I don’t think I’ve seen any of the Bond movies as much as I’ve seen Goldfinger. There’s a few reasons for that and none of them have to do with this being my favorite Bond movie. First off, I ALWAYS confuse this movie with The Man With The Golden Gun because I’m easily confused by movies with titles involving gold apparently. The other reason is much more sophomoric. Pussy Galore’s name makes me chuckle. Oh, and Odd Job is awesome. That too.

I might be wrong because I’m only a few movies into this project, but I think Goldfinger might be the Bond movie with the worst case of diminishing returns. Except for Galore’s name. That’s always funny, but never more so than when, after introducing herself to Bond, he notes that he must be dreaming. That’s gold. The problem with the movie is that SPOILER WARNING I GUESS, the whole finale is a psyche out. Gotcha Goldfinger, we got hundreds of soldiers to feign passing out and your fleet of sexy pilots was swayed because Bond really nailed Pussy Galore. I will give the movie some credit though. It’s fun, for sure. Goldfinger’s plan is actually pretty ingenious, wanting to destroy instead of steal the US’s gold supply so that all the gold he already has will become all the more valuable. But, I guess I don’t get why the US Army agrees to go through this highly complicated ruse. Why not just shoot Goldfinger in the freaking face, get rid of the nuke and be done with it?

There might be a perfectly good explanation for just that in the movie. I’ll be honest, I kind of zoned out a bit, popping back into consciousness during some of my favorite scenes like Odd Job decapitating the statue, the classic “I expect you to die” quote or Pussy catching Bond spying on her boss. There’s also that weird fight scene between Pussy and Bond which is kind of gross and kind of hot I guess depending on how you’re feeling. It’s too bad, really, because, Goldfinger has a lot going for it. The plot’s great and even strays away from the formula that was established in Dr. No and From Russia With Love without doing a big, huge boss HQ battle at the very end. I also give the film credit for getting more into the action and gadgets which made me love these movies as a kid. Bond gets into a pretty big fight in the beginning (I was actually going to make this my Friday Fisticuffs as well, but I’ve got Machete to watch) which is fun to watch. Heck, even Goldfinger’s ridiculously painful way of dying is a great moment. Hmm, maybe writing this post is turning me around on this movie. Well, I’ve got a lot more Bond to get through before I return this way again. I’ll see you in a while my old friend.