Review: Goldfinger Ultimate Edition DVD

Goldfinger is considered by many to be the best Bond film, a claim that's tough to argue against. It's probably the best Bond to show somebody who's never seen one, but so much of this film has shown up in other movies they've probably seen it already. This was the 2nd bond film I ever saw; my mother rented it from the video store up the street a few days after I saw Moonraker at that slumber party back in 1982. I was a bit thrown off by the different actor playing Bond but Connery won me over pretty quickly and it's still one of my favorites.

Looking at it almost 30 years later, it's interesting to see what's not part of this film. We don't get some of the big Bond tropes, like the bad guy doesn't have a secret base and not really any exotic locations, although Fort Knox is a fairly unique place. We do see Bond steal the villian's woman, win over a bad lady to goodness (and a suggested lesbian, at that), and has the exotic henchman who will not be matched for about 12 years. The story actually has some mystery, which is missing from many of the Bond films, and we also have maybe the best line of all the Bond movies.

The Ultimate Edition DVD looks great, giving us a great view of Ken Adam's awesome sets and includes a good commentary by director Guy Hamilton. There's a nice feature about the merch that came out after the movie

One plot point that annoys me: why does Goldfinger reveal his plan to the room full of hoods and then kill them? Sure, it's a way for Bond (in hiding) to learn the plan but the obviousness of it is the only flaw in the plot.