Goldfinger (1964)

Always had been a great fan of the 007 movies (especially the Sean Connery and Roger Moore ones), and this is maybe, along with DR. NO and THUNDERBALL, the best of the Sean Connery as James Bond movies.

The story is simply one of the best for a Bond movie, the movie is full of action sequences, the acting is great, and the theme song by Shirley Bassey is just a delight to hear at. And there are lots of great gadgets too!

The characters are the best in a 007 movie. James Bond is charming and womanizer as ever, Pussy Galore is stunning and so Jill Masterson. And the villains, Goldfinger and henchman Oddjob are top-notch, and Goldfinger is bizarre because he is obsessed with gold objects.

I liked in particular the gadgets, like Oddjob's hat that cuts everything, and liked also Shirley Eaton's silver death, the fight between Bond and Oddjob, and Goldfinger's death (sucked from a plane!!).

And the acting is great. Sean Connery is great as always, Honor Blackman and Shirley Eaton are very SEXY and perfect for their roles, and Gert Frobe is a perfect villain!

In the end, a masterpiece and one of the best movies ever in the James Bond franchise!

Fmovies: Every individual James Bond film has some good assets and at least two or three special qualities that make it fantastically entertaining. "Goldfinger", however, exclusively has great assets and special qualities! I think this third entry in the series is almost unanimously – and righteously – labeled as THE best Bond movie of all. It's definitely also the most quintessential title to watch in order to get fully acquainted with the lead character's personality and working methods, as well as with the type of assignments he receives from his employer, his opponents and the hi- tech attributes he gets to help him. You'd expect all this to become clear already in the first film, "Dr. No", but the character created by Ian Fleming was still fairly unknown back then and hence the production values were a lot lower. Barely two years and only one sequel later, James Bond had already become a phenomenon and "Goldfinger" delivered the incredibly high expectations of the fans. It truly also is a terrific film, with an utmost solid script, a top three legendary villain and various highly memorable action & suspense sequences. Personally, I have the bizarre habit of ranking my favorite Bond movies based on the evil- factor and charisma of the villains, and thus "Goldfinger" is quite high up there thanks to the sublime roles of Gert Fröbe as the titular character and Harold Sakata as Oddjob, his silent but deadly henchman who pulverizes golf balls with his bare hands and throws around his killer-hat of steel. The gold-obsessed magnate has thought up an ingenious plan to rob the entire American gold supply from Fort Knox and naturally it's 007's job to prevent this from happening. Therefore Bond infiltrates into Goldfinger's private affairs twice; messing up his game cheating routines and seducing his female accomplices. Auric Goldfinger is undoubtedly one of the most vicious Bond-villains, but arguably also one of the dumbest! Never before or after did 007's opponents receive so many open and easy chances to eliminate him, but Goldfinger decides not to take the risk and kill his disloyal female assistants instead! Many, many sequences in this third Bond film are pure vintage, including the white tuxedo underneath the diving suit, Shirley Eaton's golden corpse, an uncomfortable laser beam moment and – of course – every scene with that awesome Aston Martin!

Could anyone not recognise that line today...and still be clinically alive?

You hear talk about a "hit movie" today...what's that? "xXx" ??? (which itself owes its total existence to this film!) No my friends, "Success" is queuing up down the street to watch a film screening two sessions ahead. GOLDFINGER was such an enormous hit in '64 nothing much else mattered but THE BEATLES and seeing Connery do his thing! and let me add, NO-ONE has ever done the James Bond thing better...as Vin Diesel himself readily admits.

GOLDFINGER was everything that James Bond, action movies and escapism in general ever COULD amount to. Dated it may be, laughable back-projections yes! outrageous jump-suits and hair-styles....but still no one has come up with a better Bond film - and God they've had 18 stabs at it! PLUS a few ring-ins. (CASINO ROYALE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN) Much of the credit for this fantastic film must go to the (then) new Bond Director Guy Hamilton, who ushered-in here an acknowledgment that Bond must grow and develop as a character and the ability to be able to send both himself and the series up via some smart dialog. How they ever managed to get away with the name "Pussy Galore" on screen, still staggers me!

