27 replies to this topic

[BONDFINESSE 007]

Again here we are to tell why we love this movie and what we dont like about it-

what are the things that really jive with you about this movie?

what are the things you dont like?

[Qwerty]

Like
--score
--title songs
--characters
--plot

Dislike
--It's often overrated by many generic ratings and so, just a pet peeve I guess

[BONDFINESSE 007]

It has been said by some that this is THE Bond film of bond films and there are some great things about this movie that would make some feel this way and i dont believe i have ever heard someone come out and really diss this film...

i thought connery's wardrobe was very good here-

the music was top notch


the story was very good (and a strong story at that)

it had some very memorable characters (oddjob and his hat really standout and are great)

[Spoon]

Like:
- Goldfinger, Oddjob and Pussy are ALL great villains. That's very unique. We're usually lucky to get one.
- Connery's ability to crack jokes, show fear and still be a man's man, all in one.
- Q shows up!
- Aston Martin!!
- The prototypical Bond theme song.
- The "laser table" and Jill painted gold are immortal images in film history.
- I think the scheme about irradiating the gold is ingenious, better than the book's version.

Don't like:
- Bond himself doesn't actually do a whole heck of a lot in the film since he spends so much of it captured.
- Cec Linder as Leiter.
- The mixup with the "three ticks" on the clock.
- The joke about the Beatles.

I don't think it's the best of them all, but I'd call it top 3.

[Qwerty]

It has been said by some that this is THE Bond film of bond films and there are some great things about this movie that would make some feel this way and i dont believe i have ever heard someone come out and really diss this film...

i thought connery's wardrobe was very good here-

the music was top notch


the story was very good (and a strong story at that)

it had some very memorable characters (oddjob and his hat really standout and are great)

I've actually read a few negative reviews of the film before on forums.

[CharlieBind]

It's the best James Bond movie in the world....ever!

The only weak spot is the woman who plays Jill Masterson, compared to Blackman and Eaton, her inexperience shows and she comes across as being much too strident (it's almost a relief when she cops it).

[Roebuck]

Considering it's one of the films two key action set-pieces, I'd have liked the scene with the DB5 at Auric Enterprises to have lasted longer. And things start to feel a bit rushed after the bit where the nuclear device is defused.

Other than that, it's about as good as a Bond film gets. Leave me on a desert island with this film, FRWL and OHMSS and I'd be happy as Larry.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Like: Almost everything-it's a perfect Bond film.

Dislike: The Terrycloth jumpsuit!

[Double-Oh-Zero]

Like everything about it, except for the fact that it's seen as the Bond film to which others are compared (I tend to think that all of the Bond films from the 60s should be seen that way, but that's just me. I'm odd like that). If you ask someone who's never seen a Bond film what their favourite one is, they automatically say Goldfinger.

Or Octopussy, if they're adolescent boys.

[BONDFINESSE 007]

bond being captured did seem to get old in a hurry

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Again here we are to tell why we love this movie and what we dont like about it-

what are the things that really jive with you about this movie?

Nearly all of it. Even the terrycloth jumpsuit. It's always good for a laugh.

what are the things you dont like?

The fact that it seems to be the most studio-bound of the Bond films. This is painfully obvious in the Miami Beach sequence when a clearly Miami-filmed Cec Linder/Felix Leiter abruptly cuts to a Pinewood studio Miami replete with Connery/Bond, Gert Frobe/Goldfinger, Shirley Eaton/Jill, Bob Willis/Mr. Simmons and extras all performing in front of a screen backdrop rather than the authentic location. Even Dr. No and From Russia With Love with their lower budgets seem more authentic, picturesque and travelogue-ish than Goldfinger. But this is the only aspect of Goldfinger I dislike.

[Qwerty]

Dislike: The Terrycloth jumpsuit!

Wave of the future.

bond being captured did seem to get old in a hurry

I didn't see it as a problem in this movie.

