Herald rating: * * *
Running time: 123 mins
In stores: Today
Review: Ewan McDoanld
Almost 40 years and 20 movies down the franchise, the James Bond movies have slipped into something akin to Monty Python: studied Englishness, cartoon characters, jokes without punchlines.
The third outing to star Pierce Brosnan, Bond's assignment from M
(Judi Dench) is to protect oil heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) from Renard (Robert Carlyle), an international terrorist with a bullet in his brain that means (a) he feels no pain (b) he knows he is about to die.
Betwixt and between stunts with speedboats, skis, submarines an underground oil pipeline, Bond also crosses paths with Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), the casino operator/arms merchant who fronted in Goldeneye, and with Dr Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), a nuclear scientist who does her best thinking in hot pants and tank tops.
Best cameo: John Cleese as successor-in-training to Q, the gadgeteer. Presumably we'll see more of Cleese's R now that Desmond Llewellyn is unavailable for further adventures.
Lots of bangs, lots of clashes, but this big-budget blowout really needs to be seen (and heard) on the bigger screen.
