The World Is Not Enough (1999)

 

007 is assigned by M to protect an oil heiress from her former kidnapper Renard, an international terrorist who can’t feel pain.

We are into film three of the Brosnan era, the film was released just on the verge of a new millennium and is the last Bond film of the twentieth century. A lot to live up to? Don’t fear, not for this film crew. The films opening sequence sets you up for exactly what your watching, the films pre-titles runs in at fifteen minutes, with three individual action sequences and a meeting in M’s office culminating with a boat chase on the Thames which ends just outside the Millennium Dome, handy considering it’s the Bond film of the millennium! With little time to catch your breath, as the audience, you know you’re watching an event, not just a film.

In the early stages of the film after the titles have run, Bond has his usual Q briefing scene. However, in this film it’s all more poignant as this is Desmond Llewelyn’s final appearance. In the scene we are introduced to his ‘junior’ assistant, R played by the legendary John Cleese. From an assistant being introduced and Llewelyn being at the times in his eighties, you can tell that the producers were putting things in place for the actor to leave the series. What a tragedy that, after a long career and life, Llewelyn died in a car crash just a few months after the release of this film. The scene is a great end to a legend of the Bond family and he is missed as Q still to this day.

The rest of the cast of this adventure is very impressive, well, apart from one entry! Pierce Brosnan by this film could relax and just play the part with his eyes closed, thankfully he does not do this! He again keeps surprising us the viewer, he shows more sides to this character than we’ve seen before. We have the stone killer, charming spy from GoldenEye, the vulnerability that he showed in Tomorrow Never Dies and here we get all that and more. Brosnan brings a loyalty to M, a friendship to his commanding officer, a brothers-in-arms mentality. Brosnan humanises Bond, not just vulnerability, but questions of why he does this life, what does he get from this and who does he truly trust.

Robert Carlyle is billed as the main villain; he plays the terrorist Renard. a man who is slowly dying and feels no pain. Carlyle could have easily overplayed this role and hammed it up. Wisely, he doesn’t and shows his acting skills, he gives us a subtle presence of menace, a man enjoying the evil side of life before his accepted soon demise.

Sophie Marceau is a first, a Bond Girl who is revealed to be the real mastermind villain – Renard is her henchman. She plays the part exceptionally, a true femme fatale, menacing bitchiness without being a screaming banshee villainess. She pays this manipulating evil woman so well, it worries me of the person she really is! I’m sure she’s just a fantastic actress.

Judi Dench’s M has a lot more involvement with this plot, M is even held hostage, not surprising when you have talent like Dench signed to this role and after two previous adventures to introduce Bond’s female boss. Like Brosnan does with Bond – she humanizes her role and shows a vulnerability to her character that pulls you in. You genuinely care about her M. What’s nice is the solid relationship between M and Bond.

The weak link I mentioned, Denise Richards as Dr Christmas Jones, the worst miscasting in Bond films for years. A nuclear scientist? Really? REALLY! She’s useless, just obviously here for the teenage men!

The film, like GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies before it, is again wall-to-wall action, deliberately delivering a high octane fueled adventure. Highlights are the boat chase on the Thames, the ski chase (the first ski action we’ve seen since fourteen years earlier in A View To A Kill – it’s a nice welcome return of ski action), the shoot out in the nuclear bunker where Bond meets Dr Christmas Jones, the bomb inside the pipeline, the helicopter sequence at Zukovsky’s factory and of course a showdown aboard a sinking submarine.

This is a great Bond film, wall-to-wall action and more importantly a strong plot, a plot with twists and turns, and solid performances by the cast (not including Richards!). This Bond film is very much overlooked and underrated by many. This is what a Bond film should be.

Rating: 5 out of 5

 Rhys 

Countdown: The Watchers' 10 Worst Henchmen

Some henchmen (and henchwomen) are loyal, efficient, ruthless and occasionally terrifying; they may be the blunt tools but they do it in style. Sadly, this shower of ineffective miscreants would make even the most distant megalomaniacal supervillains get their own hands dirty.

