From the very beginning, I found myself having difficulty with this movie. It's not that Pierce Brosnan isn’t doing an acceptable job as “007”; it’s really the other actors who are rather unremarkable and the plot itself – it just feels so flimsy. The villain "Renard," played by Robert Carlyle, gets shot in the head but somehow becomes more powerful each day until he dies—I'm genuinely curious if any medical professionals could explain how a bullet wound near the brain could possibly make someone practically invincible? Robbie Coltrane is usually quite good as a comic performer, but his portrayal of Russian tough guy "Zukovsky" here misses the mark and isn’t funny in the right way. We also see far too much of “M,” played by Dame Judi Dench, and an unfortunately chosen John Cleese as “R”—thankfully Desmond Llewellyn was still around to briefly and pleasantly reprise his role as gadget expert "Q." Sophie Marceau does her best to embody the classic Bond girl archetype, giving a spirited and serviceable performance that’s both alluring and capable while she investigates who killed her industrialist father and now attempts to divert an oil pipeline through some pretty rough areas. However, that storyline veers from being absurd to completely unbelievable before reaching a conclusion that seemed to take forever to deliver the predictable outcome. There's plenty of action, car chases, and explosions, but ultimately it’s the characters that define the "Bond" series. In this instance, they needed significantly better writing and more confident direction than Michael Apted provided.

Source on TMDB