blinkbox blog: Movie blog & reviews

The moment has come! The nominations for tinsel-town’s third most prestigious awards are in… and they feature a whole load of films no one in the UK has seen, plus a few yet to be released in America. It will obviously play well in the pre-release marketing of movies like The Iron Lady but it’s a real pain when your favourite pastime is trying to guess which movie star in a ballgown gets to pick up a gilded statue. Obvious Oscar-baiting flicks like The Descendants feature quite heavily but the real surprise of the list is Michel Hazanavicius’ silent film homage The Artist. We at the blinkbox compound haven’t seen it yet, but based on early reports and reviews stateside, it’s definitely our most anticipated release of the winter.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the Globes, also seems to be in love with George Clooney, nominating him in no less than three categories: for his performance in Alexander Payne’s mid-life crisis drama The Descendants as well as for his direction and screenplay for The Ides of March. Ryan Gosling has received recognition in his watershed year, gaining a nods for his performances in both The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid Love.

Although the Golden Globes’ reputation of late has been less a celebration of films than a platform for Ricky Gervais to roast movie stars, they’re still seen as an indicator of how the Academy will vote when it comes to choosing nominations for next year’s Oscars. If this is any indication, we’ll be hearing a lot about about War Horse and Hugo in the months to come, with Scorsese and Spielberg both in the Oscar hunt for directing sentimental family movies.

Our only disappointment is that Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur didn’t manage to find a place in any of these lists. Even after she was on the receiving end of much positive buzz in the States and winning a British Independent Film Award for best actress last week, it’s a shame that Olivia Colman’s gut-wrenching performance as an abused housewife didn’t get the recognition it deserved.

Here’s a selection of this year’s nominees:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse 

Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight In Paris
My Week with Marilyn
50/50

Best Actor – Comedy
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love
Owen Wilson, Midnight In Paris

Best Actress — Comedy
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage

Best Actor – Drama
George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides Of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress – Drama
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Director
Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Sequels are a tricky beast. People liked your first film and flocked to the cinema in droves to watch it. The studio want to equal the success (read: box-office) of the original while expanding the world of the film enough to sustain a franchise in the way that the James Bond films have. The pitfalls in their way usually entail trying to cram too much into a single film. Batman Forever is a good example of this where the movie featured no less than the origin story of three villains, multiple sub-villains as well as a romantic plot-line.  Another problem sequels commonly have is to rehash what worked in the original. Case and point would be the Austin Powers movies: endless re-workings of jokes from the first movie turned what were original gags into tired old tropes inducing more groans than chuckles. So it came as no small relief that Guy Ritchie’s follow-up to his 2009 Sherlock Holmes is an unconventionally solid sequel.

Game of Shadows finds Baker Street’s greatest mind working to uncover the nefarious plan of one Professor Moriarty (played by Mad Men’s Jared Harris). Established as a world class brain-box (as well as Oxford boxing champ, by the way), they prove to be a challenge for each other. The few scenes Harris and Robert Downey Jr. have together spark wonderfully as they engage and Holmes tries to get to the bottom or Moriarty’s scheme. When they plan does reveal itself, it’s completely ludicrous and needlessly complicated, although it’s good to see the villain driven by greed instead of by a desire be villainous.

Ritchie’s visual tricks are back in force, dispensing with Michael Bay’s style of quick-cutting action sequences in favour of slow-motion set pieces – a sweet relief from the blockbuster-induced seizures that I’m prone to. Holmes and Watson fight a Cossack assassin in a Victorian gin palace and escape a German munitions base: the set-pieces are bigger and louder than in the first Sherlock without losing sight of the humour that made it a success. Although their character arcs are pretty much the same this time –Holmes is dismayed at being abandoned by Watson, whose imminent nuptials are putting the brakes on their relationship—Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law seem more comfortable in their partnership and their rapport is easier than ever.

Rounding out the cast this time round is Stephen Fry as Mycroft, Holmes’ smarter older brother, in a role that seems tailor-made for him: haughty, sharp and slightly camp, he delights every minute he’s on screen. Noomi Rapace (formerly of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series) is also along for the adventure as a feisty Gypsy whose brother is somehow entangled in Moriarty’s grand design. She isn’t cast as a romantic interest, which is another sweet relief: as mentioned before, superfluous love stories are a great way to bog down your story.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is by no means a masterpiece –as before, Downey’s take on Sherlock is fun but lightweight– but as a piece of light entertainment for December movie-goers it’s a slick romp that hits the spot.

