In theaters

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, directed by Michael Apted, written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. Running time: 128 minutes. Rated PG-13.

In Michael Apted’s “The World is Not Enough,” Pierce Brosnan certainly proves he’s enough. The film, which is the 19th in the series, is Brosnan’s best outing as James Bond.

Now fully comfortable in a role still associated with Sean Connery, the ersatz actor is terrific, striking just the right balance of emotion, wit, style and substance in a story that’s filled with all the ingenious action that fans of the series have come to expect.

After a smashing opening that finds Bond jumping from a building, chasing a mad woman across the river Thames in a speedboat, and then leaping from an exploding hot-air balloon to what is nearly his death (yeah, right), the film settles down to its real business: Electra (Sophie Marceau), the daughter of a recently assassinated tycoon, is building a pipeline across central Asia to Turkey, something her deranged former kidnapper, Renard (Robert Carlyle), will stop at any cost.

When M (Judi Dench, perfect in an enjoyably expanded role) sends Bond to the Caspian oil town of Baku to protect Electra, the film — literally and figuratively — finds its legs.

As Bond girls go, Marceau’s Electra won’t disappoint, but Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear scientist who resembles Laura Croft from PlayStation’s Tomb Raider games, is one of the worst; she just can’t carry off the puns. Unlike Ursula Andress’ Honey Ryder, Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore and Michelle Yeoh’s Wai Lin, Richards doesn’t have the bite or the shrewd intelligence the role demands.

Still, that’s a minor quibble. Richards is thankfully backed by an otherwise excellent cast, including Dench and Brosnan, who are more than enough to rocket this excellent series straight into the next millennium. Grade: B+

On video

THE IRON GIANT, directed by Brad Bird, written by Tim McCanlies and Bird. Running time: 81 minutes. Rated PG.

The Warner Brothers animated film “The Iron Giant” gives audiences real reason to cheer.

The film boldly steers clear of the Disney formula, which is good news for parents tired of taking their children to the same old animated film dressed up in new paint, and even better news for children, who are treated to a rich, poignant story about a boy and his relationship with a robot from outer space.

Set in the small, coastal Maine town of Rockwell, “Giant” takes place in 1957, a time recently explored in “October Sky” when Americans had their heads lifted toward the sky to catch a tiny blip of light known as Sputnik.

In “Giant,” the sky is falling, but it has nothing to do with Sputnik. When a 100-foot robot crashes to Earth, 9-year-old Hogarth Hughes (voice of Eli Marienthal) is the first to come upon it and quickly realize every lonely boy’s dream — he now has one of the coolest playmates around.

Loosely based on Ted Hughes’ 1968 children’s fable, “The Iron Giant” is a political, Cold War parable about our nation’s naivete and how a G-man named Kent Mansley (voice of Christopher McDonald) hears about the giant and sees it as a Russian plot to destroy the United States.

Kent’s paranoia takes the shape of evil, which, in the end, is a clear statement about our country’s state of mind during an era of civil defense warnings.

Daring and well-told, “The Iron Giant” didn’t connect with audiences upon its summer release, but don’t overlook it now. The film is an animated treasure. Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”