For your consideration, The Watchers' 10 Worst Henchmen

1. THE THREE BLIND MICE
(played by three uncredited actors in Dr. No)

There's something borderline offensive about these three assassins misappropriating a physical disability as a means to murder someone. Much like the slightly racist portrayal of Julius No, the attitudes of the time may be writ large across the film- but that doesn't mean we have to like it.






2. ZAO
(played by Rick Yune in Die Another Day)

The only thing differentiating Zao from any other hired thug are the diamonds in his face. That's it.

3. NECROS
(played by Andreas Wisniewski in The Living Daylights)

Bond henchmen are supposed to be menacing, exuding an air of danger. They are not supposed to be dressed up as milkman and use exploding milk bottles.






4. TEE-HEE
(played by Julius H. Harris in Live And Let Die)

The laugh isn't sinister. It's just annoying. Adding a prosthetic claw doesn't add to the menace either. Another example of lazily equating the villains with being physically disabled.







5. BLOFELD'S ANGELS OF DEATH
(played by various in On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

They come under this list due to the utter ridiculousness of Blofeld's plan in this film; even as Bond villain plans go, it's an absolute nonsense and- as such- the unwitting pawns deserve to go on the list.

6. GOBINDA
(played by Kabir Bedi in Octopussy)

Big. Dumb. Lots of muscle but no brain. An archetypal thuggish henchman. Nothing to get excited about.




 
7. MIRANDA FROST

(played by Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day)

Duplicitous snake-in-the-grass. So far, so-so. There's more sexual chemistry between garden gnomes than there is between Frost and Bond. Kick-ass fight at the end with Jinx, though.

8. MR. STAMPER
(played by Gotz Otto in Tomorrow Never Dies)

Again, an identikit Bond henchman. Blonde, muscly, slight tendency towards violence; a carbon copy of 'Red' Grant but, sadly, with a tenth of his charisma.

9.  RENARD
(played by Robert Carlyle in The World Is Not Enough)

As soon as Elektra is revealed as the mastermind behind the plot, Renard quickly reverts to the 'standard henchman' role; a shame because he's been pretty good up to that point.






10. MAY-DAY
(played by Grace Jones in A View To A Kill)

Completely out there (much like Ms Jones herself), May-Day's outrageousness- skydiving off the Eiffel Tower, for example- strikes a slightly jarring note in the film, although she's still pretty cool.







There seems to be stiff competition for this list. Who would you put on? Let us know in the comments below.

'Now, Pay Attention, 007...': A Tribute To Desmond Llewelyn

For the first time since Daniel Craig has donned the legendary tux, the character Q is to appear in a Bond film. In Skyfall, Q will be played by Ben Whishaw.

Whilst there have been several actors to take the role of Q but, to me, there is only one man worthy of that initial: the late, great Desmond Llewelyn.

Llewelyn played Q, MI6's gadget-master, in no less than seventeen Bond films (starting with From Russia With Love and ending with The World Is Not Enough; Q is only absent from Live And Let Die as producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman felt the films were getting too reliant on the gadgets and decided to play them down). Very little is known about Q beyond his work for MI6 although he is referred to as ‘Major Boothroyd’ by Anya in The Spy Who Loved Me.

The gadgets are as integral a part to a Bond film as the villains and the Bond girls. Each film has a scene where Q equips Bond with whatever he may need for that particular mission. Rhys has written a brilliantpiece about the gadgets, so I won't mention too many, but some of my favourites include Bond's attaché case in From Russia With Love, the tooled-up Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger and the gyrocopter Little Nellie in You Only Live Twice.

The relationship between Bond and Q is an interesting one. Q seems to view Bond as an eternal adolescent, unable to take things seriously or appreciate the tech he's being given. Q frequently has to ask Bond to 'pay attention' whilst he explains how the gadgets work. Q seems to be generally exasperated with Bond's playboy lifestyle- in Octopussy, he jokes ‘007 on an island populated exclusively by women? We won't see him till dawn!' Q can often be irascible and a bit grouchy but he always takes pride in his gadgets, frequently pointing out a feature he's particularly proud of, and- as he says in Goldfinger- 'I never joke about my work'.

