Good evening everyone! We meet up here on this blog yet again! Tonight, we continue with the James Bond marathon. This time, we are in the third installment in the series. It is the one and only, Goldfinger, released in 1964. Wow, how interesting that this specific James Bond movie was released in the same year that movie musicals like My Fair Lady and the original Mary Poppins were released, eh? Anyway, here we go!
Plot: Back in the first film, the legendary fictional hero James Bond (Sean Connery) had to get a missile to continue it’s launch, followed by stopping an assassin from killing him when he was in Turkey. This time, it’s up to Bond to now stop a criminal mastermind named Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) from pulling off a stunt of sneaking into U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and stealing all the valuable good from there.
Okay, this may not be a perfect film by any means, but it seems easy to tell that the makers of this film were most likely trying to improve from both Dr. No, and From Russia With Love. Sure, Goldfinger may not have quite everything that a person may want in a perfect film. Nevertheless, Goldfinger has more to offer this time around. First off, there are the special effects. Yes, it’s true that special effects had a long ways to go in order to achieve something really noteworthy. Heck, not even the original Star Wars films, which were released from the late 1970s through the early to mid-1980s, had the best of that element, not by today’s standards. However, Goldfinger seemed to be proof that special effects would begin the process of becoming better, even if it would take decades to achieve the goal of getting to where they’re at today. Next, there’s the music by John Barry. Back in the first two movies, it’s most likely safe to say that his score could have been used more frequently than it seemed to be. This time, it ended up being more of a different story. Of course you’ll here his theme music that’s been used around the beginning and end of each film thus far. But oh man, does Barry go above and beyond to use his music much more constantly. In doing so, he helps the audience be much more engaged in the story than in either of the two previous films. This seems to be especially true when it comes to the more exciting moments of this film. In addition to this, some of the characters seem to be much more fleshed out this time around. Considering that neither Dr. No, or From Russia With Love had their best strength in that particular area, that’s a big plus for Goldfinger. This appears to be true not only for James Bond himself, but also for the main villain, and/or the supporting villains. It would be no surprise if say Goldfinger had been listed as one of the greatest villains in the James Bond movie franchise, if not movie history period. One final thing to mention, as far as the positive aspects go, is that it’s great to learn some very fascinating information from this film, like where certain places are in certain nations, or states, how certain gadgets work, and other cool things as well.
The one downside to Goldfinger would be that there were one or two elements in this film that might have been a little rushed, and/or glossed over. Okay, maybe not quite as much as in the other two James Bond movies that were released before this one. Still, let’s just say that it was one or two areas that could have had a little more improvement.
And that’s my review for Goldfinger. If you were one of those people who didn’t feel like watching the 007 James Bond movies after at least Dr. No, or even From Russia With Love, well, fear not. Goldfinger ended up seeming to step up it’s game by trying to get the audience to want to more of James Bond, and see how he, and the rest of the cast can do things better. Because of this, there is much more to recommend this time around. Oh, and how about the fact that this, and some of the older James Bond movies were rated PG, eh? My guess is that G, and PG were the only ratings that existed back then? If so, that’s Very interesting. Anyway, see you guys back around again fairly soon!
Final Grade: A
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 