The story of Martin Scorsese’s childhood has long been established in movie lore: from a young age, he had suffered from asthma and had spent his formative years stuck indoors in the cinemas of New York City. In those darkened movie theatres, he discovered his love for films, retreating into the fantasy worlds created by directors like his later-life mentor Michael Powell. Although it is a dramatic departure from the crime pictures for which he’s best known, Scorsese’s latest film Hugo may be his most personal work in ages.

Set in a Parisian railway station in the early 1930s, the film tells the story of Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a young orphan boy who secretly maintains the clocks at the station. He spends his days stealing food, evading security and scavenging parts to repair a discarded clockwork automaton left to him by his father. He befriends Chloë Grace Moretz’s Isabelle, the adopted daughter of Ben Kingsley’s Georges Méliès, a reclusive silent film director now reduced to selling toys at the Station.  Despite Papa Georges’ bitter protests Hugo and Isabelle begin to unlock the secrets of the automaton.

The character of Georges Méliès is a real historical figure. An accomplished magician, he directed hundreds of silent films and in the process pioneered special effects through techniques such as multiple exposures and false perspective. His most famous surviving work is A Trip to the Moon, whose iconic image of a rocket shot into the eye of the moon has been parodied extensively (the Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight video is a direct homage). By the time the Great War was over, Méliès was bankrupt and as depicted in the film, turned to selling toys at the Montparnasse station.

Scorsese’s film, based on a book by Brian Selznick, is as much about the romanticism of early cinema as it is about a young boy finding his purpose. The clockwork interiors of the station and the whirring machinery of the city mirror the workings of a motion picture camera and we see the power that films have to amaze and transfix its audience.  The historical detail will mean nothing to children, but Hugo is a heartfelt and thrilling adventure first and foremost. Scorsese’s camera is as kinetic as ever, swooping through crowds and tumbling around back passages of Paris.

From one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of the medium comes this swooning love letter to the wonderful fantasies made by those shadows projected in the dark.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Released: 12^th July 2007

UK #1 Single: Rihanna feat. Jay-Z: Umbrella

Biggest US box-office films of the year:

1. Spider-Man 3

2. Shrek 3

3. Transformers

In the news:  Madeleine McCann disappears in Portugal. Ban Ki-moon becomes the new Secretary General of the United Nations. The novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is published; smashing sales records worldwide.

The end really starts here. David Yates –previously known for directing BBC’s State of Play– helms this entry along with it’s sequels. Any concerns about his TV background were quickly put to rest with his dynamic and cinematic visual style. Darker than ever before, Order of the Phoenix opens on Harry’s encounter with the Dementors and it rarely lets up, with the exception of a few scenes of comic relief. Harry is cast in the role of Hogwarts pariah, facing off against Imelda Staunton’s Professor Umbridge: in fact, much of the film revolves around the refusal of adults to believe what Harry has seen.  If anything, this is Harry’s real coming-of-age story, channeling the frustration of many teenagers stuck in that limbo between adolescence and adulthood. In fact, everyone is growing up: since Goblet of Fire, Daniel Radcliffe has obviously hit the gym, Rupert Grint has expanded his acting repertoire beyond gurning and Emma Watson continues her worrying development into womanhood.

While there is a lot of growing up and learning happening on screen, Order of the Phoenix opens up the scope of the Potter world significantly. A lot of the film takes place outside Hogwarts’ cloistered walls and we get to see the Ministry of Magic as well as an ambush on a Ministry office during its action-packed final half hour. For the first time, a major character meets his demise and it becomes obvious that by Harry Potter 7, the steps of Hogwarts will be covered in blood. Whereas The Philosopher’s Stone was firmly a movie made for kids, the Harry Potter of 2007 definitely earns its 12a certificate.

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(2009)

Released: 15^h July 2009

UK #1 Single: Pixie Lott: Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh, Oh)

Biggest US box-office films of the year:

1. Avatar

2. Transformers 2

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In the news:  An epidemic of H1N1, also known as swine flu is diagnosed, causing havoc to international travel.  Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States. Pop icon Michael Jackson dies weeks before a planned 50 date run of concerts at the O2 Arena.

Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts finds him hunting horcruxes, fighting zombies, learning about Voldemort’s past and coming face-to-face with his own family history. It is also the year in which “the unfortunate event” occurs. After the death of Sirius Black in Order of the Phoenix, trying to guess who will be the next to buy the farm became a huge talking point amongst Potter-fans and the big demise in this entry is no less shocking. Never before has a series of kids’ films seen so many major characters get totally murdered.

