Harry Potter and the 
Goblet of Fire (2005)

Preceded by: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Succeeded by: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Harry Potter	Daniel Radcliffe	½
Hermione Granger	Emma Watson
Ron Weasley	Rupert Grint
Wormtail	Timothy Spall
Barty Crouch Junior	David Tennant	½
Ginny Weasley	Bonnie Wright
Cedric Diggory	Robert Pattison	½
Lucius Malfoy	Jason Isaacs	½
Draco Malfoy	Tom Felton
Viktor Krum	Stanislav Ianevski	½
Cornelius Fudge	Robert Hardy	½
Neville Longbottom	Matthew Lewis
Rubeus Hagrid	Robbie Coltrane	½
Albus Dumbledore	Michael Gambon	½
Minerva McGonagall	Maggie Smith	½
Severus Snape	Alan Rickman
Igor Karkaroff	Predrag Bjelac	½
Professor Alastor Moody	Brendan Gleeson
Rita Skeeter	Miranda Richardson	½
Sirius Black	Gary Oldman
Moaning Myrtle	Shirley Henderson	½
Lord Voldemort	Ralph Fiennes
Cameos by	Jarvis Cocker Phil Selway and others

Review

This Mike Newell film is first and foremost a nice coming-off age drama, with fine performances by the three young leads Radcliffe, Watson and Grint. There are emotions stirring with love, friendship, insecurity, jealousy and restrained sexuality. Newell does well to let the actors express themselves, and there are some wonderful scenes during a ball which on a dramatic level surpasses anything this series has contributed so far.

In contrast to the two former entries, The Goblet of Fire offers a continuation of the story on a more comprehensive level - setting Harry up against Lord Voldemort himself (intriguingly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes). This and the subsequent concluding scenes are exciting and well-executed, but the contest our young magicians are put through in order to get there is disappointingly run-of-the-mill, with one-dimensional characters (why is the East-European contestant always dimwitted and untalkative?), irrelevant events and, of course, never any real doubt as to who the winner's gonna be. Rowling throws every trick she knows into the fantasy mixer (or goblet, if you like) and screenwriter Kloves brings it all eagerly and uncritically to the screen. Some sequences are good (the Brendan Gleeson character is both cleverly plotted and expertly acted) but at some point you have to ask yourself just how many characters a film can handle without becoming completely messy. And it doesn't make matters better that the most important of them is the least interesting. I'd rather this film was named "Neville Longbottom and the Goblet of Fire", because that Harry Potter kid is turning into the most mushy, over-considerate, unflawed bore you can imagine.