Goldfinger (1964)
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.
Source:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/The third James Bond film is close to being a consensus pick as the favorite. It was the first one to be considered a blockbuster success, making back its then-hefty $3 million budget in record time, and it’s not hard to see why: it’s really the first 007 adventure that has every single element of Bond greatness in place.
It begins with the unforgettable theme song, performed by Shirley Bassey; it features a memorable villain in Gert Fröbe’s meaty precious metals enthusiast Auric Goldfinger, and one of the best henchmen of all time in Harold Sakata’s Oddjob, whose razor-brimmed fedora set the tone for future gimmick weapons.
It had a clever plot, a solid script, lots of great action set-pieces, and a memorable deathtrap for Sean Connery’s 007, who must bluff his way out of being castrated by an industrial laser. Honor Blackman, fresh off The Avengers, plays Pussy Galore, one of the few Bond girls who aren’t total pushovers, and there’s lots of fun action from M and Q, as well as the full introduction of Bond’s tricked-out Aston Martin.
Why is Goldfinger the best? Simple: it’s the quintessential Bond movie, containing everything a Bond movie should have in perfect order.
Source:http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/screengrab/archive/2008/11/13/screengrab-salutes-the-best-amp-worst-james-bond-films-of-all-time-part-five.aspx