But like some cinematic Hydra, when we lose one venerated British actor, it seems like two more take his place. In this film, we’re introduced to the celebrity-obsessed Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Along with Daily Prophet hack Rita Skeeter, Slughorn seems to be part of Rowling’s continued critique of Britain’s tabloid media. Though it may read a bit like the gripings of a super-rich celebrity author, (“Hey kids, you know what it’s like being hounded by the media, yeah?”) it’s a bit of narrative texture that you wouldn’t normally find in young fiction, so you cannot fault her entirely.

There are a lot of subplots in Half-Blood Prince involving minor characters and multiple romances. Harry’s burgeoning feelings for Ron’s sister Ginny is a sadly wasted opportunity: the actress who plays her is quite plain and dull, which makes it completely puzzling why Harry is interested in the least .

Half-Blood Prince is a decently assembled blockbuster, but no thanks to the sprawling nature of books 5 through 7, it feels more like a sequence of events than a cohesive story. Since the end of Goblet of Fire, the story feels like it’s been in a holding pattern, just waiting for the last book before Voldemort finally makes his assault on Hogwarts. So, in the larger scheme of the Potter narrative, there’s only one event in HP6 that really matters and that is Dumbledore’s death at the hands of Snape the ‘unfortunate event’.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Released: 19^th November 2010

UK #1 Single: Rihanna: Only Girl (In the World)

Biggest US box-office films of the year:

1. Toy Story 3

2. Alice in Wonderland

3. Iron Man 2

In the news:  An explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform spills millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Spain wins the World Cup in South Africa. David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Right, so Dumbledore’s dead now (post-SPOILER ALERT!) and we’re at the final stretch. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (or as it’s better known: “Harry Potter and his Lovely Walk in the Forest of Dean”) is the calm before the storm. Most of the action doesn’t take place in Hogwarts, instead following Harry, Ron and Hermione as they escape the clutches of the Death Eaters and search for the final horcruxes.

Voldemort’s quest to ethnically-cleanse the world of muggles is an obvious parable for facism, although the scenes where he rambles on about his theories of racial purity are a bit hammy. Still: this is a film for teens, and exploring the nuances of radical racism would probably muddy the waters and the stretch the film out longer than its current 140 minute run-time.

There’s a wonderful sequence where our heroes infiltrate the Ministry of Magic disguised as Ministry employees. The adult actors playing the shape-shifting teens look to be having a great time aping the mannerisms of Radcliffe and co. while they skulk around a hive of magical bureaucrats reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. After their close escape comes their previously alluded sojourn in the woods.

Maligned even by fans when the book was first published, the woods sequence in the film takes on a similarly strange mood. Seemingly at a loss, the gang hideout in a forest clearing, considering their next move. The action meanders and builds up to a strange pseudo-sexual dance between Harry and Hermione while Nick Cave plays on the radio. It’s the first time we’ve heard popular music in any of the films and it does seem to jar quite a bit. However, it does provide an appropriately melancholic precursor to the epic battles of the final film.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

Released: 15^th July 2011

UK #1 Single: Jason Derulo: Don’t Wanna Go Home

Biggest US box-office films of the year:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

3. The Hangover Part 2

In the news:  The Arab Spring brings revolution throughout North Africa. Osama bin Laden is killed by a US Navy Seal team in Pakistan. Apple founder Steve Jobs passes away.

The final act arrives: Harry returns to Hogwarts and the forces of good brace themselves to battle Voldemort’s evil army. Apart from the gang breaking in the Goblin bank at the beginning, the final battle essentially dominates the film’s running time. The lengthy battle plays out like Zulu or Assault on Precinct 13 as they try to hold off an enemy who quickly surrounds them. Deaths are inevitable and romances come to a head in this last chapter. All the lingering questions are tied up neatly and minor characters get their moments to shine.

The epilogue –taking place 20 years after– can come across as slightly saccharine (and the aging make-up is rubbish) but after 8 films and ten years, fans deserve that sort of closure with these characters that they’ve come to know better than some friends. After all, we’ve seen Harry, Ron and Hermione grow up.

Perhaps in the future there will be another sequel – or a prequel or maybe even a remake. But for now: this is it. No more Potter. Whether you’ve been a hardcore fan or just casually enjoyed the movies, you can’t help but be moved by the end of an era.

Horror remakes aren’t always a bad thing. David Cronenberg’s 1986 version of The Fly took a campy Vincent Price flick from the 50s and turned it into a shocking body-horror movie that fit in perfectly with the director’s own sensibilities. In 1982, Halloween director John Carpenter updated 1951′s The Thing from Another World into a very prescient character-driven thriller that capitalised on the cold war paranoia of the time. Therefore, there’s no real reason think that 2011’s The Thing would be bad. Or is there?

