Reviews

... And this word is "Beauf". Hard to explain... It means that everything here is as simple as possible : characters mean caricature, situation means only action and humor means first degree. If you like to disconnect your brain for a while, this is as good as any Lethal Weapon (more like the second one...). Not as subtle as the first one - which was not already a masterpiece in that field. * (out of ****)

Goldfinger is, in spite of the huge sums of money spent on the few last ones, the best Bond ever, and will certainly, if the directors keep on the "Action-Fun-Humor" way, stay it. First, it is useless to say it another time, but there will never be another actor as great as Sean in this part, because he had everything to be Bond. In fact, he is Bond. Pierce is surely great (better than George, Timothy or, hum, what's his name, Roger "I am an actor, look how I play with my eyebrow" Moore), but he can only see Sean's ankle. Then, the story of Goldfinger is great, and the famous gadgets are quite simple but terribly efficient for the fun of the spectator. The ugly is (with Walken (but it was with Roger) and Pryce) the best bad guy ever seen in a Bond movie, and look at his partner and his hat. Great ! Then, this is maybe the cleverest Bond movie, as it is playing with several aspects the recent directors are forgetting. It is not innocent to end with Bond, alone in Fort Knox. And in 1964, wasn't it courageous to present a female fantasy (and, well, Honor Blackman has everything to be it) as a lesbian, named Pussy ? The action is, as always, here (see the scene on the golf course, i love it), the bondgirls are, hum, quite nice, Sean is here, and so is the humor. What could we ask for more ?

What is so special about this movie ? Its density... It lasts about two hours, and you don't have any time to breathe, because of the intelligence, and the spirit of every quote. It is a shame that there are no exemples of quotes from it on this site, it would make you laugh just to read them. Under the appearance of a classic dark detective movie, it is one of the funniest comedy ever made. The only thing is that, to keep the atmosfear, you ought to see it in original version (french). But, for Audiard and his humor, for Launtner and his inspired direction, and, most of all, for the actors (especially Bernard Blier) everybody in the whole world must see it at least once. One of the greatest french movies ever made (and God knows the quality of the french cinema) !