Fan Verdict - The World Is Not Enough

Each month, a different James Bond film is selected for review, rating and discussion by the largest online community of 007 fans - the Keeping The British End Up forums. Fans rated the following elements of the movie on a 1-10 scale (10 being best): Bond, Babes, Villains, Humour, Sadism, Snobbery, Action, Locations, Gadgets, Music and 'Tilt' - a rating to account for any qualities not captured in the main categories. Also up for discussion were the 'best bits' of the movie, including: most 'Bondian' moment, funniest scene, best line, best location, best action sequence, best Bond girl and best overall performance. The World Is Not Enough overall score: 5.9

Above: Cover art for "The World Is Not Enough" score, composed by David Arnold.

Most 'Bondian' Moment Winner: Bond races to the top of Maidens tower and faces off against the steamy villainess. Electra taunts 007, and in the line of duty Bond executes King's daughter. Honourable mentions: Bond escapes from the Swiss Banker's offices in Bilbao, Spain. Funniest Scene Winner: Bond is briefed by Q and his new assistant, whom 007 cheekily dubs "R". The new gadget-man briefs 007 before Q announces his retirement. Honourable mentions: The caviar factory is destroyed - "The insurance company is never going to believe this..."

Rating Results Category Average Score Locations 6.9 Sadism 6.7 Action 6.7 Bond 6.7 Villains 6.5 Babes 6 Music 5.7 Gadgets 5.1 Humour 4.9 Snobbery 4.8 Overall 5.9

Best Line
Winner: "Can't you just say 'hello' like a normal person?"
Honourable mentions: "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive."

Best Location
Winner: Maiden's Towner, Turkey.
Honourable mentions: Baku, Azerbaijan.

Best Action Sequence
Winner: Bond is in hot pursuit of an alluring female assassin in and around the famous Thames river, climaxing at the Millennium dome.
Honourable mentions: Bond escapes from the bank in Bilbao.

Best Bond Girl
Winner: Elektra King.

Best Overall Performance
Winner: Sophie Marceau as Elektra King.
Honourable mentions: Robert Carlyle as Renard and Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

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What The Fans Said
Below are selected quotes from reviews by Keeping The British End Up members. Click here to read all the reviews in their entirety.

"In my opinion the best Pierce Brosnan film, nice inclusion of M and Valentin Zukovsky coming round to save the day." -- shrimpy10

"Pierce Brosnan offers up his best performance as James Bond - though while in this film he does seem to be the jack-of-all-Bond-trades so many of his supporters claim he is, he is just as much the master-of-none his detractors claim he is." -- JobeGDG

"Brosnan is Bond in safe mode. The script tries to make Bond more emotionally attatched, especially in regards to his relationship with Electra, and whilst they try to show this, especially atop Maidens Tower, the poor dialogue meant that I never bought into it. Also, all of the scenes with Renard and King. I never bought their relationship. Its not the actors fault, its the script. Brosnan looks most Bondian in TWINE, and has the right physical buld and the right look. Not too keen on his blue attire during the thrid act, but that would be nitpicking." -- thegiantcookie

"A lot of promises are made over the course of the film that are never followed through with. Any writer who thinks having characters simply state 'Renard is the world's greatest terrorist' or 'Elektra King can have any man she wants' is enough to convince an audience on these things has seriously lost the plot. In the end, this is a film that is both incapable of evoking an emotional response in me and of making me smile." -- Louis Armstrong

"The locations in this film were promising. Bond goes from Spain, to Scotland, to Azerbaijan, to Turkey. As a matter of fact, one of the greatest scenes of the film included Bond driving his BMW Z8 to Baku, Azerbaijan. Arnold's music and the camera work just worked well together, believe it or not. I also enjoyed part of the pre-titles sequence that took place in the bank at Bilbao, Spain." -- Mr Brown

"The film's problems begin almost immediately as a hugely promising pre-title sequence delivers plenty of spectacular excitement but forgets to keep it's eye on the clock. By the time this neverending sequence comes to an end, it's actually a huge surprise to see the first titles hit the screen as it's very easy to forget we haven't even had the titles yet due to the ridiculous overlength of the pre-title sequence. The film feels about a quarter into both it's running time and it's plot development by the time the credits arrive. We've also had such spectacular action that the rest of the film unsurprisingly fails resoundingly to match it later on." -- Lazenby

"Robert Carlyle makes for a harrowing villain as Renard the anarchist. Something of a pitiful character, Carlyle manages to evoke this unique angle without ever compromising the considerable air of malevolence that surrounds the part." -- royale65

"The beautiful Sophie Marceau as the innocent Elektra King worked admirably. She made it her own. The actress played the complex character convincingly and displayed a great amount of class... Renard, played by Robert Carlyle, is convincingly cold, but what’s interesting about this villain is that he cannot be harmed physically." -- FieldsMan

"The World is not Enough is an engrossing and interesting Bond film that keeps the audiance in suspense and delivers a true test to Bond. The villains are interesting, sadistic and frightening in several ways and truly deliver great performances throughout the film. Renard was striking in his lack of feeling and his cunning ruthlessness towards Bond. Elektra was frightening in her character changes as she constantly switched between innocence and devilish madness." -- Ray the Ruler

"Brosnan actually feels at home with the character in his third outing. It's a fairly tight story but with enough fluidity and creativity to allow for movement. There are some well rounded characters, a thrilling extended pre-credits sequence (to date, still the longest in the series' history and probably will remain that way) and some superb action sequences and final bows for a couple of characters, including one obvious stalwart who made his first appearance back in 1963 in From Russia With Love; the beloved and dearly missed Desmond Llewellyn." -- James Clark

"I find Elektra's performance lacking in all the wrong places...too childish, a bit misguided and ill suited to Bond's style." -- MOOREDIFINITVE

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