Jul 29

Number 179 Goldfinger (1964)

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Goldfinger is number 179 of our top 200 movie list. It is directed by Guy Hamilton and stars Sean Connery, Gert Frobe, and Honor Blackman. Goldfinger is rated PG.

7672374510 ef83a7e072 Number 179 Goldfinger (1964)

Karen’s Review

Goldfinger is the third and one of the most well known movies in the James Bond series. That being said, it was my first time to see this movie and I have to admit I really liked it. Maybe even more so than the modern James Bond flicks. I suppose I am a little sheltered when it comes to violence and action movies, but I appreciate the simplicity of a 1960′s fight scene more than a big budget, over the top, noisy, in your face, bullets flying, fiery inferno that so many action movies rely on today.

This movie begins with Bond investigating some smuggling activities of well known millionaire Auric Goldfinger. 007 sees Goldfinger cheating in a game of gin rummy and stops him by sidetracking his employee, Jill Masterson, and blackmailing him into losing.

James and Jill leave to consummate their new relationship, and not appreciating being made to look like a fool, Goldfinger sends his man servant, Oddjob, to knock Bond unconscious and punish Jill for her distraction by coating her in gold paint causing death by epidermal suffocation. Bond follows Goldfinger internationally to continue to uncover his smuggling scheme.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger’s plant and discovers that he smuggles the gold by melting it down and incorporating it into the bodywork of his car, which he takes with him whenever he travels. 007 is then captured while attempting to leave and tied to a metal table with a laser beam on track to slice him in half. James convinces Goldfinger that he more useful alive so he has Bond transported to his home in Kentucky.

Bond escapes the clutches of his captors and overhears Goldfinger’s elaborate plan to rob Fort Knox using deadly Delta 9 nerve gas and a catastrophic atomic device. Will 007 escape in time to save the day? Will the U.S. gold supply in Fort Knox be compromised? Will he get the girl? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

I really enjoyed this movie and gladly give it four out of five shells.

7672417120 b16821a621 z Number 179 Goldfinger (1964)

Kenny’s Review

Goldfinger, the quintessential James Bond film or so that is what I had heard going into the film. I had only seen bits and pieces of this movie, but for some unknown reason had never made it through the whole thing before. Now that I have I can say that it is the best of the Sean Connery Bond films which one might say makes it the best since Connery was the best Bond. However it is hard to compare the Bond films of the past to the ones made in the last two decades. Bond is a fifty year franchise and it was easy to see how the actors, writers, and directors have started with blueprint of Goldfinger and have built the rest of the movies on the foundation Goldfinger started. The movement toward Bond using his famous gadgets, the extravagant sets, menacing henchmen, the monomaniacal arch villain, and play on words especially female character names all were started by this one, and audiences are stilling flocking to the Bond franchise so the formula definitely worked.

The storyline is centered on Bond’s duel with Auric Goldfinger a known gold-smuggler. On assignment trying to find out what Goldfinger is up to Bond finds a dead woman on his bed covered head-to-toe with gold paint, which makes the duel personal and not just about the British Secret Service putting Goldfinger under observation. As Bond chases Goldfinger through Europe, things do not go according to plan as he is captured by Goldfinger and taken hostage. Goldfinger has a plan for Bond to help him complete the greatest crime in history which is to take all the gold out of Fort Knox. Can Bond save the day? Well to find out you will have to watch the movie.

Sean Connery’s third go as James Bond is what made this movie and him famous. The level of action coupled with the dashing ladies and Bond’s suave persona is ratcheted up a level compared to the previous two and it helped create the modern action spy movie. While the graphics, gadgets, and action sequences are all dated when compared to modern movies one can easily tell that this is the one that started them all. For that reason alone it is worth watching and also why I give it 4 shells out of 5.