Goldfinger (1964)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.
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What critics compared Goldfinger to
In a post- Austin Powers world, where either homage or parody can sprout in the same fertile soil, how do you make a James Bond film that plays it as straight as the line of flesh left unpainted for safety’s sake on the actress gilded in Goldfinger ?
The four (!) writers credited with the script have managed to use “Spectre” to tie together all the previous Craig efforts, with a nod to earlier Bonds with the appearance of not one but two Aston Martins, a car associated with the series since “Goldfinger.”
Fans will feel a giddy rush seeing a villain's lair in a hollowed-out crater, a silent henchman with a brutal signature kill (Dave Bautista's Mr Hinx) and nods to everything from Goldfinger to The Spy Who Loved Me , but they paper over the cracks of a script that's big on plot - 148 minutes of it - and thrifty when it comes to character development.
Director Sam Mendes, back for his second tour on the 007 beat, presents the story as a summing-up, a procession of elements that clearly echo the early Bond films—chiefly Thunderball , but also From Russia with Love (a fierce train fight) and Goldfinger (a funny riff on Bond's gadget-packed Aston Martin).
…the 1964 classic “Goldfinger” – but it was also just a great movie…
He's a rapist in Fleming's novels (and consider the conquest of Pussy Galore in Goldfinger)--literally in some instances, in others just given to taking advantage of women in extremis.
Before we meet Bardem, in yet another bad coif — this one blond — there's an eye-popping opening credit sequence with a title song by Adele that recalls Shirley Bassey's signature Goldfinger theme.
Skyfall is also the third film in the series starring Daniel Craig as Her Majesty’s favorite secret agent, a tricky position given that third films are often turning points in this franchise: While both Sean Connery and Roger Moore cemented their respective status as 007 with their third films, Goldfinger (1964) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), which were also the best films of their tenure, Timothy Dalton never made it to a third film after The Living Daylights (1987) and Licensed to Kill (1989) and Pierce Brosnan’s third outing as 007 in The World Is Not Enough (1999) suggested that the wheels were starting to come off the franchise (Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones—need I say more?).
(Indeed, if one of the comments made about “Goldfinger” is “so ’60s!” and “Goldeneye” is “so ’90s!” the look and feel of “Skyfall” will one day read “so 2012!”) There’s a fight in a Shanghai skyscraper that is brilliantly rendered, as well as an assassination-in-disguise attempt that is like “Day of the Jackal” on speed.
Skyfall can take its place alongside From Russia with Love , Goldfinger , and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the best Bond can offer.
If we could magically delete "Quantum" from the Bond repertoire, 2006's "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall" would be the greatest 007 one-two punch since "Goldfinger" followed "From Russia With Love" back in the 1960s.
There are no set pieces quite as stunning or visceral as the Madagascar free running in Casino or the siege of Skyfall Manor, but the Matera pre-credits sequence has perhaps the best use of the Aston Martin DB5 since Goldfinger ( Skyfall included) with a scene that drips Bond cool and excitement, and the climax evokes both You Only Live Twice and Tomorrow Never Dies in a pitched base battle—including a thrillingly shot last slice of close-quarter combat for Craig on a stairwell which almost matches Casino ’s staircase fight—which feel gloriously Bond in their construction.
Fukunaga dials in memories like stock footage from previous Bond movies, not all of them Craig's: A framed shot of a woman carefully draped in bedsheets matches that of the asphyxiated body of a woman covered in gold in Goldfinger .
The death of MI6 agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton), who drowned in oil, is a callback to Goldfinger that also functions as a crude reminder that oil is the true currency of the times.
The director of the 25th Bond movie, Cary Joji Fukunaga, caused a stir before its release by asking: “Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where Sean Connery’s character basically rapes a woman?”
Although my first encounter with British secret agent James Bond was seeing "Goldfinger" at a drive-in -- which, let's be honest, is the only place outside of the home that a one-year-old should be present for a movie -- my first recollection of 007 was the character being played by Roger Moore (and thus a sentimental soft spot for that portrayal in movies such as "The Man With the Golden Gun" and "Live and Let Die").
Furthermore, I consider Daniel Craig to be the most effective and appealing of the six actors who have played 007, and that includes even Sean Connery, from his (and the franchise’s) debut in 1962 with Dr. No, through From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and, after a one-picture hiatus, Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
The biggest surprise for a series that is well into its fifth decade is that the script does not rely on the very efficient set-piece formula established by “Goldfinger” in 1964, when Bond went from a modestly successful pair of thrillers (“Dr.
This action-packed movie is receiving accolades, with some calling it the best Bond film since Goldfinger (1964) and Craig drawing favorable comparisons to Sean Connery.
If you count "Casino Royale," it is the 21st Bond film, not that 007 will ever really come of age.
A surprise reference to “Goldfinger” is worked in beautifully, while “He just smiled at me – and set the house on fire” and “Yeah, you’re right, we should just deal with nice people” bring a bitter hurt unknown to, say, Pierce Brosnan’s Bond, the non-brute with the invisi-car.
Here's the biggest surprise of the year: the new Casino Royale is the best James Bond film since Goldfinger (1964).
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Their high priestess (Elizabeth Debicki made up to look like Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger) is furious and sends a huge fleet of remotely controlled spaceships to pursue the Guardians across the universe.
When we catch up with the Guardians, they’re fighting a space beastie at the behest of Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), the high priestess of an arrogant race known as the Sovereign, who look like members of a “Goldfinger” victim cosplay group.
…cheesy squid monster on a mission that momentarily puts them in the good graces of a race of gold-skinned humanoids ruled by Elizabeth Debicki in Shirley Eaton-by-way-of-Goldfinger makeup.
James Bond creator Ian Fleming famously contributed Solo’s name (and virtually nothing else), and since TV’s answer to Bond arrived the same year as Goldfinger , U.N.C.L.E.
TV show, which aired from 1964 to 1968, was a riff on the early Bond films (it debuted the same month that Goldfinger launched a worldwide Bond-mania).
The poster is a riff on Goldfinger, but is McCarthy playing the lead action hero or the disposable romantic female?
He stages some genuinely well-done hand-to-hand fights, too, lightly tips his hat to "Goldfinger" and gives McCarthy a couple of comic, but genuine, love interests.
Actually, the best Bond movies aren't even from the series: "True Lies" is as romantic as it is action-packed, and "Austin Powers" is ten times more fun than the Bond films it spoofs!
Evil's Asian henchman, Random Task, is a dead ringer for Goldfinger's Oddjob.
The title "Goldmember" is obviously a take-off on "Goldfinger," although that's almost as far as it goes.
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If I wanted to see a movie featuring James Bond, I would watch Goldfinger.
This is no small feat, and it's likely to give the Potter franchise a shot in the arm that no series has had since "Goldfinger" gave the James Bond films a boost that has lasted for 40 years.