[Onyx2626]

Considering it's one of the films two key action set-pieces, I'd have liked the scene with the DB5 at Auric Enterprises to have lasted longer. And things start to feel a bit rushed after the bit where the nuclear device is defused.

Other than that, it's about as good as a Bond film gets. Leave me on a desert island with this film, FRWL and OHMSS and I'd be happy as Larry.

ditto

[MillesGloriosus]

A couple of pet peeves:

1. Were there three ticks or 7?

2. Were was Laila? (Laila, one of the hottest women ever to appear in a bond film, was the bellydancer in the previous Bond film, From Russia With Love)

3. Although I liked Cec Linder's Felix Leiter, the Leiter character aged exceptionally fast. (This is a pet peeve I have with the whole series. Leiter's age and appearance change inexplicably throughout the series. If you count NSNA, Leiter even changes color)

Other than that, I can't think of anything wrong with GOLDFINGER. I originally had problems w/Goldfinger spending all that money on illustrating his plan, only to kill them off minutes later. If I were a greedy mudduck like Goldfinger, I would have saved my money on the scale models. But after seeing Goldfinger a couple of times, the over-the-top presentation & Goldfinger's enthusiasm of the project are part of the movie's charm.

[TheSaint]

The fact that it seems to be the most studio-bound of the Bond films. This is painfully obvious in the Miami Beach sequence when a clearly Miami-filmed Cec Linder/Felix Leiter abruptly cuts to a Pinewood studio Miami replete with Connery/Bond, Gert Frobe/Goldfinger, Shirley Eaton/Jill, Bob Willis/Mr. Simmons and extras all performing in front of a screen backdrop rather than the authentic location. Even Dr. No and From Russia With Love with their lower budgets seem more authentic, picturesque and travelogue-ish than Goldfinger. But this is the only aspect of Goldfinger I dislike.

That's the one part of the film I dislike. I really wish they could've filmed Sean at the Fountainbleu.

[Qwerty]

A couple of pet peeves:

1. Were there three ticks or 7?

Connery says three, countdown stopped at 0.0.7

[Turn]

I think GF isn't so much a film of likes and dislikes, but polarizing into camps of people who love it and think it's the best and those who think it's overrated. It kind of reminds me of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album. A great number of people want us to believe it is the best album ever and therefore we too should like it and agree. But for me, GF and Sgt. Pepper are good with several things that keep it from being great and ultimate.

I like the precredits, the villains, the suspense, Fort Knox, the Aston Martin, the scene with M, Connery, the dialogue and the laser table sequence. Other than that, I have a lot of trouble seeing GF is the best, other than it set the spy trend and became the series' first runaway hit. It's one of those cases where you just had to be there to get the grasp of why it's so revered.

-I know you don't watch Bonds for great acting and direction, but there are just too many things that seem lazy, like the way the soldiers fall at Fort Knox, the rear projection, the special effects (who is that guy behind the curtain when GF enters the plane cabin near the end?). Such things make GF, at least for me, the most dated of the '60s Bonds for me.
-Nothing in the action department really stands out. As others have pointed out, it's a cycle of Bond being captured, escaping and recaptured. So many people complain about TB's underwater stuff being too slow and uninvolving, but from the time Bond is on Goldfinger's personal jet up to the Fort Knox scenes, the story becomes uninvolving. Especially the scenes with Oddjob driving Solo to be crushed and Leiter's pursuit.
-Cec Linder's Leiter. Well, enough said on this one.
-The hoods are so cartoonish with their "Whatarya tryin' ta pull, Goldfinga" comments. And even if he did pull off the caper, how would GF be able to avoid the mafia the rest of his life?

I've tried over the years, but GF just doesn't grab me enough to consider it great.

[Brian Flagg]

As mentioned before, Goldfinger may skimp a bit on plot and action, but it's the iconic moments (painted gold, Oddjob, Aston Martin, "I expect you to die!", main title, etc.,) that makes this film so memorable. Even as a kid and before reading anything resembling a critic's review, I took the film at face value and realized then, without any prompting from popular culture references--that the film was special, if only from the vignettes I just listed. Other Bond films have more action, better effects, but Goldfinger makes a lasting impression like no other Bond film.

