46. Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton

Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton Goldfinger is the ultimate Bond movie but ultimately the most damaging to the franchise because of the formula that it created. The over the top villain who would rather tell Bond his plan than kill him, the Aston Martin, the gadgets, the sexy but dangerous women with the silly names and a character that would eventually become something of a joke. Every movie after Goldfinger copied this formula, and pushed all the elements as far as they could which resulted in movies like Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only. Absolute crap. From Russia with Love is the closest Bond movie to Ian Fleming's novels but after Goldfinger's success, we would never get that again. So watching Goldfinger is a mixed experience for me. There's no doubt though that it's the best Bond movie. It has one of the best villains, a great and witty script, Oddjob!, Pussy Galore, a great car chase scene, the best Bond who now in his third movie looked at home in the role and a great movie song. One thing I have noticed in watching the classic Bond movies again is how stunning the visuals are. Awesome wide landscapes really give Bond an epic feel which kinda gets lost in the Dalton days and beyond. Another thing that I like about Goldfinger is that it's a simple story which at the end of the day boils down to a battle of wits between Bond and his villain. It's not about destroying or blowing up the world, it's just about a corrupt guy trying to get rich and 007 trying to stop him. Is Goldfinger worth the majority of crap that we got after this? I think so.