Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie!, February 4, 2006
Ok, first of all, the movie is done as well as it could have been. It does leaves out some facts that the book felt was important to include. But miniscule things must be omitted. They did the best job possible that they could have done to eliminate less important plot lines. The opening scenes could have been allowed more time, and made it feel less rushed, but it worked out well. The acting in this movie is a definite improvement over those last 3 movies. You will applaud Daniel Radcliffe's performance. Emma Watson is as much of an amazing actress as she has always been, and I still think that she is underused. Her scenes at the Yule Ball were awe-inspiring. The effects, visual and CG, are amazing. You can feel as if you are there right now. Ralph Fiennes plays Voldemort beautifully and sends chills down your spine and makes you loath him from his first second on screen. Miranda Richardson really hit the nail on the head with Rita Skeeter. Her scenes are some of the funniest of the entire movie. The Director of this installment of the highly successful Harry Potter series was Mike Newell. He does an outstanding job. There are some scenes that are so cinematically amazing. The overall feel of the film is without a fast-paced action thriller. You fear for Harry's life every second of the film. I was thoroughly impressed with this film, and with the fifth book being my favorite, I am praying that the film works wonders.
The bonus features for this DVD include:
Commentary by the Film's Director, Mike Newell
Featuretts:
Reflections on the Fourth Film (14:11)
Meet the Champions (13:01)
Harry vs. the Horntail: The First Task (5:51)
Preparing for the Yule Ball (8:39)
In Too Deep: The Second Task (9:23)
The Maze: the Third Task (6:30)
He Who Must Not Be Named (10:40)
Deleted Scenes
SCENE 1: Dumbledore ask to his pupils to welcome the Durmstrangs and Beauxbatons students. All the Hogwart students then start to sing Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts or the school song.
SCENE 2: A Durmstrangs student asks a girl if she wants to go with him to the Yule Ball. She says "yes" and the two friends make gestures in the background.
SCENE 3: Harry tries to speak with Cho Chang, but her friends are around her and the opportunity never works out .
SCENE 4: At the Yule Ball, Flitwick introduces the Weird Sisters band. The star singer addresses the crowd and then the music begins.
SCENE 5: Karkaroff tell to Snape about the mark on his arm. Snape ignores him and removes points to Fawcet and Stebbins, who are briefly shown, and Snape disregards Karkaroff's concerns then.
SCENE 6: Mr. Crouch and Harry are speaking, then Madeye appears as Barty leaves.
SCENE 7: The trio speaks about the death of Mr. Crouch. Ron thinks that the Daily Prophet will cover it up on Fudges orders. Hermione believes that this death, Harrys burning scar, and the fact that the Dark Mark had been cast , are too much of a coincidence, and she thinks Harry should go talk to Dumbledore about all of this.
SCENE 8: The trio discuss their suspicions about what Karkarov has on his arm. Hermione asks Harry what ingredients Snape think he stole from him, and she relises that they are all ingredients in a polyjuice potion.
Games, AND MUCH MORE
P.S. It doesn't matter that Hermione's dress is Pink instead of Blue. It does matter that Harry's eyes are supposed to be green, when they are Blue in the movies!
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Goblet of Fire - Why you should graba a peice of the action!, January 22, 2006
In this forth instalment in the ever popular Harry Potter series based on the novel by JK Rolwling we see Harry mature in many ways, he must over come three deadly tasks, face a fully formed Lord Voldermort and possibly the most horrifying task of all for the 14 year old Harry, he must get himself a date for the Yule Ball!
The performance of the trio in the Goblet of Fire is amazing, every scene seemed to be executed perfectly and the on screen chemistry between the young stars is evident. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) reaches new heights in this movie perfectly portraying the uncomfortable adolescent Harry has become; he faces the new emotional roles in the movie with confidence and enthusiasm, like wise for Radcliffe's young co-stars Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) Once again we see terrific performances from the likes of Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Professor Snape) and Robbie Coltraine (Hagrid) as well as meeting some new faces amongst the students, including students from two other magical academies who join the students at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament! Another highlight of this marvellous movie is Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Lord Voldermort which can be rather alarming even to an adult!