Despite this seeming antagonism, there are hints that Bond and Q have a depth of mutual respect. When Bond gets married at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he offers Bond a helping hand should he need it outside of MI6 and he poses as Bond's uncle in License To Kill to get some needed kit to him once he's had his 00 status rescinded. Bond tries to dismiss him, but Q rightly states: ‘Oh, don't be an idiot, 007. I know exactly what you're up to, and quite frankly, you're going to need my help. Remember, if it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago’

Perhaps the best example of their mutual respect is in The World Is Not Enough. Bond seems genuinely moved at the news of Q's retirement and Q gives him a last piece of advice:

As final exits go, that's a pretty good one. This was Llewelyn’s last Bond film, with John Cleese taking over the role of Q for Die Another Day.

What about the man behind the role?

Llewelyn was born in Newport, South Wales on 12 September 1914. He originally wanted to become a minister but caught the acting bug during his time at Radley College. He has accepted to RADA in the mid 1930s but his acting ambitions were put on hold due to the start of the Second World War. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers but was captured by the German army in France in 1940 and was held as a prisoner-of-war in Colditz for five years. After the war, he resumed his acting career, working with longtime Bond director Terence Young on war movie They Were Not Divided (1950) and was eventually cast as Q. Ironically, despite playing a gadget master on film, Llewelyn was ‘hopeless’ with them in real life.

Outside the Bond franchise, he appeared in uncredited roles in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) and Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), as well as playing George Coggins in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (1968) and The Colonel in television series Follyfoot.

Llewelyn sadly passed away in December 1999, at the age of eighty-five, in a car accident, a few weeks after the premiere of The World Is Not Enough. His contribution to the Bond franchise is immeasurable and he is sadly missed.

Ben Whishaw's got some pretty big shoes to fill.

Tez

Favourite And Least Favourite Bond Themes - Rhys' Choices

Happy James Bond Day!

Today (5 October 2012) is the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Dr. No, kickstarting one of the world's best and most successful movie franchises.

It's also the day that Adele has chosen to release her Bond song- 'Skyfall' (which fittingly premiered at seven minutes past midnight, or 0.07 if you like). It's epic, beautiful and downright tingly and deserves to do well. It could even be the first Bond theme to get a Number 1 in the UK charts. Check it out here.

So, to celebrate, Rhys has chosen his five favourite and least favourite Bond themes. Here they are in chronological order:

FAVOURITE SONGS

• 'Goldfinger' (Shirley Bassey)

Bassey's diva vocals and the use of Bond theme music throughout the theme – to me makes it the archetype (like the film it's from) and sets the tone for all others. 

• 'Thunderball' (Tom Jones)

TOM JONES! What more can be said? Maybe - If only Tom returned for a Dalton adventure, we would have had even more Welsh perfection! 

• 'Live And Let Die' (Paul McCartney & Wings)

How can this not be in anyone's top 5 Bond Themes? Just different, but shows the rest how to be different and keep it Bond!

• 'Licence To Kill' (Gladys Knight)

Storming, powerful, strong– just like the film. This song signalled a retun to the classic diva vocal and is also a powerful song, while the film saw the return of Bond's edgy side!

• 'The World Is Not Enough' (Garbage)

This is a great example of taking the classic sound of a Bond theme and giving it a current (90s at the time) feel to it. Just sets you up for a Bond film – just great!



LEAST FAVOURITE SONGS

• 'From Russia With Love' (Matt Monro)

Such a drab, clunky song- it just irritates me every time I hear it and, if it wasn't for the use of the title in the lyrics, you would never be able to tell it's a Bond theme!

• 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' (Dionne Warwick, recorded as an alternative to 'Thunderball' [also recorded by Shirley Bassey])

Words fail me – just so bad!

• 'All Time High' (Rita Coolidge)

This just makes me want to fall to sleep and I'm so glad that, when watching my Bond DVD, I can fast forward this and just get to the action!

• 'You Know My Name' (Chris Cornell)

This just sounded second class. It sounds like something produced for a video game adventure of 007 – it belongs on a PS3 not a cinema screen.

• 'Another Way To Die' (Jack White & Alicia Keys)

This should have had the vocal power that many others had – especially because Alicia Keys was involved. But what you end up with is just one hell of an overproduced mash of sounds trying to be a Bond theme. The whole thing just doesn't work – between Keys' voice squashed with weird vocal effects and the annoying Piano. NO! Just NO. …. yeah I hate this one!

