The World is Not Enough, a nasty, by-the-paces nineties action film inhabited by James Bond in name only, is the 19th instalment of the internationally popular cash cow. The de rigueur teaser pits 007 in a speedboat chase across the Thames as he pursues the assassin of an oil baron. The sequence climaxes with an extraneous attempt to "humanize" Bond by having him chip his shoulder, an injury that has no bearing on the remainder of the story and leads us to ponder how he emerged from eighteen previous adventures unscathed.

The superspy is then assigned to keep the baron's daughter, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), out of harm's way. Easier done than said: during their first official meeting, the two deftly avoid air bomb attacks while skiing the slopes of Azerbaijan, then celebrate survival the old-fashioned way--horizontally. Forty-nine minutes in, the villain finally shows his face: Renard, who has a bullet lodged in his medula oblongata, "cutting off his senses: touch, smell; he feels no pain, he can push himself harder and longer than any normal man. The bullet will kill him, but he'll grow stronger every day until the day he dies." So why does he wince and topple over whenever Bond smacks him?

Renard and Elektra have a history: he was her kidnapper; she became his Stockholm Syndrome-suffering Patty Hearst. Now, with or without her, he plans to destroy mankind, a vague plot that involves oil pipelines and a Russian submarine. Bond eventually hooks up with a bimboid nuclear physicist named (blecch) Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) in an attempt to thwart Renard. As in nine Bond films out of every ten, The World is Not Enough concludes underwater--good job Christmas has two floatation devices protruding from her chest.

Michael Apted, director of the explosion-packed thrill-rides Nell and Critical Condition, operates at the wrong tempo for the big set-pieces, which have a stodgy, connect-the-dots quality; the average Cannon picture has more subjective visual flair than The World is Not Enough. (The gloomy, barren locales don't help matters.) He's a hack with actors, too: Brosnan is on autopilot, as are Carlyle and Robbie Coltrane (reprising his Goldeneye character Valentin Zukovsky). I won't blame him for Denise Richards' appalling performance--you can't squeeze blood from a mannequin, and so on and so forth.

The World is Not Enough is noteworthy only because it features what was planned from the start as the final appearance of inventor extraordinaire "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn). That the newly retired Llewelyn died in a car accident shortly after the film's release this past winter adds poignancy to his cameo scene, which begins with eerily prescient funereal bagpipes.

Therein lies another annoyance of modern Bond flicks: the utter disposability of Q's gadgets. Going back twenty years to the Roger Moore-showcase Moonraker, we find a 007 who uses them to get out of a fix (in place of a gun), not merely to wow the audience. Moonraker is pretty cheesy, all things considered, and its scenario is nearly identical to that of its predecessor, the superior The Spy Who Loved Me, but my goodness, is it a joyride.

Bond, assisted by rocket scientist/CIA flunkie Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles--how many double entendre names could there be left in this workhorse?), strives to foil the ambitions of Hugo Drax (Michel Lonsdale--not one of the great baddies), a wealthy madman intent on destroying the planet. This ricochets our hero all over the globe, from L.A. to Venice, from Rio to, yes, outer space. The Spy Who Loved Me's beloved metal-mouthed heavy Jaws resurfaces in Moonraker to avenge his defeat; Bond also comes up against ninjas (!!), a python, and Drax's phaser-wielding sycophants.

And in all that time, he fires a bullet only once--when he's asked to, by Drax. Moonraker is sweet and genuine; the film was rushed into production to capitalize on the Star Wars craze, but it's hardly slavish to the sci-fi genre. What we have here is a comedy (but not a self-parody--a crucial distinction) with nice, Oscar-nominated special effects and ingenious action numbers that seamlessly, but not tiringly, flow from one right into the next.

If Moonraker takes a little longer to get chugging than The World is Not Enough, it's ultimately more rewarding in the department of fun. Which, by this writer's estimation, is all the franchise was ever meant to be: witty escapism. Stick that in your martini and shake it.

