The World Is Not Enough
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 33
  3. Negative: 1 out of 33
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    A splendid comic thriller, exciting and graceful, endlessly inventive.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    Despite a few places where the air of déjà vu is a bit too thick, it's a class act, with a textured script, one of the series' more stunning title sequences.
  3. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    80
    Whatever its flaws -- and it has some lulus -- it's a textbook model for how to structure action of this kind.
  4. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Tom Keogh
    80
    Puts the Bond film series (this one makes number 19)-- back on track by stressing the fundamentals and applying a bit of authentic drama for a change.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    There's the script -- and that's the problem.
  6. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Howard Cohen
    75
    You can't beat a Bond film for adventure on a grand scale.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    That's what Bond is all about -- dazzle, some really bad puns and the kind of sexy fun that satisfies high-school urges while masquerading in tux and tails.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    75
    Comes closer to what a Bond movie should be and once was.
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    A thoroughly satisfying, completely entertaining film that's also, rather surprisingly, an emotionally full experience.
  10. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Andy Seiler
    75
    Fans will appreciate not only that the film is predictably solid and surprisingly sharp but that parts of it are just plain bad.
  11. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    70
    The formula, with its comforting arrangement of familiar elements, is what we're after, and The World Is Not Enough certainly comes through on that front.
  12. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    70
    Isn't quite enough to save the Bond franchise -- but it does prove that 007 is Y2K-compliant.
  13. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    Not enough to add up to a fully satisfying movie.
  14. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    Apted ("Gorillas in the Mist," "Coal Miner's Daughter") keeps things low-key and low-tech, which makes some of the cliched Bondisms a bit easier to swallow.
  15. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    63
    Spoofing James Bond in the '90s may lack an original comic bite, but making James Bond in the '90s is positively toothless.
  16. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    This 19th Bond installment is passable, but only just.
  17. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    63
    The movie's already peaked, even before the opening credits.
  18. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    63
    Fair, overlong James Bond from the second shelf.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Janet Maslin
    60
    In his third and most comfortable effort to model the Bond mantle, Pierce Brosnan bears noticeably more resemblance to a real human being.
  20. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Andrea C. Basora
    60
    There still is enough tightly staged action and sly humor to earn this latest installment a memorable place in Bond canon.
  21. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    007 is undone by villainous scripting and misguided casting and acting in a couple of key secondary roles.
  22. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    This keeps one reasonably amused, titillated, and brain-dead for a little over two hours.
  23. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    If moviegoers really thought about the violence, sexism, and materialism at the core of the series, the whole shebang might vanish overnight.
  24. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    The World Is Not Enough, like a 19th version of anything, is inanely self-parodic. So much so that one wonders why Austin Powers need have bothered in the first place.
  25. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    The hero himself has been denatured for a young, late 1990s audience with little appreciation for real suavity or sex play.
  26. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    50
    If Bond long ago became part of your fantasy life or your pop iconography, then the anticipation of a good Bond movie would probably survive even if The World Is Not Enough were worse than it is.
  27. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    50
    Makes the strongest case for retirement since late-period Roger Moore.
  28. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    50
    The movie is better than you've heard, although that's not saying a lot.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    50
    The new Bond movie is pure nonsense art of the dadaist school; it follows the rules of the ridiculous as it turns narrative convention, thriller formula and special-effects set pieces into a manifesto of the purest gibberish.
  30. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Christopher Brandon
    45
    James Bond hasn't been this boring since Timothy Dalton carried the license to kill.
  31. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    Bond spends an awful lot of time being rescued from peril by supporting characters.
  32. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    40
    Solid 007 entertainment -- not as bad as some of the recent Bonds but not as spunky as some of the series' originals.
  33. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Cody Clark
    19
    If you're desperate for a James Bond fix, skip the movie and blow your 007 bucks on a copy of the soundtrack.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 36 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 10
  3. Negative: 2 out of 10
  1. jwt7000
    6
    Not a bad movie to be exact, but some boring scenes tend to make me sleep and the plot sometimes do not even follow to the deepen ends of this partially flawed and confusing scenario.… Full Review »
  2. chardr69
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. The nineteenth James Bond film, third for Pierce Brosnan as 007, and the only one directed my Michael Apted.

    When Bond unknowingly retrieves a bomb hidden in a suitcase full of money, and returns it to its wealthy owner Sir Robert King, a construction billionaire whose company is building an eight-hundred-mile-long oil pipeline in Azerbaijan, and is a life long friend of "M"'s (Dame Judi Dench), at MI6 headquarters in London, the bomb explodes and kills King and blows a hole in the side of the building. After figuring out that the terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) is behind the bombing, Bond is sent to protect King's beautiful daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceau), who had been kidnapped by Renard several years earlier and held for ransom, but at "M"'s urging he never received the ransom money, and Elektra claims to have escaped on her own. 007 then finds out that Elektra suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, and is in love with Renard, and has plotted with him to kill her own father, and kidnap and kill "M". Then they will steal a nuclear device and plant it on a Russian sub and blow it up destroying three competing Russian oil pipelines, to which Elektra's family pipeline would profit exponentially. So 007 must chase after Elektra and Renard, to stop their plan and rescue "M", with the help of nuclear specialist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards).

    This is the worst of four Brosnan 007 films. Not that it is his fault, he is great as usual, but what a waste of a potentially great bad guy in Renard. He really isn't in that much of the film, and Elektra comes out actually being the top villain. And let's face it, Denise Richards as a nuclear specialist is a joke, because she is a horrible actress and probably can't even spell the word "nuclear" (she's only good to look at). Dame Judi Dench is wonderful as usual, plus we see Desmond Llewelyn's departure as "Q", and the introduction of his successor John Cleese as the "New Q". A scene that is very ironic, since Desmond Llewelyn died not long after the release of the film. We also see the return of Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) from "GoldenEye". And one last note, Sophie Marceau is one of the most beautiful women to ever be in a James Bond film.    … Full Review »
  3. TomL
    6
    Average acting, good beginning, bad ending, average storyline, average action, average locations, average characters, pretty average in all.
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