Beginning to go to the cinema weekly in 1999, and decades before monthly cinema memberships begun,I saw this title three times at the cinema with a family friend.
Learning that to mark 60 years of 007, that UK cinemas were going to screen one Bond title every week in 2022,and not having watched it since early 2000, I decided for the first ever time, to see a film at the cinema for the fourth time.
View on the film:
Developing capture-bonding after being abducted and held for ransom by Renard, Sophie Marceau makes Elektra King (currently) the lone major Female baddie in the series,and the ultimate, psychologically complex Bond Girl.
In a franchise where Bond takes the lead in (almost all) romantic and sexual situations, Marceau expresses in her body language King's self-confidence in using her sexuality, and dismissing any attempt by Renard or 007 to become the dominant partner, via King keeping Renard at arm's length, whilst giving Bond the false sense that she is waiting to be saved by a dashing hero.
Carrying the scars from her abduction, Marceau captures King's vengeful anger towards her dad and MI6 deciding to leave her to rot, which Marceau snaps into a villainous fury, with eyes on setting the world alight.
Revealing in her 2011 memoir The Real Girl Next Door that she had a rubbish time making the movie,with the cast/crew giving her the cold shoulder, due to studio MGM (this being the first non- United Artists 007 release) pushing the producers to include her, because of hopes it would help the movie in the US market, Denise Richards gives a plucky performance as Jones, with Richards displaying enthusiasm in the Action scenes, but coming off as more distant in the romantic moments.
One of four 1999 films he appeared in, Robert Carlyle gives a burly performance as "Renard", who hits out without flinching at Bond, while building up a desire under the brutal surface, for King.
Returning to the series he had helped to revive in 1995 with GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan gives a wonderful turn as 007, thanks to Brosnan crossing jet-set Euro Spy sophistication as he spies for clues on Renard, with shocking bursts a blunt ruthlessness, as Bond discovers that King has secretly been playing her own little games with him.
Two years later making a movie about the real espionage events behind the Enigma machine, director Michael Apted & The Princess Bride (1987-also reviewed) cinematographer Adrian Biddle introduce King with a glamour atmosphere of ruby reds, elegant push-ins and glittering close-ups, as King gambles that Bond will fall for her charms.
Filming the opening around the real MI6 Headquarters, and closely working with second unit director/ legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong, (who first did stunts for the series on You Only Live Twice) Apted and Biddle spy on Bond with outstanding Action set-pieces, sweeping from frantic dolly and whip-pans over the pre-credits opening sequence, to ending by touching on Thunderball (1965-also reviewed) in the tightly coiled, corner shots, staying up-close to Bond trying to sink the plan of the baddies.
Hired by producer Barbara Broccoli after being impressed by their work on Plunkett & Macleane, (which also starred Robert Carlyle) Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (here joined by Bruce Feirstein) succeed in their first mission of making a great entrance to the series, thanks to allowing plenty of room to the developing romance between Bond and King, with the loved-up 007's perception of his relationship with King, being revealed to have left Bond outsmarted.
Featuring a twist that would rise up and get borrowed by 007 fan Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises (2012-also reviewed), the writers brilliantly spin the ambiguous power play between King and Renard, whose violent outbursts are contrasted by King's intelligent, seductive mind-games, that opens Bond to a thrilling race against time mission, to stopping the baddies from enacting their plans,in revealing that the world is not enough.
Learning that to mark 60 years of 007, that UK cinemas were going to screen one Bond title every week in 2022,and not having watched it since early 2000, I decided for the first ever time, to see a film at the cinema for the fourth time.
View on the film:
Developing capture-bonding after being abducted and held for ransom by Renard, Sophie Marceau makes Elektra King (currently) the lone major Female baddie in the series,and the ultimate, psychologically complex Bond Girl.
In a franchise where Bond takes the lead in (almost all) romantic and sexual situations, Marceau expresses in her body language King's self-confidence in using her sexuality, and dismissing any attempt by Renard or 007 to become the dominant partner, via King keeping Renard at arm's length, whilst giving Bond the false sense that she is waiting to be saved by a dashing hero.
Carrying the scars from her abduction, Marceau captures King's vengeful anger towards her dad and MI6 deciding to leave her to rot, which Marceau snaps into a villainous fury, with eyes on setting the world alight.
Revealing in her 2011 memoir The Real Girl Next Door that she had a rubbish time making the movie,with the cast/crew giving her the cold shoulder, due to studio MGM (this being the first non- United Artists 007 release) pushing the producers to include her, because of hopes it would help the movie in the US market, Denise Richards gives a plucky performance as Jones, with Richards displaying enthusiasm in the Action scenes, but coming off as more distant in the romantic moments.
One of four 1999 films he appeared in, Robert Carlyle gives a burly performance as "Renard", who hits out without flinching at Bond, while building up a desire under the brutal surface, for King.
Returning to the series he had helped to revive in 1995 with GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan gives a wonderful turn as 007, thanks to Brosnan crossing jet-set Euro Spy sophistication as he spies for clues on Renard, with shocking bursts a blunt ruthlessness, as Bond discovers that King has secretly been playing her own little games with him.
Two years later making a movie about the real espionage events behind the Enigma machine, director Michael Apted & The Princess Bride (1987-also reviewed) cinematographer Adrian Biddle introduce King with a glamour atmosphere of ruby reds, elegant push-ins and glittering close-ups, as King gambles that Bond will fall for her charms.
Filming the opening around the real MI6 Headquarters, and closely working with second unit director/ legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong, (who first did stunts for the series on You Only Live Twice) Apted and Biddle spy on Bond with outstanding Action set-pieces, sweeping from frantic dolly and whip-pans over the pre-credits opening sequence, to ending by touching on Thunderball (1965-also reviewed) in the tightly coiled, corner shots, staying up-close to Bond trying to sink the plan of the baddies.
Hired by producer Barbara Broccoli after being impressed by their work on Plunkett & Macleane, (which also starred Robert Carlyle) Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (here joined by Bruce Feirstein) succeed in their first mission of making a great entrance to the series, thanks to allowing plenty of room to the developing romance between Bond and King, with the loved-up 007's perception of his relationship with King, being revealed to have left Bond outsmarted.
Featuring a twist that would rise up and get borrowed by 007 fan Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises (2012-also reviewed), the writers brilliantly spin the ambiguous power play between King and Renard, whose violent outbursts are contrasted by King's intelligent, seductive mind-games, that opens Bond to a thrilling race against time mission, to stopping the baddies from enacting their plans,in revealing that the world is not enough.