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If you only heard of James Bond through the prism of pop culture, you likely heard of the many things that are associated with this installment. Bond strapped to a table with a laser moving up his groin. Oddjob, the henchmen who wears a steal rimmed bowler hat that can decapitate a statue's head. The leading lady named Pussy Galore. Bond's Aston Martin DB5 sported with gadgets. The villain Goldfinger, who plots to break into the U.S. Gold Bullion Depository in Fort Knox. Everything that ultimately made the series what it is, it's all here.

It carries a lot of what the first two films introduced, now mostly refined. This time the pre-title sequence is entirely separate from the main story, as if it were a short film giving audiences an idea of what's in store. The main title sequence now features the song of the film, this time sung by Shirley Bassey. The dynamic between Bond and Q is now defined with banter, as Bond is presented his gadget laden car. These kind of refinements are what would establish the Bond formula that would from this point be used in Bond films in various ways, for better or worse.

This installment is based off of the seventh novel written by Ian Fleming. As an adaptation, it stays relatively true to the source material. However, vital alterations were made for the film and I can say that they were largely an improvement. In the original novel, Auric Goldfinger actually plots to rob all the gold bullion from Fort Knox, which would have been very improbable, even for a Bond adventure. The film finds a more clever solution, which I'll leave unspoiled. Other changes worked in the same nature or were simple novel to film translations in telling the story.

Guy Hamilton directs this installment. Where the previous director Terence Young treated the first two films more as spy thrillers, Hamilton aims for a more comic book flavor with a breezier tone and emphasis on humor, whether through visual gags or interaction between characters. This is another factor that would play a big role into how future Bond films would proceed, some succeeding while others going too far.

Sean Connery is as comfortable as ever in the role of Bond. He plays Bond much more smarmy for a lot of the film, but that's mainly to get under the skin of the villain's boisterous nature. Gert Fröbe is truly fantastic as the villain Auric Goldfinger. What's remarkable is that he was dubbed by a voice actor, because he didn't speak very much English. On set he would actually speak German, but mouth the words close to English as much as possible. Despite being dubbed, he still carries a lot of the performance through his body language and the voice actor Michael Collins does a great job of matching that performance. His character is aided by the henchmen Oddjob, who's possibly the most iconic of all the henchmen that Bond had to face. A simple gag has him crush a golf ball with his bare hand, setting him up as a tough opponent for Bond to fight later in the film. Honor Blackman plays the Bond lady Pussy Galore, who's known not only for the silly and suggestive name but for also for initially not being easily swayed by Bond's charms, telling him "you can turn off the charm, I'm immune."

GOLDIFNGER is often cited among the best of the Bond films, if not the best. While it's certainly iconic, it also known for weaknesses like Bond being mostly held captive for the second half of the film. The argument being that he comes off as someone that doesn't effect the plot so much. That may be true, but then again that same argument is being made about how Indiana Jones wouldn't have changed the outcome of the plot in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. It's an oddity in stories about heroes, but I suppose what ultimately matters is if the film's adventure is fun and engaging. This one definitely is.

When it comes to a film series, there's always a sentiment about how the first film is the best and that every follow up, as great as they can be, never quite reaches the heights of the first that made the series what it was. The Indiana Jones series is a good example, with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK being the best, whereas with the sequels it varies in quality. There are a few exceptions where a follow up film happens to upstage what the first did. MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR is easily a major improvement over the original. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is another of the greats. People still debate on whether THE GODFATHER, PART II is better or less than its predecessor. FROM Russia WITH LOVE is definitely a serious candidate for sequels that improved on what the first film did.

It is debatable whether this should be considered a "sequel". What happened in the first film DR. NO is briefly mentioned, but overall the story is very much its own thing with a new set of characters and location for Bond to encounter, much like the original Ian Fleming books. Still, it's hard to ignore that it's a vast improvement. DR. NO was a solid film, but compared to what would come later it still needed some refining. This film having twice the budget as the first film is helpful, as they're now able to do more elaborate action set pieces to shake things up. DR. NO had a very lousy score. There was the iconic James Bond Theme, but while that was created by the original composer Monty Norman, it was guest composer John Barry's arrangement of the theme that made it what it was. Because of how great his arrangement was, he was hired as the next composer and would be with the series up until the late 80s, solidifying what people recognize as the "Bond sound". Him scoring this whole film is just an example of how much better this was. I could do without the actual title song though.

