Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

I didn't say anything before but I saw the last Harry Potter film (Prisoner of Ashkenazi) in the theater (sorta). Because I didn't make it through. It was an impulse buy on the walk back from a bar when I was sorta beered up. A midnight showing. And by 12:14 I was dead asleep. I woke up a half-hour later completely boogle headed and just walked out. I didn't want to watch it in that way. Iwatched it on video but I still barely remember it. All three previous Potter films have grown into a mushy muck of blah blah wizardry and talking paintings and stuff flying around and lights and creatures and stuff. All flat and whatevery. But this one is going to stand out for me for sure.  Because there were so many moments of actual greatness in this movie that I was really sorta stunned.

On the way there I picked up a York Peppermint Patty (awesome), twizz and a Poland Spring water. (btw I bought it in the same deli that I bought the Deer Park water in last time. And I took a good look at the bottles. I am now convinced I was right about my bootleg theory. The Deer Park bottles felt somehow slightly flimsier or maybe that was only because they were like all slightly deflated. They weren't all hard rigid like the others. And Deep Park were the only bottles with bubbles on the sides. Bootlegs I tells ya!)

Anyway, just fyi this flick was a 4:20 showing for me. (an old college friend came to visit). I rarely ever see films or anything else at that time of day nowadays --but for Potter it seemed like a good idea. Not sure what the influence factor was- but I totally dove into this movie and splashed around and had a great time in there. And on top of it, I thought this movie was seriously funny at times. I laughed my ass off for a nice chunk of this flick. And so many images were friggin juicy. Dragons finally done right! Although I dropped out of Potter books after the 3rd, there's such good happiness vibes pouring out of these books that mouth in my brain still hangs smilingly wide open for Rowling. And what she done made. Man-o-chevitz! What a woild!

Bottom line, to put it simple-like, I really liked watching this movie alot. Much more than the other Potters. Maybe the fact that I'd read the first three books caused me to push back on those because the pictures in my head were different. Or maybe I like that this was darker and more adultish. Not sure what it was. But I ate my York and twizz and goggle gandered at this zoomy flying flick- sometimes really in awe. Yeah occasionally I got lost in the story. Blah blah I drifted in and out. And yadda occasionally the effects were cheesed and of course toward the end I was fading fast. But there's a lingering suspicion that this movie may have been running at a much higher level than I even give it credit for... or maybe it was just me... at the time.

Three Good Things About this Movie

- A few jokes had me laughing out loud for like 30 seconds straight.
- The dragon scene was one of the best things I've seen.
- It seemed like alot of stuff would give kids nightmares- which I liked.

Three Bad Things About this Movie

- For all the crazy spells all over the place that can do a zillion coolio things... ummm... why does Potter need glasses? Maybe someone could conjure up 'Correcto' and hook a brother up?
- It went a solid 20 minutes too long.
- At what point does Voldermort really become a joke to other dark wizards? Obviously the guy isn't really pulling it together.

So that was that. The only real drawback was a side effect on the walk home. A vague sense of disappointment in my regular ol' world. I looked around at stuff hoping for magic. But all I saw was regular ol' cars driving down the regular ol' street and stopping at regular ol' lights. And a regular ol' store clerk bored behind a counter selling irregular ol' water. And a regular ol' dog sniffing a regular ol' hydrant.

Everything just looked so grounded and predictable.... and regular.

Oh well. Gotta just look a little harder round these parts...

. <<<CHYATT