I believe this movie to be of an excellent standard not only due to the charismatic trio, but also thanks to the special effects of this movie. We see many fascinating creatures including a ferocious fire breathing dragon (which Harry must fight armed with nothing but his wand!) and while watching you can truly forget that these creatures were created using blue screen and you can honestly believe that you are in this world, that it truly exists just behind closed doors. This is very true to the novels making this a movie every Potter fan can enjoy and indeed fans of spectacular plots and mind-blowing special effects alike can appreciate this, making the Goblet of Fire a movie for all the family! Overall I would call this movie riveting and n absolute gem of the movie world. You do not want to miss this brilliant piece of film history, no DVD collection would be complete with out it! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire amazing 5 stars!
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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
We are measured by the choices we make, May 12, 2007
And if I measure the choices made by the director, screenwriter, actors and casting director I find their efforts to be lacking. The book itself is wonderful in many respects, packed with information, back stories and texture that makes for a very enjoyable read. Now I know it's not easy to condense a 700+ page book into a working movie, but c'mon! This is a poor job and not just because of the large amount of material they left out from the book. For example: no Ludo Bagman, no Winky, no Dobby, no S.P.E.W., no Dursleys, no Bertha Jorkins without whom Voldemort wouldn't have known about Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban, no Quidditch World Cup (we see is the teams fly into the stadium and the next thing everybody is celebrating Ireland's victory), no Rita Skeeter being an animangus, no gobblins, no betting, no Platform 9 3/4, no Barty Crouch Jr. receiving the dementor's kiss, and no final scene with Cornelius Fudge where he denies Voldemort's return. Instead we are treated to extra long and superfluous dragon fight/flight sequence a long and boring grindylow battle scene during the Triwizard Tournament's second task, not to mention the maze being completely different from the book: no sphinx, no acromantula. It is certainly possible to make edits and a coherent movie. Unfortunately so many details are left out, awkwardly edited or portrayed that if you haven't read the book you might not know what is going on. And if you had read the book you're not going to like the changes, at least I didn't. For example I didn't like all the Beauxbatons students being all-female, nor the Durmstrang students being all male, and don't get me started on the fake CGI looking merpeople, yuck.
Missing details and editing are not the least of the problems. There's also direction, acting and casting misteps gallore. The casting choices for the new characters are atrocious. Krum looks nothing like he is described in the book, nor does he behave like the Krum of Rowlings novel. His role in the movie too is sadly reduced. Madame Maxine was supposed to be an olive skinned, handsome women with a prominent Gaulic nose. What we get is a scarecrow with a bad French accent. Fleur Delacroix is supposed to be beautiful, part veela with white blond hair, magically delicious! In the movie she's rather plain looking with light brown hair. None of her haughtiness is portrayed and might as well not have been there for all the impact she made. Karkaroff had white hair, wasn't scruffy but rather well groomed, crafty or shifty rather than brutal. Barty Crouch Jr. was supposed to be blond and somewhat good looking, not some goggle eyed, sweaty, tongue flicking loony. In fact it was his "normal" appearance that made his slavish devotion to Voldemort so much more disturbing. He wasn't a stock character bad guy. Shame on the director and shame on the actor for making him a sweaty nutjob. But the worst is Dumbledore. Richard Harris effectively portrayed the sensitivity, gravitas, intelligence and power written into the character by J. K. Rowling. The new Dumbledore is a grouchy, somewhat thick-headed man who projects all the presence and majesty of a minor bureaucrat with a bad attitude. After Harry's name comes up from the Goblet Of Fire making him the fourth Triwizard champion, he screams Harry's name. Then later grabs Harry by the shoulders, shoves him and yells in Harry's face "Did you get an older student to put your name in the Goblet for you!?!?!" This is NOT the way Rowlings beloved Dumbledore would act, sorry. How'd this guy get the job? I can't really fault Daniel Radcliffe or Rupert Grint too much, they were servicable if not remarkable in their roles. Emma Watson as Hermione however is scenery chewingly off character. She's either on the brink of tears, crying or on the brink of angry tears. Her performance is way over-the-top, falsely dramatic and untrue to the character. ACTING!!! with a capital A.
The tone and tenor of Rowlings book is simply missing from this movie. The characters bear little resemblence to those in her book and not least because they run around in Muggle clothes for half the movie. Because of editing choices the movie has an awkward flow and might not be comprehensible to someone not familiar with the book. Now I know I've been emphasizing differences between the book and movie and to some people I'm being a nit picker. Well I could forgive radical changes if the movie wasn't so and here's that word again: awkward. The story simply doesn't flow well, the rhythm feels rushed, the emphasis is on action rather than plot. I got bored about half way through. In fact it took me two viewings to get through it. I'd rent this one before buying it and then decide if you really need to own this thing.
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