Sometimes the best reason for going to the movies is just to eat the popcorn.

I have a suspicion this is what the Israelites referred to as Manna.

Not as good as the original, but still very, very funny.

I would love to tell you about the movie, but the brain cells I lost watching it made me forget.

Brilliantly hysterical and subversive. This movie could not be made in the P.C. world we inhabit today and that’s a damn shame because the point of everything everyone finds offensive is to show how ridiculous it all is in the first place.

To say I was disappointed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when I first saw the film is a major understatement. My favorite parts of the book come right up front—the arrival of the Weasley’s to pick up Harry from the Dursley’s and the Quidditch World Cup—so seeing one part cut to barely a mention and the other cut completely made me, in a word, livid less than five minutes into the movie. After that, it didn’t have a chance with me. Granted, I know you can’t pack everything in a massive book like “Goblet of Fire” and have it fit in a movie less than four hours long; however, directors have a really terrible knack of looking at novels as starting points rather than blueprints. When they go hacking at a novel to cut the fat they inevitably cut out muscle and bone in their attempts to shorten a novel and make it more “cinematic.” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a perfect example of this. Director Mike Newell, a man best-known for directing Four Weddings and a Funeral and therefore the absolute worst person you could pick to direct a Harry Potter movie, hacks at J.K. Rowling’s novel not with a carving knife, but a machete. What’s left is a confusing mess. That said, I have to admit as my expectations lowered for DVD viewing I did enjoy the film more. It allowed me to focus more on the excellent effects, Oscar-nominated sets, and the much-improved acting of the kids, especially Daniel Radcliff. Still, there is a lot I don’t like about the film. Plot points are changed for no apparent reason other than to tinker which will have an impact on future adaptations of the remaining books. The music by Patrick Doyle (a very good, but in over his head, composer) is so inappropriate in parts it’s laughable as all of John Williams’ three previous scores, save for the scant use of “Hedwig’s Theme” here and there, is thrown out. Most everyone except Harry has their screen time reduced to almost cameo levels. This movie IS about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, PERIOD. If you’re a fan of the books and can watch the movies as their own entity, you’ll enjoy Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. If you’re like me and have a problem separating the two, be sure to watch it more than once to appreciate what’s good about the movie and get past what’s so very, very wrong.

Okay, so it’s not Krispy Kreme. What is?? Their donuts are fresh and decent enough. A little expensive, though.

Patrick Doyle is a very good composer. His score for Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 adaptation of Henry V is one of my favorite soundtracks. A film like that, however, should be used as Exhibit A to show why he’s the wrong person to score a Harry Potter movie. It’s not that his music for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is necessarily bad, it’s just not up to snuff. Granted, it’s very hard to reach a bar that’s been set by John Williams, but the first three movies give a pretty good blueprint of not only what the score should sound like, but at the very least the types of musical cues used for different types of scenes. Instead, Doyle throws all of Williams work in the first three films out the window (except for a smattering of “Hedwig’s Theme” lasting approximately ten seconds), creating a score that is, while pleasant enough in parts, totally inappropriate for the subject matter. The best example is track 16 titled “Hogwarts March,” music he’s composed sounding inexplicably like it was written for an Oktoberfest celebration.

This soundtrack was Patrick Doyle’s big chance to come out from the shadows of being “only” an independent film music composer and join the big boys like Williams, Danny Elfman and James Newton Howard. Instead, he falls flat on his face by trying to move forward while completely ignoring the past.

The day will come, Tim Burton, when I will corner your sorry, skinny, Gothic-wannabe ass and get my money back!

I have to preface this by saying I have never read the “graphic novel” (God, I hate that term. They’re comic books, accept it and move on.) so I can’t say whether the movie does justice to the source material or not. What I can say is the movie was well made and very enjoyable. Hugo Weaving, whom I’ve never been a big fan of, is amazing and I think the big reason for me is the fact I couldn’t see him. Vocally he’s a very good actor, but his facial expressions and physical mannerisms drive me nuts. That, however, is for another post. Everyone in the movie is excellent. It’s very well acted and the script, while a bit clunky in its dialogue, is very thought-provoking. Thumbs up from me!