Horror movies have always been popular with the big film studios: they don’t normally rely on casting big-name actors so the cost of producing them is relatively low. The budget combined with the tendency for scary movies to perform well at the box office usually means there’s a greater chance of the studios turning a profit. In order to cut the risk even further, movie execs also prefer to remake stories that have a certain ‘brand-recognition’ and proven track record.

Just off the top of my head: in the last ten years we’ve seen remakes to The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Last House on the Left, Halloween…

I really could go on…

In fact, I will!

There’s also been House of Wax, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Piranha, The Amityville Horror, The Omen, Straw Dogs, Wolfman, My Bloody Valentine and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This isn’t even counting the sequels to those remakes! So, faced with the prospect of this year’s The Thing, I wasn’t expecting anything new.

Dutch commercial director Matthijs van Heijningen and his writer Eric Heisserer have taken an interesting angle with this movie: in some way, it’s a sequel but in other ways, it’s very much a remake. In Carpenter’s cult classic, the opening scene shows two Norwegians in a helicopter chasing a dog through the Antarctic wasteland, shooting at it with a rifle. This dog, we soon learn, is not quite what it seems: it ends up at an American research station where a creature starts replacing its inhabitants, slowly picking them off. 2011’s version is the story of where the Norwegians came from.

Set in the early 80s (to match the time period), we see an incredibly similar set-up to the film.  The cast of characters feature a number of smarmy scientific researchers and blue-collar workers as well as a rough-and-tumble helicopter pilot (Joel Edgerton)who’s so similar to Kurt Russell’s character in the ’82 Thing that you wonder whether they are in fact the same guy, working in two different stations, who miraculously forgot the traumatic incidents that occurred only days before and also (somehow) managed to come back from the dead between the two films. Sorry: spoiler alert.

The two stories unfold beat-for-beat in exactly the same way that you simply cannot think of it as a prequel at all but maybe something akin to a cover version of a much-loved classic. After a while, I stopped worrying about the stark similarities and really started to enjoy it. The 2011 Thing is a well constructed and effective horror — the makers have taken what worked in the ‘original’ and managed to re-use them to great effect. It reminded me of how much I loved the original without necessarily making me wish I was watching it at the time.

The social and cultural relevance no longer looms over the film –we’re no longer as obsessed with having spies in our midst as we were in the 80s– so the sequences where they start a witch hunt might not resonate in the way they once might have. The digital effects are handled very well with the exception of a totally unnecessary giant spaceship set (imagine a studio executive rolling a cigar between his fingers: “Make it bigger okay? More explosions!”) and the monster designs are often inventive riffs on the originals.

So, in summation:

Is this ‘remakequel’ of The Thing entirely necessary? Probably not.

Is it scary? Sure. 

Will people who haven’t seen Carpenter’s The Thing enjoy it? Absolutely.

Do I want to see studios remake more horror classics? I really don’t think we have a choice in this matter.

It feels strange to be moved by the end of a film franchise. Even that word –franchise - suggests some cash-scooping juggernaut hell-bent on squeezing every penny out of its fans. And lord knows that is exactly what the Harry Potter business has been: Toys, clothes, bed-sheets, picture-books, sweets, DVDs, video-games, not to mention – a whopping 7.7 billion dollars at the box-office. The series has kept studios and special effect houses in business for a decade and provided somewhere for respected British character actors to cash in their cheques.

But for many of us, Harry Potter is something has been with us for over a decade. Children who may have been only 8 years-old when The Philosophers Stone was released have since turned 18 and gone on to work or university. The release of a new film featuring the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione very often marks another yet another Christmas season.  For the older ones of us, watching Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint grow up on screen provides another harrowing reminder of our own mortality *sigh*.

Now that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has been released on DVD blinkbox it seems like a good time to look back at the series and see how they fit into our recent history. Today, we’ll be looking at the first four Potter films, with a follow-up to arrive in our next edition.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)

Released: 16^th November 2001

UK #1 Single: Westlife: Queen of My Heart

Biggest US box-office films of the year: 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 3. Shrek

In the news: Hitting the cinemas little over 2 months after the tragic events of September 11^th, the western world was still very much in a period of mourning. Box-office takings had taken a hit in the wake of an event that seemed larger and more relevant than anything one could see in the movies.  The enormous success of The Philosopher’s Stone in the US perhaps signaled a moment in time when American audiences were ready for escapist fantasy to distract from all the carnage on television.