Both films make for great DVDs. MGM trucks out "Wave 2" of their James Bond Collection this month, digitally remastered Special Editions of these and other titles. The World is Not Enough is just short of perfect looking; 16x9-enhanced and letterboxed at 2.35:1, the image is clean, well balanced in terms of colour and contrast, and minutely detailed. Moonraker is just about as brilliant and a tad brighter. The costumes and sets reveal its age, but the transfer (the same one that was used for 1997's THX-endorsed release) does not. (Moonraker is also 16x9-enhanced with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.)

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is standard-issue action fare for The World is Not Enough. Despite a wealth of stereo and split surround effects, the mix sounds pretty bland. Bass effects are frequent yet tame; the subwoofer never really gets the workout that Tomorrow Never Dies gave it. Moonraker's original six-channel mix has been adapted for DVD, and the results are impressive, although I wish it had been recorded at a higher volume. Low frequency effects are boomy and ill defined but also powerful (dig that waterfall sequence), and the rears are active for more than just ambient fill.

SE Material: The World is Not Enough
Evidently one commentary track was not enough, either. Michael Apted discusses his role on the film separate from production designer Peter Lamont, composer David Arnold, and second unit director Vic Armstrong. Between the two screen-specific commentaries we get a pretty good idea of how difficult it is to mount a picture of this scale, especially in 1999. Apted is a good, if dry, monologuist; Arnold deserves a hand, too, not necessarily for his input to the conversation, but for his score, which respects John Barry's original theme.

Nine short videos (in 4:3 standard) on the stunts and special effects, all of them interesting from a filmmaker's standpoint, can be accessed during the movie itself by activating "The Secrets of 007 Revealed" option within the Special Features menu. Whenever the 007 insignia comes up on your TV screen, press enter or play and The World is Not Enough will be momentarily interrupted. If you'd prefer not to sit through that pile of dreck again just to see these how-did-they-do-thats, they are also accessible via a sub-menu, and handily labelled, to boot.

Another supp, "The Making of The World is Not Enough", is quite simply one of the most painfully shallow documentaries ever made, thanks to its cut-rate host, Leanza Cornett. Her vacuity approaches Denise Richardsian levels (here, the Wild Things starlet brags about her "chemistry" with Pierce Brosnan--young lady, don't go using polysyllabic words unless you know what they mean!); Cornett makes truly idiotic statements to the principals and to Apted that must be heard to be believed.

Rounding out the package is Garbage's video for their appropriately trash-bound title song; a theatrical trailer that, disappointingly, is not presented in 5.1 (which the animated menus are); and a collectible booklet.

SE Material: Moonraker
This disc boasts a very entertaining screen-specific commentary by producers Michael G. Wilson and William P. Cartlidge, director Lewis Gilbert, and scriptor Christopher Wood that's loaded with fond memories and rich anecdotes. Two caveats: as they all sound relatively the same (that is, old and British, save Wilson), it's often difficult to decipher who is speaking; and sometimes their byplay is so natural that they begin speaking in shorthand, and we feel left out.

A pair of documentaries are included, a 42-minute making-of Moonraker that's narrated by Patrick Macnee, and "The Men Behind the Mayhem", a 20-minute overview of how effects techniques have changed over a thirty-eight year period, from Dr. No to The World is Not Enough--rather, how much they've stayed the same. Neither is a fluffy featurette. "Inside Moonraker" satisfyingly incorporates a rare interview with franchise godfather Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, behind-the-scenes footage, comments from select cast and crew circa 1999, and an in-depth exploration of the dearly departed Derek Meddings' F/X work, a complex melding of miniatures, models, and bluescreening.

A gallery of notes and stills, the original (and very long) theatrical trailer, and a collectible booklet finish off this spectacular set. The World is Not Enough has the edge on quantity of extras, but Moonraker is all-around the better deal.-Bill Chambers