The gadgets hit a new high with this third outing which at the box office that year blew most everything else off the screen. At the London theater premiere, they had the famous Aston Martin actually there in the foyer...and you people think the latest Holden Commodore has some meaning???? Gimmee a break guys! Its taken them forty years to make publically available the satellite tracking system used here. THAT'S how far ahead of its time it was!

Was this packed with memorable dialog too? "This is GOLD Mr Bond!" "Lovely sport!" "Oh, he had a pressing engagement," "You don't look like the sort of girl should be ditched!" and the quintessential "I never joke about my work 007" Gert Frobe's villainous Goldfinger has never been improved upon and Harold Sakata's bad-guy Oddjob simply never equalled.

GOLDFINGER had everything. It stands as perhaps THE icon of 60's movie-making and for those lucky enough to have been around then, it remains the most beloved of nostalgic revisitations.

Goldfinger fmovies. Now, we're talking.

What Goldfinger does, that so many subsequent Bond movies forget, is not overdo things. It underplays everything. This is a movie of such effortless cool and style that it's sweeps the viewer along with charm. Many Bond movies also jar between action and non-action scenes (The World is Not Enough, for instance). Goldfinger moves through the gears with aplomb.

Goldfinger is so stylish that even the pre-credit sequence contains more cool than the entirety of most 007 films. You have the iconic wetsuit/tuxedo scene; Bond lighting a cigarette just as an explosion goes off; the unflinchingly brutality of Bond electrocuting a man then just turning away to make a quip; and finally him slamming the door - even than leads perfectly into the Shirley Bassey theme.

Everything is pitch perfect. Goldfinger himself is the ideal combo of vulgar greed and gentlemanly host. A perfect foe for for Bond. Pussy Galore combines the voluptuousness of 60's Bond girls with the spirit of the more modern ones. Connery himself is the epitome of Bond; charismatic, tough, ultra-suave.

There are plenty of standout scenes; the laser-beam table is unmatched in the series for sheer, pure tension; the aston martin chase is again one of the best in the series and shows up similar scenes in the likes of Die Another Day as merely visual showcases - this one is genuinely exciting. Bond's fight with Oddjob set the template for numerous, 'How do I stop this guy?' cat-and-mouse fight scenes, especially in Spielberg movies.

You might argue than Goldfinger could do with at least one more action set-piece, as it does slow down before the climax whilst Bond is Goldfinger's guest. But it wouldn't really fit into the story. As a Bond film, Goldfinger is practically perfect. Connery even has the best wig.

Hands down, Goldfinger is the most iconic bond movie of all time. It is the standard by which later Bond films will be judged and it set the bar massively high for the bonds to come. Every, EVERY, E-V-E-R-Y Scene is memorable, unique and legendary in it's own right. The dozen one liners and facials are excellent, all the characters are excellent and all performances are amazing. The story and the plot isn't as deep as we get in movies like Skyfall (2012) or From Russia With Love (1963) but I doubt that this is a flaw. Oddjobb is iconic, Goldfinger is iconic, Pussy Galore is iconic and Sean Connery is at his best! Tied with 2006's Casino Royale as the best Bond Movie of all time.

Whether it's my nostalgia talking or a plain fact, I've always looked at this as the best James Bond film ever produced. It had the most memorable characters and scenes I can remember over these four decades of Bond films. Yes, it's dated by now and not as exciting as when it came out, but it's a treasure among the films of the 1960s.

It has a winning combination of good action, drama, romance and comedy. Best of all, it has great characters that all of us who first saw it years ago still remember: "Auric Goldfinger," Oddjob,." and - of course - "Pussy Galore," one of the all-time great names in the history of film!

The story moves fast without overdoing the action. Sure some of it - especially today - looks contrived and corny, but that's part of the fun and charm of the film. Meanwhile, Bond's Aston-Martin DB5 sports car will never go out of style. It's still very cool.....like the film.