included the exquisite boat chase in the pre-title sequence. Comedy and action intertwine throughout as Bond uses a prototype boat loaded with gadgets to chase down an assassin.
2. I've always been a fan of the band Garbage, so when they were selected to sing the film's theme song I was hoping for something modern with a classic Bond-theme feeling and in my opinion they delivered. The song has a dark and moody sound while being completely in the style of Garbage and Bond at the same time.
3. The images that go along with the theme song of naked women soaked in oil harkens back to the Maurice Binder classics like Thunderball.
4. While they didn't know this would be Desmond Llewelyn's final appearance in the franchise as Q, this is the perfect way for him to say goodbye. Llewelyn would end up dying in a car crash following completion of this film's production.
5. You rarely see one of Bond's quips undone, but when Brosnan tells the Parahawk driver who he thinks will fall to his death after steering off a snowy cliff that he'll "see him back at the lodge" and then a secondary parachute comes out, the disappointment on his face couldn't be any funnier.
6. The amount of bad acting that we get from Denise Richards is equally balanced out by a great turn from Sophie Marceau. In addition to being one of the most beautiful women to grace the screen as a Bond girl, Marceau's performance as the sexy, duplicitous Elektra King gives the best performance in the entire movie.
7. We get the return of Valentin Zukovsky! Other than Felix Leiter, very few allies get repeat appearances, but Zukovsky is absolutely deserving of that privilege.
8. It is a really nice touch putting a painting of original M actor, Bernard Lee, on the wall at the Scottish headquarters.
9. I have a soft spot for mystery plots in this franchise. I love it when Bond has to figure things out along with the audience and we get twists and turns throughout.
10. The title of the film and the way they use it in the movie is a great callback to the Bond family motto from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
11. I know I already touched on Sophie Marceau and her powerful performance as Electra, but I also have to add that the scene when she has Bond in a torture chair is fantastic. She is doing a high-wire balancing act of sexpot and sociopath and pulls it off flawlessly.
12. "You wouldn't kill me. You'd miss me." ... "I never miss."
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