[Von Hammerstein]

Okay I am one of the folks who thinks this is THE pivotal James Bond film. The one that got it all right. From the pretitle sequence that's a mini James Bond Adventure of it's own (I'd wish they'd go back to them, it was like getting two Bonds for the price of one) with snorkle/duck/helmet, the Ken Adam vault inside the Gasoline Tank, to the dancing girl and Bonds great fight and ending quip "Shocking." Right into Shirley Bassey's fantastic theme song, Bond harassing Goldfinger in Miami, Goldfinger himself, masterfully played by Gert Frobe, The Golden Girl, ODDJOB! the golf outing, THE ASTON MARTIN! (Every kid on my block wanted one and most of their Dads did too) The Laser (Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger!) do I need mention Pussy Galore? The assualt on Fort Knox, Richard Maibaum's tweak of Fleming original story, blowing up Fort Knox instead of looting it. The final fight with Oddjob, Goldfinger being sucked out an impossibly small window to the End Credits, with Bond wrapping himself and Pussy in the parachute "This is no time to be rescued!" All in all the best James Bond film ever.

[Qwerty]

...but Goldfinger makes a lasting impression like no other Bond film.

Or perhaps other Bond films could, had more fans noticed them. I think there are quite a few candidates.

[Brian Flagg]

...but Goldfinger makes a lasting impression like no other Bond film.

Or perhaps other Bond films could, had more fans noticed them. I think there are quite a few candidates.

I'd like to hear them, Qwerty.

[Qwerty]

I think such candidates could be From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, even Dr. No.

[RJJB]

You can "what if" all you want, but the simple truth is that Goldfinger is the most influential movie in the series. Dr. No may have been first, FRWL may be the best in many people's opinion, but Goldfinger is the movie that catapulted the entire Bond series into a world wide phenomenon. You can point out its flaws, and there is no argument it has them, but when you get down to it, if this movie hadn't come along when it did and created the craze that it did, we would not be here discussing Bond movies 40 years later.

"The Spy Who Loved Me"?? Don't make me laugh.

Edited by RJJB, 13 September 2004 - 10:48 PM.

[Qwerty]

You can "what if" all you want, but the simple truth is that Goldfinger is the most influential movie in the series.

Yes it is. I'll admit that for sure, just pointing out that indeed other 'close' ones exist also.

[Goldfinger007]

Goldfinger, as you can tell from my name, is my favorite Bond film. I also agree that it is the pivotal James Bond film and that it leaves a lasting impression. It has all the Bond elements and they are mixed so well that it helps create a really memorable film.

The plot does not seem so far fetched and is pretty realistic. I mean... who wouldn't want to rob Fort Knox?

Frobe's personification of Goldfiner is marvellous. This madman that is more than obsessed with gold but at the same time can be a ruthless assasin.

Oddjob is a classic henchmen. He never says a word, yet he manages to transmit his menacing personality through his looks and that "killer hat".

Here the tradition of the Bond girls names begins with Pussy Galore.

Then there is the Aston Martin and that scene with Q in tha laboratory.

They should have included in the movie my favorite Ian Fleming quote "In Chicago we have a saying. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and the third time it is enemy action"

Well I think I could go on and on... on why I love so much this film.

[Qwerty]

The plot does not seem so far fetched and is pretty realistic. I mean... who wouldn't want to rob Fort Knox?

Interesting way of saying it, considering the book versus the film. Still, the film works better.

[Ozzel]

Like: Bond's "elevator trick"

Dislike: The jumpy, silent car crash

[Moonraker]

Like:
Pussy Galore
The car chase
Theme song
Oddjob, Goldfinger
Golden Girl

Dislikes:
People calling it the best bond(little pet peeve)
The score
The scenes at the stud farm
The amount of screen time for Tania Mallet