The World was very nearly Enough !

[Daltons Chin Dimple]

TWINE was on TV in the UK last week and with nothing better to do, and despite the fact I have it on both DVD and VHS (sad, I know !), I went to the fridge, cracked open a beer and settled down to watch it.

Many years of reading, writing and subscribing to criticism of this film have affected my view of it but I have to admit I found it really enjoyable. Even Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist couldn't blunt my enthusiasm.

I recommend dusting this one off.

[Martini97]

Bad Cinematography aside and media-ocre editing,
TWINE is sentimental to me, since this was Desmond Llewlyn last appearance as Q.:(

[conman]

TWINE was the first Bond film I ever saw so I will always have a bias towards it but I still can't see why everyone blasts this movie.

One of the best titles in the series and a great Fleming reference without having to use one of his short-story or chapter titles.

The regulars (Bond, Q, Moneypenny) all deliver their finest performances of the Brosnan era. This is Brosnan's best job as Bond. He really sells the fact that Bond might be falling in love with Elektra. M shows her humanity in the death of King. Robbie Coltrane... enough said. We are introduced to John Cleese (who was just comic relief in this one but would shine in DAD) and Dr. Warmflash (what a f*cking shame she never returned to the series).

Denise Richards, while somewhat unbelievable as a nuclear physcist, is clearly a throwback to the Bond girls of the '60s. She's eye candy with a little relevance to the story. Elektra is one of the best female characters in the entire series. My only problem with her is that she goes from cool and dangerous to bratty and childish once we reach the Maiden's Tower.

Renard makes for the perfect henchman because he seems like he could be the main villain (which he was marketed as) and he has one of the best villainous foibles. The scene where Bond tells him Elektra is dead was spectacular.

The plot idea over the domination of the oil industry was very relevant for it's time. Hell it's still relevant almost ten years later. I don't think the script was overblown with action scenes, as others have frequently complained about.

My two biggest quips are the overlong pretitles and the murky cinematography, but it's all forgiven for...

David Arnold's spectacular score. After his fantastic work on TND he really topped himself on this one. Garbage's title song is still the best Bond theme ever. Shirley Manson's vocals are very sexy, the song has a really retro-early Bond feel to it, and it just flat out rocks.

My theory on the third and fourth movie still stands and this proves it. Every actors third movie is usually hailed as their finest (GF, TSWLM, TWINE). Every fourth movie is an overbloated attempt at recreating the success of the third (TB, MR, DAD) and they never end up as good as the previous.

[Archangel972]

I personally hated TWINE when I first saw it in theaters. My opinion of the movie in the years since has not changed. I liked the pre-credits sequence, Garbage's song was good, I loved the title, and that's pretty much it. Sophie Marceau was good, but not great. Denise Richards was awful, Renard wasn't all that interesting, and I found most of the action scenes to be fairly lacking. The movie just seemed dull to me, it's not as bad as DAD (probably the worst Bond movie ever IMO) but it ranks near the bottom.

[BeauButabi]

TWINE was the first Bond I saw in theaters, when I was 13, and I loved it back then. I still really like it, but can clearly see it's flaws, though I don't think it's too many to keep it from being a really great movie if they could've been fixed. The dialogue is terrible, which is my biggest complaint with the movie. A touch-up would've improved the movie greatly. Also, the action sequences really seem just thown in. I feel the Bond movies were always good at mixing story and action so it made sense, but since Purvis and Wade took over writting, the action scenes have been totally superfulous. It's not suprising when I hear interviews when they say that they just think up cool action scenes and then write the movie around that.

[WhiteKnight]

This is my second favorite of the Brosnan outings. I thought the first two acts of the film kicked some serious ass, but, sadly, there was a third act comprised of superflous and less than exciting action sequences. Then they killed off Coltrane's character and just pissed me off.

Still, while I agree with most of the flaws people have cited over the years, this is a worthy entry into the series. Title song is great. The story is pretty compelling until the final act when the fx spectacular begins.

I'm pretty much in agreement that Purvis and Wade are the reason behind the "because we can" feeling of the action sequences in TWINE and DAD. I didn't really care for the airport sequence in CR, but since I'm not sure if Haggis or P&W came up with it I'll refrain from casting judgement there. Long story short is that I wouldn't be too sad to see somebody else take a stab at a Bond script.

[Daltons Chin Dimple]

I did think the action sequence in CR at Miami airport was very good, and integral to the script as Bond's actions leading to that point are directly responsible for Le Chiffre needing the poker game to recoup his losses. It is certainly very far removed from things like :

"Here comes Gustav Graves in a jet propelled ice sled, oh I wonder what the reason for that is....... other than so it can be around for Bond to drive at some point later in the film."

Superfluous action scenes, or contrived routes of entry into those action scenes, have hurt Bond in recent years. For instance, should a Bond film have the prevention of a terrorist attack on the Suez Canal to disrupt international shipping as a central component of the story, then I can live with a speedboat chase amongst large shipping through the Suez Canal being a major action sequence in that film.

I just use that example as it was pretty central to the Bond screenplay (fanfic) I started on, but never finished, back straight after 9/11. At the time I had no idea how Eon were with unsolicited scripts. With the Suez Canal being used for transit to get forces into position for the "War on Terror" (tm) and the USS Cole attack fresh in peoples minds I thought it might have made quite a good sequence. The villains plans were to use a certain kind of weapon to sink several warships in transit through the canal to close it.

[conman]

Dalton: Great ideas for a fanfic. It's just too bad that if fit into the world of Brosnan's Bond, which while great is long over. Had he had a fifth film I could've seen that being central to the plot. It's not that I hate the new direction with "Casino Royale" (I actually love it). It just seems like they made it too soon. As much as I adore CR and as much as I hate DAD, I wish Brosso would have had one last send off before hanging up his Walther.

White Knight: Just so we're on the same page... what action sequences in the third act? I hope your not including the caviar factory cuz I always thought that was the end of the second act. After that all I remember is Maiden's Tower and the Sub, which isn't all that thrilling

[Boromir006]

I know crapping on Purvis & Wade is a popular sport here, but please - the shoehorning of plots around wacky nonsensical action scenes in Bond movies predates their involvement by many years. Die Another Day is pretty bad with this in the Iceland sequences but it certainly wasn't the first time in a Bond movie there was action for the sake of action. Nor can The World is Not Enough be faulted for this either - and Purvis & Wade weren't even the final writers on that film. (Dana Stevens did an uncredited rewrite and Bruce Feirstein did the final polish).

[Daltons Chin Dimple]

Oh but Boromir, we cannot give them any credit for anything, it has simply become against our programming.

CR is down to Haggis because it was good. If the next one is bad then it will be down to Purvis & Wade ! :D

[WhiteKnight]

Conman, I was counting the pipeline chase, the caviar factory and the submarine under the superflous crap portion of the last act. I guess the pipeline chase and the caviar factory are still technically in act two.

[TrekSucksHard]

Next to VTAK and LALD, WINE is probably among the worst ever Bond movies I have ever seen (and I seen them all except for Peter Seller's CR and that old tv movie with Barry Nelson). Substitute Bond for Austin Powers and it would have been a great sequel to Goldmember. :lol:

Denise Richards as a rocket scientist?! Come on- that's even worse than an invisible, remote-controlled car! :Tongue: