st. pierce brosnan, sophie marceau, denise richards, robert carlyle, judi dench, robbie coltrane, samantha bond, desmond llewelyn, john cleese
scr. bruce feirstein, neal purvis, robert wade
australian theatrical release: Nov. 25, 1999
As I sat around the dinner table laughing at the innuendo with friends, I momentarily convinced myself that I had actually enjoyed this film. What had happened to all those bitter disappointments incurred the night before at the hands of the increasingly awful Brosnan? Maybe it was all a bad dream. The night's inhabitants and memories were taking on a rosy tint as the jokes flew freely. Something happened to me yesterday...How hard is it exactly to produce a machine made, automatic piece of insta-entertainment that will give a paying audience exactly what it deserves and offer up half-wit innuendo and action sequences that dive in excitement from one encounter to the next? The law of diminishing returns seems to be in full swing with this latest outing. The start of the film has everything you expect from a Bond film (no use pretending this is, you know, art), but as the toy twists on, all those promises are ruthlessly broken one by one. It almost seems as if a new director was brought in after the credits and given orders to nap regularly and deny any original thoughts he might have along the way. This would usually be taken as a sign of contempt for a paying audience, but from where I was sitting on that "Budget Tuesday" night, no disrespect was noted.
What did I expect? Maybe everyone else is to blame. Yeah, that sounds more like it, or at least it's easier to get my head around the problem with that smug solution. A few friends really seemed to enjoy this film, so I guess this review is just my attempt at working out why they liked it and I was so deflated by the whole experience. Did I not get the joke? The prospect is too grim to consider. So go ahead friends, go for explosions, for the French women, for the Cosmo nuclear scientist, for the under used Robert Carlyle. Go Go Go.
adam rivett
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