Director: Mike Newell

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

Synopsis:

It’s Harry Potter’s fourth term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Harry, Ron and Hermione look forward to the international Quidditch finals. Harry dreams of spending time with the alluring Cho Chang. He wants to be a normal 14-year-old wizard . . . But Harry is not normal – even by wizarding standards.

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Having grumbled about the twinkly, inexpressive, family-movie ambiance of the first (Chris Columbus-helmed) Harry Potter adaptation, I can only give thanks that each subsequent installment has been darker and creepier; that the last, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, seemed organically rendered—from the inside out—instead of storyboarded from on high by neutered elves; and that the newest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.), is a ghoulish PG-13 horror picture from its first scene—one of those caretaker-investigating-a-strange-light-in-an-old-dark-house numbers.

No, I couldn’t be more pleased with what the screenwriter, Steven Kloves, and the director, Mike Newell, have wrought this time. That said, I stood my ground and left my 7-year-old (who devoured the book) at home. Weak-willed parents of similarly aged children should prepare for night sweats and bed-wetting. It’s scary, kids.

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