American director Chris Columbus –previously known for his work writing The Goonies and Gremlins as well as directing the Home Alone films–takes the reins on this highly anticipated adaptation of JK Rowling’s debut novel. Casting unknown child actors along respected British thespians the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Richard Harris, Columbus kick-started what would become the enduring film franchise of the decade. Although detractors will argue that his directorial style is lightweight when compared with his successors, Columbus effectively builds the framework for this world of wizards and muggles without being bogged-down by the enormous cast of characters. Hollywood super-composer John Williams provides another iconic score, setting the tone for the rest of the series.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Released: 15^th November 2002

UK #1 Single: Westlife: Unbreakable

Biggest US box-office films of the year: 1. Spider-Man 2. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 3. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

In the news: Chechen gunmen storm a theatre in Moscow. The United Nations approve a resolution to disarm Saddam Hussein and Iraq. At the age of 101, the Queen Mother passes away a mere month after the death of her daughter Princess Margaret.

 

Back for a second year at Hogwarts, Chamber of Secrets is a notably darker affair, introducing giant spiders, demonic serpents and Jason Isaac’s scenery-chewing Lucius Malfoy. A number of exciting set-pieces including the flying Ford Anglia scene and Kenneth Branagh’s campy turn as a prima-donna professor stops this from becoming an overwhelmingly dark affair. It’s still very much a film for young children, but there are elements of darkness that foreshadow the things to come. Harry and gang turn sleuth, searching for the mythical chamber with secret maps and shape-shifting potions helping them along their way. There’s a good deal of Voldemort’s back story told here, but all-an-all, it’s a pretty slight affair.

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Released: 31^st May 2004

UK #1 Single: Frankee: F.U.R.B *

Biggest US box-office films of the year: 1. Shrek 2 2. Spider-Man 2 3. The Passion of the Christ

In the news:  PM Tony Blair visits Libya, re-opening relations with the controversial regime. President Ronald Reagan, Yassar Arafat and actor Marlon Brando pass away. The final episode of Friends airs on Channel 4.

This one’s the game changer. Chris Columbus steps aside making room for Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron. Though he worked within Hollywood before, directing the very lush A Little Princess and an under-appreciated modern-reworking of Great Expectations, Cuaron was best known for his saucy 2001 coming-of-age movie Y Tu Mama Tambien. He brought real craftsmanship to the HP movies: the scenes set in Privet Lane are shot almost like Mike Leigh films, complete with handheld compositions and muted colours. He also made the choice of allowing the students to wear normal human clothes when not in classes – a move that may have spared later films from becoming totally ridiculous. Just imagine 18 year-olds mourning their murdered friends whilst wearing a pointy wizard’s hat and you’ll get why it was a prudent move. Azkaban is, simply put, a much more mature film that allowed the leads to develop as actors in ways that they couldn’t before. Michael Gambon makes his first appearance as headmaster Professor Dumbledore, replacing the late Richard Harris. He cuts a very sprightly figure in comparison to the frail Harris, conjuring a far more powerful presence for the great wizard.

The only slight niggle is with the plot is Hermione’s time-travelling necklace.  A device that essentially allows the characters to negate anything that came before would surely be best used going back in time and undoing the birth of Voldemort, perhaps? Oh well…

*Don’t ask, because I don’t know…

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Released: 18^th November 2005

UK #1 Single: Madonna: Hung Up

Biggest US box-office films of the year: 1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 2. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In the news: Hurricane Katrina ravages the Mississippi. Saddam Hussein is tried for crimes against humanity. 10 simultaneous concerts are held throughout the world, raising awareness in the Make Poverty History campaign. London is awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics. Terrorist attacks in London rock the transport system, resulting in over 50 deaths and injuring hundreds.

The world of Hogwarts expands once again. Goblet of Fire marks the introduction of Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, bringing with him the looming spectre of death in the Potter franchise.  The plot is tighter in this fourth film: the Tri-wizarding tournament involving students from rival wizard schools lends the feeling of a sports film filled with more action set-pieces than you can shake a wand at. Director Mike Newell (Four Weddings…, Donnie Brasco) instils a strange 80s aesthetic to the production –as can be seen from Harry’s Miami Vice hairdo– that makes it stick out a little from all the other movies.

For many girls, HP4 was the film that birthed the international phenomenon that is Robert Pattinson. Playing Harry’s rival, Cedric Diggory, Pattinson is joined by a bus-load of British talent including David Tennant, Brendan Gleeson, Miranda Richardson and the returning Gary Oldman. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is perhaps the last of the Harry Potter films that work as a standalone film: from here on out, the sequels all build up to the ultimate climax of the last film.

Also, keep your eye out for the band that plays during the Christmas ball – featuring no less than Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and Radiohead’s Jonny and Colin Greenwood!

 

Our retrospective of the Harry Potter franchise will continue…