Two Weeks And Counting Down To 007

Pierce Brosnan rolls into his third outing and is having just as much fun as he did on the first two. There's an "even-ness" between all of Brosnan's films that makes itself known here. While Connery had the highs of his earlier films and lows of his later films and Moore was all over the map in terms of quality, Brosnan's movies are all pretty much on the same level. Sure "Goldeneye" is better than "Tomorrow Never Dies" but not by much. His first film is also better than his third outing, which is better than his second.

All the elements are in place for a fun film and even the oddball casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist named Christmas Jones (a name whose one purpose is the film's punchline at the end) doesn't derail any of the proceedings. Richards is far from the worst Bond girl and got a bad rap from critics. Mostly she suffers from the same problems Terri Hatcher had in the previous film in that she's not given a lot to do beyond follow James around.

The saddest part is this would be the last time Desmond Llewelyn would play Q and his final scenes with Bond are bittersweet in light of what happened. While Q is training his successor (John Cleese as what Bond terms R in a joke), Llewelyn had no intention of retiring from the series but tragically died in a car accident soon after completing the film.

"The World Is Not Enough" is yet another excellent outing for Brosnan, little did he know the end was near...

"Die Another Day" continues the pattern of Brosnan's films, but ups the ante a bit in the "silly" department which we really haven't seen since the worst Roger Moore films. It's not that bad, but it gets close moving into the climax of the film which is sad because up until the movie gets to the Ice Palace, it's on pace to be the best of Brosnan's films (in spite of Madonna's horrific title song and lackluster cameo).

The dark opening (where Bond is captured and tortured by the North Koreans) continues through the title sequence and pretty much the first half of the film. Once the new Q introduces the "invisible car" you know that things are going to get a bit silly. Add in some really bad CGI and the entire sequence at the Ice Palace feels like a different film. Luckily, the climactic fight onboard the disintegrating airplane makes up for things.

There isn't much to say about Brosnan's films. They are all enjoyable entries in the series and have very few problem spots. Brosnan brings Bond into the 21st Century nicely and it would have been interesting to see where he would have taken the character next if things hadn't changed behind the scenes and cut his reign off at four films. While it is sad to see him go, what was to come next would be so much better...