World Is Not Enough, The

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A splendid comic thriller, exciting and graceful, endlessly inventive.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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.

Film.com Tom Keogh

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.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Whatever its flaws -- and it has some lulus -- it's a textbook model for how to structure action of this kind.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A thoroughly satisfying, completely entertaining film that's also, rather surprisingly, an emotionally full experience.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

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.

USA Today Andy Seiler

Fans will appreciate not only that the film is predictably solid and surprisingly sharp but that parts of it are just plain bad.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

There's the script -- and that's the problem.

Miami Herald Howard Cohen

You can't beat a Bond film for adventure on a grand scale.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Comes closer to what a Bond movie should be and once was.

LA Weekly John Patterson

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.

Film.com Sean Means

Isn't quite enough to save the Bond franchise -- but it does prove that 007 is Y2K-compliant.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Not enough to add up to a fully satisfying movie.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Fair, overlong James Bond from the second shelf.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

This 19th Bond installment is passable, but only just.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The movie's already peaked, even before the opening credits.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Spoofing James Bond in the '90s may lack an original comic bite, but making James Bond in the '90s is positively toothless.

Variety Todd McCarthy

007 is undone by villainous scripting and misguided casting and acting in a couple of key secondary roles.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This keeps one reasonably amused, titillated, and brain-dead for a little over two hours.

Newsweek Andrea C. Basora

There still is enough tightly staged action and sly humor to earn this latest installment a memorable place in Bond canon.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

In his third and most comfortable effort to model the Bond mantle, Pierce Brosnan bears noticeably more resemblance to a real human being.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

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.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The hero himself has been denatured for a young, late 1990s audience with little appreciation for real suavity or sex play.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is better than you've heard, although that's not saying a lot.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

If moviegoers really thought about the violence, sexism, and materialism at the core of the series, the whole shebang might vanish overnight.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Makes the strongest case for retirement since late-period Roger Moore.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

James Bond hasn't been this boring since Timothy Dalton carried the license to kill.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Bond spends an awful lot of time being rescued from peril by supporting characters.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Solid 007 entertainment -- not as bad as some of the recent Bonds but not as spunky as some of the series' originals.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

If you're desperate for a James Bond fix, skip the movie and blow your 007 bucks on a copy of the soundtrack.