Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Posted by: Mark McLeod • November 18, 2005 @ 11:59am
The last time we left young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), they had managed to avoid being captured by the evil Dementors of Azkaban and learned the truth about Sirius Black's intentions towards Harry.
Ten years ago, a little family film called Jumanji, based on a hit children's book, was released and made us all love board games again. Robin Williams in an action adventure for kids â€" what a concept â€" and it was a box office goldmine.
With its huge success, the people behind Jumanji had wanted to make a sequel.
Those lonely commuter train rides really can get to us. The faceless strangers we are crunched together with as we are shuttled around until we reach our next stop. A sigh of relief as we can breathe for a minute, then it's back into the mosh pit we call a bus or train. Ah, thank god, only six more stops to go.
I have had a hard year reviewing movies. I have seen a lot of disappointments and very little real incredible surprises. As the year winds down, I am baffled to what could be Oscar-worthy. So many of the key films seem too commercial and not one has made me gasp. Well not yet.
Man, did I feel silly: I thought this was a movie based on a Steve Austin screenplay. All right, the obvious joke is out of the way. This is a movie based on a work by Jane Austen. I don't think Jane did the screenplay (she died in 1817 at the age of 42).
This was much better than I thought. Hey, I'm a guy â€" we need car chases and gratuitous nudity.
Water, by Deepa Mehta, is a fantastic movie that is both Canadian and international at the same time (director Mehta was born in India and the film was shot in Sri Lanka). Its story is thoughtful and emotional, sad and uplifting, factual and fictional. It is everything that a film should be.
We have all heard the story of the chicken who claimed the sky was falling. We all know it was a hoax and this little gem of a tale is to teach kids not to lie or exaggerate.
There is an old saying that states, "There is nothing more dangerous than a bored Marine." That saying unto itself perfectly describes the new war film, Jarhead.
Jarhead is directed by Sam Mendes, the man behind American Beauty and Road to Perdition. In both of those films, Mendes was commenting on the American ideal in some way shape or other.
Sam Mendes hasn't directed many Hollywood movies, but man, what a resume: he won an Oscar for American Beauty in 1999; he was behind the camera for Road to Perdition in 2002; and now his latest is Jarhead, an anti-war film that uses "Welcome to the Suck" as its tagline.
Have you ever watched a movie and compared it to shuffling a stack of playing cards? Well that's probably the best way to describe the new movie from director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean).
Nicolas Cage stars as Dave Spritz, a well-paid local weather man who is having a lot of personal problems. Spritz has split from his estranged wife (Hope Davis) and their two kids.
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