Pierce Brosnan takes his third go around as the world's sexiest secret agent (sorry Austin Powers), Bond, James Bond. This time 007 is sent to protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) the daughter of one of the world's richest oil tycoons, who himself was blown up by loaded money and a lapel pin. Some years ago Elektra was kidnapped by a ruthless terrorist named Renard (Robert Carlyle) who was supposed to be killed by another British secret agent (009) but had instead gotten a bullet lodged in his head and is a little upset about it. Elektra managed to escape Renard, and M (Judi Dench) and 007 think Renard is back for revenge. Along the way the plot gets screwy and hard to follow, but 007 manages to meet the beautiful nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), almost get himself killed a few times, and save the world from nuclear disaster. The plot revolves around and oil pipeline and a nuclear weapon, but saying too much more about the plot would ruin the not-so-surprising twist. Safe to say, 007 beds a few women during the film and has fun with a lot of cool gadgets.

I finally realized who James Bond reminds me of. Batman. A regular guy who acts like a superhero. Batman has a cape and a mask (and a codpiece) and Bond uses a suit. Both never seem to get seriously hurt, both have beautiful women around, both have an old person they use for help, and both have these great toys they get to play with and always seem to know how to use, even if they've never seen it before. So on that note, I for one am submitting my vote for Pierce Brosnan to play Batman if they decide to continue that series. The only thing he would have to do would be to put on a costume and fight more popular bad guys. The biggest problem I had with the latest 007 installment is that the plot was too confusing. I should qualify that I suppose. The basic plot outline was easy enough to figure out, but the way it played out on screen was confusing. I think the screenwriters could have cut out about 20 minutes of the film and streamlined the plot to make it easier to follow. The action sequences were pure Bond, including a boat chase, another ski chase, and a strange nuclear bomb in a pipeline chase that still has me wondering. If you thought the helicopter in a tunnel deal in Mission: Impossible was well, impossible, wait till you get a load of this one. I also didn't like that the women didn't have any of those famous Bond girl names. Pussy Galore and such. Christmas Jones and Elektra King just didn't cut it. In fact whenever I heard Dr. Jones I thought of Harrison Ford.

On the positive side, the movie was entertaining to watch. The action sequences were fun and the sight of Denise Richards in a wet t-shirt can make up for just about any fault in a film (who didn't think that when she changed into a white t-shirt that she was going to get wet?). Seeing John Cleese as Q's replacement R was one of the highlights of the film. But overall I found The World Is Not Enough to be disappointing. Maybe I expected too much, but I don't think so. James Bond has always been considered above and beyond a run of the mill action film, and I found this film to be just, normal.