Movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We got to the movie, Sunday night showing, five of us, and it was way too late. Since the theater experience is being destroyed like most of what's good about American life, not by terrorists, but by everyone being a selfish ass, every group HAS to sit with an "I don't know you" seat. Speaking of which, if you're male, and HAVE to sit at least one empty seat between you and your male friend to prove you're not gay, you don't deserve any friends, die lonely and stupid. even though there were about 20+ empty individual seats in the stadium seating, we were stuck with the front row, the one that if you looked straight ahead you have face time with a concrete wall of a stage below the screen. Movie hell. Then the trailers started, there were a couple I don't remember and no one should probably. Then there were three.. First, the new one for King Kong. Almost every image I see has me thinking it'll be one of the most wondrous movies I'll ever see. Don't worry I'm not getting my hopes up. Seeing Kong in color can't help but remind me of King Kong Lives or the Jeff Bridges one either. There's much more bad Kong than good. Not to diss on the original, which I love, but really good Kong lives in the dreams of it's fans. There hasn't been any real Kong... Real fantasy in movies is something new, that dream like quality that Episode 3 and the Lord of the Rings movies have. To watch the old Kong, you need imagination to fall into a detached escapism... but I'm buying the DVD tomorrow anyway, and will love every viewing.

So after the Kong trailer, came more evidence that M. Night Shyamalan hates life kind and civilization by punishing us with another movie (hey, I, at one point, raved about Unbreakable...) then as I sat, entirely too close to the screen, my neck breaking backwards... I cried. I was four years old, Marlon Brando's voice, that theme... then I wiped the tears from my eyes after it ended. I know I'm going to be disappointed in it. Their Superman is going to be an actor in a suit. Christopher Reeve, to a 4 year old, was Superman.

One other interesting note, my 8yo got to see March of the Penguins, my 3yo knows this. When the trailer to Happy Feet came on... wait, there was a trailer to Happy Feet in front of THIS, a PG-13 movie... more on that in a second... anyway my 3yo asks "Is this March of the Penguins?" with a sense of shock. The titles during the trailer are a bit unclear as to what the title actually is, since they have a number of stupid things to say, and Happy Feet is but one of them. My 8yo asks; "What's the name of that movie?" "Happy Feet." She burst into giggles... Well, at least we know how they came to a title.. they got a focus group of 6-9yo's and picked whichever one gave them the giggles. Assholes. FAMILY FILMS SUCK. They're generally crap. We're a family, and we basically are all but free of "Family films" The image of the American family that has been marketed to you, and marketing is your only form of education on most subjects before actual experience, is this; A white family of physically fit and overly dressed for lounging around the perfectly clean house with blinding white smiles pop in, in perfect agreement a Didney classic. Ya, I misspelled it, I don't want to be sued. I'm sure many families do this because they've been trained to, but try this... Watch anything you want. Very few movies aren't fit for children. Pop in the Godfather, the kid's will fall asleep before almost anything that the sensibilities you haven't thought through would find unfit for children. Most family films avoid how intelligent and worldly children are. By the time a kid is 13, there is nothing in Pulp Fiction that they haven't heard or seen in a public school... or in too many unfortunate cases, done. My wife's getting me Pulp Fiction fro X-mas... I look forward to my 8yo seeing it shortly there after. I'm not going to say "Sit and watch this." But I won't shoo her from the room. At one time I thought, I don't want her seeing John Travolta shooting up with a needle in instructional detail... then I realised, I do want her to see Uma's blood soaked face and Adrenaline syringe sticking out of her chest. Nancy Reagan couldn't have come up with a better "Just say No" campaign.

What the Hell does this have to do with Harry Potter? Potter is very honest to and about kids. Especially entering these awkward years, and I hope (I haven't read the books) the stories continue to grow and mature with the kids. Sure, there's way to little use of swear words, but I just assume Wizards don't use those types of words cause they have some magical significance. For all I know, having a wand in hand and saying; "Go fuck yourself!" Will result in that very awkward self-positioning.

Anyway, Nothing I could say would alter the fact that you've seen HP4 by now and loved it. I'm glad we all did... If not, leave a comment and say why you hated it...

Oh, I called this years ago, but to make it official... Daniel Radcliffe = future James Bond.

Well, hat top 5 list is sorting itself out... with only a couple contenders to go...
1.) Episode III (the DVD has been living in the player, that one keeps getting better)
2.) Howl's Moving Castle
3.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
4.) Batman Begins
5.) tie: Constantine / Serenity
Serenity looses SOOOOO many points for being so loved and so done. It's like a date who won't return your calls.
Worst of the Year... Still that unspeakable piece of TRASH... I even gave it another chance... the PAIN.

But the real champ here is that longtime sponsor of CTW, the letter "H", since Harry Potter 4 had the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie not with a title starting with "S"... Congratulations letter H.