Audio Commentary Featuring Director Michael Apted, Audio Commentary Featuring Peter Lamont, David Arnold and Vic Armstrong, "Declassified: MI6 Vault", Deleted & Extended Scenes with Introductions by Director Michael Apted, Alternate and Extended Scenes, "James Bond Down River" – Original 1999 Featurette, Creating an Icon: Making the Teaser Trailer, Hong Kong Press Conference, "007 Mission Control" – Interactive Guide Into the World of The World Is Not Enough, Exotic Locations featurette, Mission Dossier, The Making of The World Is Not Enough, Bond Cocktail, Tribute to Desmond Llewelyn, "The World Is Not Enough" Music Video by Garbage, The Secrets of 007: Alternative20Video Option, Ministry of Propaganda, Release Trailer, Image Dat abase Galleries

Note: This film is available separately, and as one of the films in the James Bond Vol. 3 Blu-Ray set (which contains Goldfinger, Moonraker, and The World is Not Enough.)

The World Is Not Enough (1999) is the nineteenth film in the James Bond series. It is directed by Michael Apted, and stars Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Sophie Marceau, John20Cleese, and Desmond Llewelyn. The musical score is performed by David Arnold, and the title son g is performed by Garbage.***

MI6 recently had an encounter with Renard, a mysterious terrorist operative. The agents were able to fire off some shots on this villain, but a bullet became lodged in his head. He did not die, and as a result, became impervious to pain. He will die in a course of days regardless, but is out to terrorize the planet one last time before his inevitable demise. Bond sets out to stop the threat, meeting up with an oil tycoon’s daughter previously held hostage by Renard. It’s up to Bond to save the world once again. ***

The World Is Not Enough is not one of the better entries in the James Bond series, but it’s certainly far from the worst. By this point Pierce Brosnan had pretty much established his stronghold as the best Bond since Sean Connery, even if the material he had to work with was spotty at best, in most of his films. Sure, this film has its share of cheesy moments, but when the action gets going, it rises above the somewhat-campy material. This is a good James Bond film. Not a great one, but it will entertain. ***

The cast featured here is one of the finest in a recent Bond film. Brosnan plays Bond damn well, as he did in all four films he played in. Judi Dench returns as M, and Desmond Llewelyn makes his final appearance as Q (to date, he still holds the record for the actor who has appeared in more Bond films than any other.) The true underrated member of the cast here is Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Zukovsky, a role he previously played in Goldeneye. Everyone in the film is where they belong. No one is miscast. ***

As far as the actual plot goes, I won’t lie. It’s one of the film’s weaknesses. But Bond movies are often known for their maniacal villains and over-the-top plotlines. As f ar as the films of this kind goes, this is one of the better ones. The opening teaser sequence, with a boat chase down the Thames, is one of the best opening s equences in the history of the franchise. Granted, the rest of the movie never quite rises to greatness, but there are more than enough excellent moments. ***

The musical score for the film is provided by David Arnold, who has scored every Bond film from Tomorrow Never Dies on, including the most recent movie, Quantum of Solace. This man has more-or-less become the successor to John Barry, and his score here gets the job done. Alternative rockers Garbage perform the title tune, and while I certainly wouldn’t put this on the upper tier of the title songs, it’s still a fine piece of music (though not everyone will agree with me on that.) ***

If you’re looking for solid plot and storyline with character development galore, this isn’t your movie. But for pure escapism and a film of agent 007 doing what he does best, The World Is Not Enough is more than enough. Again, it’s no masterpiece. But what it does, it does well. 3 out of 5 stars. Moderately recommended. ---

Image and Sound:

Several years ago, the James Bond movies (which had seen a ton of home video releases=2 0already) underwent an extensive, frame-by-frame restoration. A good deal of print damage and dirt were removed in an effort that took several years to complete. ***

The end result is, to put it simply, well worth it. ***

Lowry Digital Images knows how to restore movies. Their restoration of the James Bond back catalogue is, hands down, the greatest restoration job this reviewer has EVER seen. This film is no exception. They have taken movies, that are in some cases, nearly half a century old, and made them look as good as they day when they premiered in theatres, if not better. The image is clear throughout, without any sort of issue. From what I can tell, no DNR was used in these transfers, and there is a staggering amount of detain not noticeable in any standard-def release of the movie. Lowry did one hell of a job restoring this franchise. ***

As if the image restoration wasn’t enough, the films now have lossless audio tracks. If you’ve got a speaker set, you’ll be able to experience these films (both audio and visual-wise) like you never have before.

When MGM put out the Ultimate Edition DVDs in late 2006 , they contained not only excellent transfers for the movies, but a good wealth of bonus material as well. All of the bonus features from that excellent Ultimate Edition DVD package have been ported over to this release. Unfortunately, they are presented in standard definition. ***

Deleted scenes, commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes – there’s a little bit of everything on this disc. You get multiple hours worth of material in this set, including a featurette on remembering Desmond Llewelyn, the actor who played Q for nearly four decades (for those who don’t know, he was killed in a car crash on the way home from an autograph session, not long after the movie was released, at the age of 85.) A great package of supplements, well worth checking out.

Final Words: