5 out of 10
 

Did I really walk into the right theatre? Was this really the latest Bond movie or the first of the Elektra King movies? French actress, Sophie Marcel as the female oil baron in fear of assassination by terrorists, leads a talented and supporting cast, armed with a finely crafted and witty dialogue in a film that is more than worthy of this overly worn brand name. In a radical departure from the dust-encrusted script they`ve used for decades, young Broccoli junior and his production team have endeavoured to create a credible plot, backed by 3-dimensional characters rather than providing 2 hours of a wise-cracking clown racing through the pyrotechnics with a pocketful of gadgets. Even the legendary & requisite car chase is aborted after less than 15 feet as Bond`s new BMW toy is destroyed before it can be used.

Regrettably though, bad habits die hard and it is left to poor Denise Richards to be handed the poison chalice of being the latest "Bond girl". One almost wonders whether her theatrical agent, himself, is on a real life mission from "SMERSH" to assassinate her career. First, he tries to hijack her into the all-time-turkey of "Strippers", then she finds herself facing joke aliens in "Starship Troopers" and having still failed, he finally has called in 007 to finish her off. Yet despite a character that`s entirely redundant to the plot, and dialogue from hell, including the line, "James, you can`t, it`s too dangerous", this brave little trooper still turns in an ace performance that`s better than the film deserves.

Furthermore, the rot doesn't stop here and regardless of all the effort at the start, the plot still suffers inconsistencies. It is as if they did not know how to develop new ideas, for example, the pointless death of Russian spy supremo, played gloriously by Robbie Coltrane, was a disgusting waste of a fun character whom we all would have enjoyed seeing return in the next, inevitable, Bond film.