All Critics (222)
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Top Critics (38)
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Fresh (202)
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DVD (36)
A marked disappointment after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, this fourth installment in the franchise is a 157-minute holding pattern.
[Newell] cannot do much about the slightly tired sadism that is creeping into the cracks of the Potter franchise.
The special effects are first rate but I think it's always going to be about the characters. And they're great characters.
It's always a treat to see what big-studio-franchise cash can produce in the way of top-flight British (and Irish) actors.
Screenwriter Kloves deserves a tip of the wizard's hat for cutting Rowling's immense tome (636 pages) down to size, and for keeping the story moving despite a surfeit of characters and incidents.
Not just an efficient babysitter but a wizard of a movie.
A huge cast, plenty of special effects and Harry gets a battering -- pretty much as you'd expect.
The Goblet of Fire is a more mature story and its young stars prove they have the acting skills to grow with their characters.
The fourth Harry Potter installment, like the book it's adapted from, is the richest to date and the darkest, concerning itself with the gradual movement from childhood to adulthood and the unfortunate realizations that are a part of growing up.
The story is engrossing, but Mike Newell's adaption is a little too dull and by-the-numbers following Alfonso Cuaron's visual tour-de-force.
Chapter four in the boy-wizard franchise, and still no good scenes, interesting characters, or true imagination
Followers of the series will find a more mature Harry and a more mature style, less sugary but not actually drier than the previous films.
Excellent, but the PG-13 is accurate.
Like a fine wine, Harry Potter continues to improve with age as each succeeding film version of Rowling's books seemingly surpasses the last.
...among best fantasy adventures of the past few years. (Blu-ray Ultimate Edition)
Finally we're seeing Harry (the character and the series) grow up.
The action in Goblet of Fire is more exciting and faster-paced than in previous Potter films, and visually, it is by far the most splendid.
This new story starts off as just another adventure, more or less, but by the end, the situation faced by its protagonists has become much darker, and much more dire.
Never feels anything other than a single thread of a larger narrative.
click to read full review [Greek]
The grim tone feels overwrought but, in [Mike] Newell's hands, and in those of his cast and screenwriter's, the movie remains dramatically solid
the film still feels very rushed, presenting and then discarding one intriguing fantasy after another, although as compensation, it never drags or gives you time to glance at a watch.
It's refreshing that Potter 4 aspires to be a paranoid thriller rather than yet another detective mystery. House points, too, for the movie's terrific effects and considerable charm.
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