Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes
Written By: J.K Rowling, Steven Kloves
Directed By: Mike Newell
Studio: Warner Brothers
Buy on Amazon.com link

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is one of my favorite HP books. So being a faithful geek of the books, you’re going to have a lot of high hopes for the movie. The first time I saw the film in theaters, I thought it was okay. It wasn’t the GREAT film it could have been. After seeing it for the second time on DVD, I enjoyed the movie more and think it’s one of the better Potter films.

The fourth film starts out with a “dream sequence” in some old house near a graveyard. Inside is the Death Eater Wormtail (Timothy Spall) talking to a haunting but weak voice, plus another servant of Voldemort’s. The caretaker of the cemetery discovers some intruders inside the house and decides to find out what it is going on. But before he realizes it, that was a bad idea. Harry Potter wakes up and realizes it was a dream, or so he thinks. Harry isn’t with the Dursleys in this movie and is staying at the Weasley’s place to go to the Quidditch Cup. While at the tournament, chaos ensues and Death Eaters show up terrorizing the camps, and Harry finds someone shooting something up into the sky. It’s the Dark Mark, a mark for the Death Eaters and telling everyone the Dark Lord is ready to return. So Harry finds himself caught up in drama YET again before he even gets to school! Once the students arrive at the school, they realize they are going to have a different year this year. The top two European schools are visiting for the rare Tri-Wizard Tournament. 3 students are chosen from a fire goblet by putting their names in. But if you are too young, you can’t compete in the competition. As Dumbledore is explaining the rules to everyone in the hall, a mysterious man wakes in, and he has a magic wandering eye and is drinking something. It’s Mad Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the retired Auror and he’s the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year. So the students are chosen from the three schools. Viktor Krum, the star of the Bulgarian Guidditch World Cup team, pretty Fleur Delacour from the French school and for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory. But after those three names are called out, Harry Potter’s name is chosen, even though he never put his name in the cup. He has no choice to compete in the tournament even though he’s not as skilled, and is too young. Harry has to fear for his life & try to stay alive in the tournament. He also has to deal with his friends who are being jealous, and try to get the courage to ask a girl out to the Yule Ball dance. As well as figure out who put his name in the goblet and why? PLUS have to deal with the that guy named Voldemort.

I originally thought this movie could have been a lot better but after seeing it a second time, I like it a lot more now. I have to realize that these are adaptations of the book and not everything is gonna be put on film. Mike Newell & co did a great job of focusing on the Tri-wizard Tournament and the return of the Voldemort. The scenes don’t seem rushed when they are concerning those two parts. Of course there were flaws & nitpicks with the movie. Fans might have been looking forward to some scenes with certain characters and they were either short-changed or weren’t even in the movie! I was really looking forward to seeing more of Sirius Black & when he comes back at the end to Hogwarts. You thought he barely had any screen time in POA, wait til you see this movie. He’s only got one scene and he’s talking in the fire. No wonder why Gary Oldman is having a hard time with signing up for the Order of the Phoenix. That is HIS movie to be in since, well ya know what happens. People won’t care about what happens if he’s not in the movie a lot or at all. We’ll see what happens though. To continue, I was looking forward to seeing Dumbledore pissed off at the end and ready to gather up the troops like it was in the book. Of course, it’s lots of little things that I’m always upset over but the overall film is still very good.

I loved the the tri-wizard scenes and thought they were one of the most exciting scenes in the entire Harry Potter movies so far. Besides the the tournament, I really liked the end with the return of You Know Who. I almost think it was too short because seeing the Death Eaters & and everyone surrounding Harry face off with Voldemort was really cool! Ralph Fiennes played the part really well and can’t wait to see what he does with the next movie. The part was over the top but just enough of it that it didn’t seem silly. I think the movie focused on the boarding school aspect too much and not as much with the magical world. Yeah, Hogwarts is like a snotty private school and kids should act like it, but I want to see magic and all that fun stuff. If I wanted to watch a bunch of kids dealing with high school crap, I’d watch Beverly Hills 90210. Yes I watch that show ok!

