Dry as ice, dripping with deadpan witticisms, only Sean Connery's Bond would dare to disparage the Beatles, that other 1964 phenomenon. No one but Connery can believably seduce women so effortlessly, kill with almost as much ease, and then pull another bottle of Dom Perignon 53 out of the fridge. Goldfinger contains many of the most memorable scenes in the Bond series: gorgeous Shirley Eaton (as Jill Masterson) coated in gold paint by evil Auric Goldfinger and deposited in Bond's bed; silent Oddjob, flipping a razor-sharp bowler like a Frisbee to sever heads; our hero spread-eagled on a table while a laser beam moves threateningly toward his crotch. Honor Blackman's Pussy Galore is the prototype for the series' rash of man-hating supermodels. And Desmond Llewelyn reprises his role as Q, giving Bond what is still his most impressive car, a snazzy little number that fires off smoke screens, punctures the tyres of vehicles on the chase, and boasts a handy ejector seat. Goldfinger's two climaxes, inside Fort Knox and aboard a private plane, have to be seen to be believed. -Raphael Shargel, Amazon. com- On the DVD: Featuring interviews with Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, the late Desmond Llewelyn and most of the surviving core cast and crew members, great on-set footage (Blackman and Connery look like they clearly had the hots for each other even when the camera weren't rolling) and a strong argument about how this firmed up the gadget-orientated, thrills-and-spills formula for the franchise, John Cork's "making of" featurette for this DVD is one of the most rewarding in this series. The two commentary tracks have moderately interesting observations by director Guy Hamilton, the cast and crew (many of their comments recycled from the documentary), and on both Bond superfan-and-author Lee Pfeiffer filling in blanks and explaining in exhaustive detail the history of the Aston Martin DB5 that first appeared in this film. Also included is an open-ended 1964 interview with Sean Connery, designed so that American radio disc jockeys could pretend they had an exclusive interview with the star, in which he extols the series' "sadism for the family" among other things. [+]

The lightest of the first three films, Lethal Weapon 3 finds everyone occupying comfortable positions like students who always choose to sit in the same classroom seats. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as LAPD partners whose working method consists of the former diving into danger and the latter holding back. (The sequence set in the parking garage of a building, in which Gibson inadvertently trips a switch that makes a timed explosive device speed up, is priceless. ) Joe Pesci once again plays a motor-mouth pest, and while the story is pretty much forgettable, it does introduce the best new dynamic in the series, a romance between Gibson and Rene Russo's equally tough but attractive cop. -Tom Keogh.

Alfred Hitchcock takes on Sigmund Freud in this thriller in which psychologist Ingrid Bergman tries to solve a murder by unlocking the clues hidden in the mind of amnesiac suspect Gregory Peck. Among the highlights is a bizarre dream sequence seemingly designed by Salvador Dali-complete with huge eyeballs and pointy scissors. Although the film is in black and white, the original release contained one subliminal blood-red frame, appearing when a gun pointed directly at the camera goes off. Spellbound is one of Hitchcock's strangest and most atmospheric films, providing the director with plenty of opportunities to explore what he called "pure cinema"-i. e. , the power of pure visual associations. Miklós Rózsa's haunting score (which features the creepy electronic instrument, the theremin) won an Oscar, and the movie was nominated for best picture, director, supporting actor (Michael Chekhov), cinematography and special visual effects. -Jim Emerson.

Numerous critics had already sharpened their knives even before Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot colour "re-creation" of the 1960 black-and-white Hitchcock classic was released, chiding the Good Will Hunting director for defiling hallowed ground. But this intriguing cinematic curiosity is hardly as sacrilegious as critics would lead you to believe. If anything, Van Sant doesn't take enough liberties with his almost slavish devotion to the material, now updated with modern references. At times, you wish Van Sant would cut loose with a little spontaneity, a little energy, a little something. Unfortunately, when he does venture outside Hitchcock's parameters-with inserted shots of storm clouds during the murder sequences, for example-it's to little effect. Granted, he liberally splashes colour throughout the film (especially in the case of the infamous shower scene), and this is a great-looking movie, but in his obsession with adding a new physical dimension to the film, there's little insight into these characters that Hitchcock hadn't already provided. Vince Vaughn, a robotic and giggly Norman, doesn't crawl under your skin the way boy-next-door Anthony Perkins did, and Anne Heche is admirable if not very sympathetic in the Janet Leigh role. Van Sant does score a minor coup, though, in his casting of the supporting roles: Julianne Moore provides a welcome shot of energy as Heche's irritable and curious sister, William H. Macy is a perfect small-time detective, Viggo Mortensen is studly enough to make you understand why Heche would want to run away with him, and James LeGros walks away with his one brief scene as a used car salesman. Danny Elfman's gorgeous rerecording of Bernard Herrmann's score is a potent supporting character unto itself. [+]

One would think that after the aquatic horror of the previous three Jaws films the remnants of the beleaguered Brodie family would be happily nursing their hydrophobia somewhere in Kansas. However, in Jaws 4-The Revenge, we find that Ellen (Lorraine Gary) is still living on a tiny island and her eldest son Michael (Lance Guest) has become, of all things, a marine biologist. Even when yet another giant shark slaughters her younger son, all Ellen can do to take her mind off it is go to the Bahamas and gaze at the sea. There she embarks on a romantic affair with salty sea-pilot Hoagie (a nice turn from Michael Caine), but this peace is shattered as the shark begins to target her grandchildren and friends. Where this monster-with-a-grudge comes from, bearing in mind that the sharks in each of the previous films got blown up or electrocuted, is something of a conundrum. But logic is clearly not a concern in a script that demands only that this film should bear some tenuous relation to its predecessors. The ghost of the far-superior original looms large here-in the form of Ellen's flashbacks (which actually use footage from the earlier films), scenes that overtly refer to moments from the series (Michael's son mimics him at the dinner table, as Michael once did to his own father) and a set littered with conspicuously large photos of Roy Scheider. There are nice touches-Michael and his Jamaican partner Jake (Mario Van Peebles) fit the shark with a heart monitor which lets off an eerie blipping sound when it approaches, it is nice to see a romance between more "mature" characters portrayed so warmly and when the maternal Ellen forms the resolve to protect her family it even looks like she may briefly become a sort of geriatric Ripley character (à la Aliens). But with a shark that has never looked more rubbery, set pieces that lack suspense and invention and a short running time (only 86 minutes) it is hard to shake off the sensation that this is a made-for-TV film. Those wanting a dose of tongue-in-cheek killer-creature action would be better off avoiding this wet fish and taking in a Jaws rip-off with a little more bite, such as Deep Blue Sea or Deep Rising. [+]

Although it's enjoyable as a brainless diversion, National Security is one of those forgettable entertainments that denies its own considerable potential. It's a police action comedy in the mould of Beverly Hills Cop, tailored to the buddy-flick formula and laced with racial tensions of the post-Rodney King era. It's set in Los Angeles, where dedicated cop Hank (Steve Zahn) does jail time for allegedly beating Earl (Martin Lawrence), whose only real assailant was an overzealous bumblebee. As fate and lazy screenwriting would have it, the two adversaries reunite as security guards, teaming up to crack a team of violent smugglers led by bleached-blond Eric Roberts (further proof that this movie's got nothing new to offer). Routine stunts distract from the comedy's mostly untapped resource: Lawrence pointedly riffs on racial profiling, and his prolific ad-libs play well against Zahn's by-the-book straight man. If their partnership had been allowed to develop more believably, National Security might have been more than a blip on the box-office radar. -Jeff Shannon.