Rhys

Countdown: The Watchers' Top 10 Bond Villains

The villain is one of the core elements within a Bond film. The threat that Bond has to face can make or break the movie. So, after some deliberation, we came up with The Watchers' Top 10 Bond Villains. 

1. ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD
(played by Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice) 

The most iconic and most parodied of Bond villains, the facial scar and bald head (along with the volcano base and deadly fish) is instantly recognisable the world over- and Pleasance's truly brilliant performance has cemented the legend. The original and best Blofeld. 





2. FRANCISCO SCARAMANGA 
(played by Christopher Lee in The Man With The Golden Gun)

Suave, debonair and deadly, Scaramanga is the dark side of Bond, the flip-side to 007's coin. The fact that this most gentlemanly of assassins is played by the legend that is Christopher Lee is probably one of the best casting choices ever made in the entire Bond franchise. 

3. FRANZ SANCHEZ
(played by Robert Davi in License To Kill)

A thoroughly nasty piece of work, Sanchez is a ruthless and vicious drug lord responsible for the attack on Felix Leiter. Gone are the exotically-named megalomaniacs with convoluted plans of world domination, here we have an all-too-real villain played with a steely edge by Davi. 

4. MAX ZORIN

(played by Christopher Walken in A View To A Kill)

Walken brings his trademark intensity to the role of Zorin, an ex-KGB psychopath who plans to destroy Silicon Valley through a tremendous earthquake and thus monopolise the microchip market (a timely suggestion by the writers, as computers were starting to break big in the mid-80s) 

5. ELEKTRA KING
(played by Sophie Marceau in The World Is Not Enough)

It's a masterly stroke of misdirection; Renard looks like the master villain, Elektra the poor abused kidnap victim. The moment when it's revealed that it's actually Elektra pulling the strings is a total gut-punch, helped in no small part by a strong performance by Marceau. 





6. AURIC GOLDFINGER
(played by Gert Frobe in Goldfinger)

The archetypal Bond villain, his grandiose plan to devalue the gold reserves of Fort Knox by detonating a nuclear bomb there sets the bar for those that follow. Even though his lines are all dubbed, he still gets one of the most famous movie lines of all time. What more can you ask for? 

7. HUGO DRAX
(played by Michael Lonsdale in Moonraker) 

Drax's plan to create the 'super-race' in space (by gassing the inhabitants of Earth with nerve gas) is quite insane, but Lonsdale's performance is strong and he resists the cliche of the ranting megalomaniac- his quiet aside of 'Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him' is particularly chilling. 





8. ALEC TREVELYAN (006)
(played by Sean Bean in GoldenEye)

A battle-scarred former 00 gone rogue proves a brilliant foil for Pierce Brosnan's first Bond film (much like Scaramanga against Moore's Bond) with the ever-dependable Bean turning in a performance full of simmering rage. 





9. DR. KANANGA (A.K.A. MR. BIG)
(played by Yaphet Kotto in Live And Let Die) 

Kananga is the two-faced Caribbean criminal who plans to flood the American heroin market. The use of voodoo as a cover for these business enterprises is an interesting twist and Kotto makes for a convincing and occasionally unnerving villain.





10. ELLIOT CARVER
(played by Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies)

There's a prescience to the character of Carver- an amoral, manipulative and deceitful media baron willing to start a war for ratings- and Pryce's performance is just top-notch, none more so than the scene where he gleefully dispatches his 'golden retrievers' to destroy a politician's reputation and release bug-filled software.





These are our picks for the best of the Bond villains - what about you? Do you agree with our choices or are we missing someone vital? Let us know in the comments below. Of course, the villains can't take Bond down on their own- they often need help in the form of henchmen (and henchwomen). Next week, we reveal our countdown of our Top 10 Henchmen.

Video Countdown: Top Ten Bond Stunts

When you think about Bond films, there are certain elements which spring to mind. One we'd like to focus on today is the action sequences and stunts. There have been some truly amazing stunts throughout the Bond franchise and we've put together our Top Ten. Click the video below to find out what we rated as the best stunt in a Bond movie: