A former, thought to be dead MI-6 agent (Sean Bean) plots with an onerous Russian General (Gottfried John) and a viperous, thigh crushing female operative (Famke Janssen) to steal the title weapon, a nuclear space device with mass destruction implications setting 007 (Pierce Brosnan) on the case with a beautiful computer analyst (Izabella Scorupco) in tow. Brosnan in his Bond debut is in the same mould as predecessor Timothy Dalton: nononsense, humorless, but really showing aptitude in the action sequences. The movie has one of the better (though still typical) Bond storylines, strong villains in Bean, Janseen, and John, a fine Bond girl in Scorupco, and great stuntwork, but like many of the other entries it just goes on way longer than it should.
*** out of ****
