Sophie’s choice

The World Is Not Enough

The World Is Not Enough: found in the bargain bin at the Warehouse for $10. I notice the reissued Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton ones are going for nearly double that.
   It’s probably because it’s relatively new in Bond terms that it hasn’t become a “classic” yet (remember how we viewed Moore and Dalton when Brosnan took over?). In it, Brosnan gives his best performance as 007, but really, it’s Sophie Marceau that brings it all home.
   The supporting cast is great: Robbie Coltrane, Bobby Carlyle and Judi Dench. Director Michael Apted describes his choice of Denise Richards (then considered the out-of-place American) as needing an actress who could cope with the athletic demands of the movie.
   As I listened to Apted’s commentary, I realized just how much work went in to this film. No wonder he had a separate audio track to the other crew (Peter Lamont, Vic Armstrong, David Arnold).
   It was a shame to go from the best Brosnan entry to the worst (Die Another Day, from my fellow Wellingtonian Lee Tamahori), but we Bond fans in New Zealand still have to wait for Casino Royale. A British colleague I lunched with yesterday tells me that she had already seen it at Tesco, for £8.
   What does seem out of place in a post-reboot era for James Bond is how the character in the 1999 film is so established as the world’s greatest secret agent. Those of us with clear memories of Daniel Craig as the new boy last year, playing a fallible 007, may find the earlier film almost odd, with Brosnan’s Bond a nearly too-confident agent.