There's also a stronger variety of characters. Kerim Bey, played by Pedro Armendáriz, is Bond's ally in Istanbul, Turkey. He's one of my favorite allies that Bond has adventures with in this film because he's so full of life and just seems like the kind of guy you want to hang out with at a bar. Bond girl this time is played by Daniela Bianchi, who plays Tatiana Romanova, a Russian cipher clerk who wants Bond to help her defect to the west, but is actually on orders to set him into a trap. There's a cat and mouse play with Bond and Tatiana, using each other's sex appeal to get the upper hand, and you're never sure how much she means what she says when expressing her feelings for Bond until it comes to the moment of truth.

The villains all come in a variety. In the book, they're Russians working for the government, coming up with a plan to assassinate Bond. In the film, they were changed into agents of SPECTRE so that it wouldn't carry political overtones (thus give it more broad appeal worldwide). Because SPECTRE is used to replace the Russians, we get our first appearance of Bond's eventual arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, although his face is kept hidden. He assigns the film's villain Rosa Klebb to execute the plan to kill Bond. She's played by Lotte Lenya, who really brings the cutthroat character to life straight from the book, even down to the lesbian overtones that makes her unique among Bond villains. The best of them all however is Red Grant, played by Robert Shaw. He's the man assigned to watch over Bond so that he makes it to the trap the Russians set up, and then by Klebb's orders, kill him. He's easily among the best henchmen in the series, bringing out the kind of controlled frenzy in his eyes as he watches Bond and tries to savor the moment of killing him.

A lot of the same filmmaking crew from DR. NO returned for FROM Russia WITH LOVE and a lot either improve or keep up the great quality they showed the last time. Terence Young proves himself to be very effective when directing suspense and would make use of that in future films like WAIT UNTIL DARK with Audrey Hepburn. Some of the same scriptwriters returned to do the adaptation of the original Fleming book, even polishing it up a bit to give it a much better transition into cinema. Ted Moore, the DP for the first film, is back and once again making great use of the locations and sets to make some very appealing photography.

Overall, as I said, a major improvement over the first and the series would only continue to grow from this point on. Connery has grown very comfortable into the role. Is it the best of the series? It might be, depending on what you want out of a James Bond film. If you want intriguing espionage adventure, this is the best to offer. For the longest time it was ranked high at #1 as my favorite in the Bond series. I now favor another film, but I'll get to that soon. 10/10.

Fun fact: While FROM Russia WITH LOVE is the second Bond film produced, it is based on the fifth novel which immediately preceded the sixth novel DR. NO, which was the first film produced. Might sounds like a huge flub the filmmakers to not go in chronological order, but since the novels were relatively standalone, it didn't matter that they went a different route at the start of the films. It certainly wouldn't matter when they started to ignore the source material, but that's only a few films away.

What's for breakfast? When Mike Aka Sexy Chocolate looked into the camera, I thought he was looking right at me. All oiled up and raining dolla bills, this epic chronicle of urban dancers put the D in delicious. Whitey Soderbergh should be all over this piece of chocolate cinema. Black Dynamite? Nah. Trouble Man? Nuh uh. Shaft? Not enough! This has it all with Genuwine, BOLO the entertainer, Darrin Henson, MICHAEL JAI WHITE, and even Carmen Electra gets to shout out to the boyz! Vivica A Fox is amazing as Sexy Chocolate's mother, the only thing disappointing about this is that she doesn't deliver her chocolate milk. OH WELL. Michael JAI White plays the mentor that leads Sexy Chocolate the way to the stage and helps fulfill his dreams of good pay and hysterical black women with a few whiteys peppered in. If you take your coffee black, you will not be disappointed! Highest of recommends!