This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip for French Toast Sunday.
British secret agent James Bond (Sean Connery) has been assigned a mission to investigate a gold smuggler, Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). However, as the investigation deepens and Bond becomes embroiled within the plot, Goldfinger’s plan leads to plans to break into the U.S. Gold reserve in Fort Knox. 
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Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) is a serial con artist, whose latest heist saw her steal almost $10,000 from the tax firm she became employed at under a fake name and a dark dye-job. She sends the money home to her single mother (Louise Latham), with whom Marnie has a relationship that could be described as difficult. Marnie’s next target is the Rutland company, managed by Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Unfortunately for Marnie, Rutland is a client for her most recent score, and Mark recognises her as the “brunette with the legs.” Fortunately for Marnie, Mark is a zoology enthusiast, with a particular interest in criminal women, so he hires her anyway. She carries out the robbery as planned, but Mark catches up with her and offers an ultimatum; either he goes to the police, or she agrees to marry him.
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It’s been a while since I’ve gotten involved in this kind of blogathon, however when Tom from At The Back nominated me, I couldn’t resist. It’s been set up by Nostra at My Film Views, and the original post can be viewed here. Essentially, this blogathon asks each participant to connect one actor/actress/director/movie to another actor/actress/director/movie in six connections or less. I’ve been asked to connect The Birth of a Nation to Daniel Bruhl, because apparently I did something wrong in a past life, and am now being punished for it. Continue reading
This review was originally written for French Toast Sunday.
Michael Bay’s The Rock sees U.S. Marines, led by Ed Harris’ Brigadier General Frank Hummel, taking over the island prison of Alcatraz, now a tourist attraction, and keeping the tourists hostage until a ransom is paid to cover the money owed to unpaid troops. If the money is not paid, Hummel and his men will launch deadly chemicals into San Fransisco, killing thousands of people. The FBI arranges for a Navy Seal team to go after the marines, but to do so they need the help of a chemical weapon specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) and John Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to survive an escape from Alcatraz. 
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Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Bond film, Dr. No. Also, I reviewed Casino Royale earlier this week (undeservedly voted the 56th greatest film of all time by Empire readers in 2008), and Skyfall, the 23rd official Bond film, is released soon, so this seemed to be the perfect time to do a Top 5 list related to Bond in some way. As much as I would have liked to have done a comprehensive list of my five favourite Bond films, villains, girls, gadgets, cars, locations, henchmen, lairs, guns and kills, I’m afraid I don’t know nearly enough about the series to do that, seeing as I’ve seen quite a few of the films only once, and many of them I can’t remember. I do know that my favourite film is Goldfinger, which also features my favourite henchman, Oddjob. Scaramanga is probably the best villain I can remember, or perhaps Max Zorin, but that’s mainly for the actors playing them. So instead of any of those lists, I’ve compiled my top 5 of the actors who have portrayed Bond onscreen in the main series (I’ve not seen the 1967 David Niven-starring Casino Royale). Seeing as there’s only six actors currently in the series, this was a pretty straightforward list to compile.
Even though O’Toole only announced his retirement three days ago, and he turns 80 in a month’s time, I’m still including him on this list purely because I couldn’t think of a fifth film-maker I’d like to come out of retirement. Yes, there are many who I would have liked to have come out of retirement some time ago, but to demand they do so now would be cruel in some states (85-year old Sidney Poitier) and downright impossible in others (Peter Falk). So I’m sorry Pete, but if you fancy having another pop at this acting lark, you’re more than welcome. O’Toole is of course most famous for playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia and Prometheus, but I know him better as the soon departed king in Stardust, King Priam in Troy and as the creaking critic Anton Ego in Ratatouille. He does have the perfect voice for playing Disney bad guys or strict authoritarian elders, and vocal work can’t be that taxing, so I feel the door should be left open, just in case he fancies another Pixar cameo.
Life Vs Film 