The World is Not Enough James Bond Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1

U.K. | 1999 Directed by Michael Apted Starring Pierce Brosnan Sophie Marceau Robert Carlyle Color | 128 Minutes | PG-13 Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 2-disc set) MGM Home Entertainment

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Ultimate Collection Volume 1 Goldfinger • Diamonds Are Forever The Man with the Golden Gun The Living Daylights The World is Not Enough

		Review by Brian Lindsey

5     10   10 = Highest Rating

• One of the films in The James Bond Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 • DVD Rating is for entire 10-disc box set

A ruthless anarchist (Robert Carlyle) threatens the world's oil supplies while pursuing a vendetta against the British Secret Service — which means tangling with their best agent, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan)...     There's a good story in here, with attention to real world conditions, and an interesting twist on the typical villain and Bond Girl conventions of the franchise. But ultimately The World is Not Enough gets carried away with itself, falling victim to excess. Perhaps the filmmakers embraced the Bond family motto — from which the title is taken — a bit too closely. (They'd go completely off the deep end for Brosnan's next and last Bond outing, 2002's Die Another Day.)     TWINE features the longest pre-titles sequence of the James Bond series. 007 is cleverly tricked into bringing a bomb inside MI6 headquarters in London; the explosion kills well-connected oil tycoon Sir Robert King, a personal friend of Bond's boss, M (Judi Dench). A foxy female assassin fires at Bond from a speedboat on the Thames and the chase is on — Bond commandeers Q's special mini-jet boat and pursues the shooter to the Millenium Dome, where she commits suicide in a hot air balloon rather than be captured. (As unbelievable as it is spectacular, this set-piece would've been right at home in one of the Roger Moore pics.) 007 survives what should have been a fatal fall, as we know he must — the credits haven't even rolled yet!     After Daniel Kleinman's oil-themed titles (with a decent if not particularly memorable song by the punk-pop band Garbage), we find Bond, M, and other members of MI6 attending King's funeral. Bond is intrigued by Elektra (Sophie Marceau), Sir Robert's beautiful daughter and heiress to the family oil fortune. The veteran spy is moved by her stoicism in the face of tragedy, especially given her history. Years earlier she was kidnapped by Viktor Zokas, AKA "Renard", a Bosnian terrorist who physically and mentally abused her while awaiting payment of a multi-million dollar ransom. She escaped before the ransom was delivered, whereas Renard was shot in the head by 009 — miraculously surviving what should have been a mortal wound. Nonetheless, the bullet is slowly killing him as it moves inexorably through his brain. As he awaits death, the bullet in his skull cuts off all sensations of pain and fatigue, actually making him stronger. Bond believes that Renard is behind Sir Robert's assassination, and that his next target will be Elektra.     Bond is given the mission of safeguarding her while simultaneously finding out what Renard may be planning. Unimpressed by the service's track record concerning her family, Elektra spurns the offer of MI6 protection and prefers to rely on her own private security team. Bond must act as her "shadow", trailing her to Azerbaijan where she's overseeing the completion of a huge oil pipeline project. He reunites with ex-KGB enemy turned ally Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane, in a welcome reprise of his GoldenEye role) to uncover Renard's theft of weapons-grade plutonium from the former Soviet Union. The target would seem to be Elektra's oil empire... Thus 007 finds danger, romance, and treachery in Central Asia, from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the waters of the Bosporus at Istanbul — scene of the "Great Game" Britain has played with Russia since the 19th Century. Lots of shit blows up very loudly.     It's a good plot for a Bond film, with a midpoint twist of the kind we haven't seen in a 007 flick before. The story is further helped by the atypical motivation of the ostensible villain, played as something of a Sad Sack by Carlyle (The Full Monty). Gorgeous French actress Sophie Marceu rises to the challenge of being a more substantial "Bond Girl" than usual, while Brosnan delivers perhaps his best performance as the superspy. Dialog scenes are stronger here than in most recent Bonds, owing not only to somewhat better writing but also director Michael Apted, an unlikely choice to helm a 007 pic. And unlike Die Another Day, TWINE thankfully keeps the CGI at a relative minimum, favoring the old-fashioned methods of real stunt men and miniature effects. (I was astonished to learn that a simple overhead shot of Bond's BMW transiting an oil field into a forest was done with a toy car and models — it looks absolutely real.) Nevertheless, things still get tedious now and again... That über-long pre-titles sequence for example, which seems protracted and yet rushed at the same time. The saw blade-helicopter attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory is just a lot of pyrotechnic sound and fury, signifying nothing (it's there merely so Bond can deploy various nifty gadgets in his car); the film's pacing would have benefited had the entire sequence been boiled down to a quick (not to mention inexpensive) shoot-out. The humor falls mostly flat, with Desmond Llewelyn's poignant farewell to the series as Q marred by the Fawlty Towers shtick of John Cleese (playing "R", Q's successor).     One of the film's most often derided elements is the casting of Denise Richards (Starship Troopers) as the American nuclear physicist, Dr. Christmas Jones. Yes, the character's name results in exactly the kind of bad puns you might expect. Richards is pretty bad in the role, but it's really the casting that's to blame. It's simply impossible for a nuclear physicist to have an ass like that.

Coinciding with the Nov. 17 theatrical release of Casino Royale and the launch of new 007 actor Daniel Craig, MGM Home Entertainment (now controlled by Sony Corp. of Japan) is issuing — for the third bloody time! — the previous 20 James Bond films on DVD. This isn't a simple repackaging, however, as all the films have been completely remastered, frame-by-frame, by Lowry Digital Imaging. As good as the earlier discs are they can't hold a candle to these new "Ultimate" editions. (Judging by the titles I've screened so far, the visual improvement is remarkable — especially with the films from the '60s and '70s.) Every Bond flick has been given a new audio makeover as well.     Presented two discs per title, in space-saving "slim-line" cases, the Bond sagas are boxed five titles to a set, in non-chronological order. (A booklet of liner notes is included for each film.) People have groused that they can't purchase favorite titles individually — you're stuck with A View To a Kill if you want Thunderball, for example — but the price is certainly right. As part of these box sets it works out to around ten or twelve bucks per movie. (TWINE is contained in Ultimate Collection Volume 1, released with Volume 2 on November 7th, 2006. The third and fourth sets are due before Christmas.)     Being of recent vintage, TWINE naturally doesn't benefit as much from the Lowry restoration process. Needless to say the anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer looks and sounds utterly flawless. Multiple audio options are available on Disc 1: English DTS, English 5.1 Surround, French Surround, and two commentaries, the first with director Apted and the second featuring designer Peter Lamont, composer David Arnold and 2nd Unit director/stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong.     Disc 2 is flush with a cornucopia of extras. There are four deleted scenes, two expanded scenes, and an alternate scene to check out (all introduced by Apted), not counting the alternate angles provided of the opening boat chase. Six featurettes, of varying length, cover multiple aspects of the production, cast and marketing (James Bond Down River, Creating An Icon, Hong Kong Press Conference, Tribute to Desmond Llewelyn, etc.). Further alternate angle options, the Garbage music video, trailers and image galleries round out the supplements.     Alas, the 007 Mission Control feature is almost a complete waste of disc space apart from the option of viewing the distinctive, always visually arresting Main Title sequence with the credits lettering removed. Otherwise it consists of simple highlight clips from the movie, divided into categories (Women, Villains, Allies, Combat, etc.), not especially well chosen or edited. 11/19/06

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