But anyway, back to the the movie. I thought the acting was better than usual with the three main stars. Emma Watson seemed to do great with some of the lines she was given, and Rupert played a jealous cranky kid really well. Harry did a fantastic job, especially the scenes with Cho. He’s really maturing as an actor I think. I think the addition of Brendan Gleeson was awesome! I didn’t know what to expect when he was cast as Mad Eye Moody because I always imagine that character to be more older. But after seeing the movie, I can’t wait to see him play Mad Eye as his true self in movie number 5. It seems with every Harry Potter movie, that all the new actors are the ones that are the highlights for me. Last movie it was Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. Now for the 5th movie, seeing David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson and hopefully Gary Oldman together will be quite a treat…if they can get the movie right. I think the Harry Potter vets are getting too short changed, especially Snape, Hagrid and even Dumbledore. I still don’t think Michael Gambon was the right replacement for Richard Harris. He just doesn’t have the charisma as Richard Harris has. He seems more cold and stern. I can’t see Dumbledore panic and run over to Harry and grab him by the shoulders can you? Maybe he did that in the book but as I was watching the movie, it didn’t see like something he would do. I liked how there was a little more screen time for Fred & George because those guys always crack me up. I wonder if they are going to focus on them a lot again in the next movie because they are in the book a lot. Hey yeah, that’s another thing…doesn’t Harry give them his winnings to start up their joke shop at the end of this story? These are the little things that need to be fleshed out better for OOTP.

The extras for Harry Potter always seem like they can be better. They are always geared towards kids, and I wish they went into more detail with making the movie. It’s cool to see the actors being interviewed but I want to see more of how they did things, as extensive as the Lord of the Rings DVDs extras are. Though, there is some great behind the scenes stuff with all the three Tournament challenges. There are a few deleted scenes, some shorter than others. There are a few longer scenes that were cut including the full performance of that band that played the Yule Ball. Thankfully all of that wasn’t including in the movie because I could barely stomach the scene that was already in the movie. It was just cheesy to watch. The scenes weren’t all that great so I can see why they were cut. There was one with Snape arguing with Karakaoff but it seemed redundant because they were doing the same thing in the potions closet. It was just funnier because Snape was catching kids making out in horse carriages during the Ball. There’s more featurettes than just the deleted scenes like reactions from various cast members about the movie, preparing for the yule ball. Stuff like that. There’s also a bunch of games that you can play with your remote. I really have no interest in that on a DVD and that stuff is for the kiddies. I think it’s a waste of space to be honest with you. Probably the best featurette was the one on Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes really put his all into the character and brought him to life, and what you get is something really creepy. You see how they transformed Fiennes into Voldemort. Mostly it was done with CGI, and not too much makeup. Definitely worth watching if you are a big fan like myself.

With all the complaints & nitpicks I have with the movie, I still think it’s one of my favorite movies out of the series because I just love the story around the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Also, the special effects are probably the best in any Harry Potter film. Well the last film had some awesome effects as well but I loved the underwater scenes during the 2nd task. The acting is great too, and so many terrific actors in the film as well. The only bad thing about that is not everyone is going to have equal screen time. The film definitely has some flaws but I’m willing to overlook them. I still enjoyed the movie a lot!

Features:
Additional Scenes
Conversation With The Cast
Preparing The Yule Ball
Reflections On The Fourth Film
Triwizard Tournament: Dragon Arena
– Dragon Challenge
– Harry Vs. The Horntail: The First Task
– Meet The Champions
Triwizard Tournament: Lake
– Lake Challenge
– In Too Deep: The Second Task
Triwizard Tournament: Maze
– Maze Challenge
– To The Graveyard And Back Challenge
– The Maze: The Third Task
– He Who Must Not Be Named
Insert This Disc Into Your PC’s DVD-Rom Drive
– EA Game Demo
– Hogwarts Timeline

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: All the tournament tasks, all the scenes with Mad Eye Moody, Stuff dealing with the goblet and seeing Fred & George try to enter the Tournament.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 157 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: