Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Griffiths, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters
Director: David Yates
Studio Synopsis: It has been a long, lonely summer for Harry Potter as he awaits his fifth year of study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's bad enough that he must endure living with the odious Dursleys, but he hasn't received even a note from his classmates and closest friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. And there has not been any word from anyone in the aftermath of his confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort. The letter that does arrive is not the kind for which he was hoping—pronouncing that Harry is about to be expelled from Hogwarts for illegally using magic outside of school and in the presence of a Muggle, namely his obnoxious cousin, Dudley. Never mind that it was in defense against an unprovoked and inexplicable attack by two Dementors. Harry's only hope is to defend himself at what amounts to hardly more than a kangaroo court orchestrated by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who has his own reasons for wanting the young wizard to be gone for good. Much to Fudge's chagrin, Harry is acquitted—thanks largely to the intervention of Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore—but his return to Hogwarts is, for the first time, apprehensive and uncomfortable. Harry has learned that much of the wizarding community has been led to believe that the story of the teenager's recent encounter with Voldemort is an outright lie, putting Harry's integrity in question. Feeling ostracized and alone, Harry is beset by nightmares that seem to foretell sinister events. Worse, the one person whose counsel he needs most, Professor Dumbledore, is suddenly acting strangely distant from the confused and hurt young wizard. Meanwhile, in an effort to keep an eye on Dumbledore and keep the Hogwarts students—especially Harry—in line, Fudge has appointed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the duplicitous Professor Dolores Umbridge. But Professor Umbridge's "Ministry-approved" course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the Dark Forces threatening them. So, at the prompting of Hermione and Ron, Harry is convinced to take matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore's Army," Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that he knows lies ahead.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 138 minutes
Official Web site: http://www.harrypotterorderofthephoenix.com/
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harrypotterandtheorder
ofthephoenix/

The Verdict: Forget potions and spells. Our bespectacled young wizard receives an unexpected lesson in school politics during his fifth year at Hogwarts. Echoes of McCarthyism reverberate throughout the darkened halls of Hogwarts as the powers that be refuse to believe Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Prof. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) that the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is back. A skeptical Minister of Magic (Robert Hardy) names one of his loyal underlings to the vacant post of Defense Against the Darks Arts teachers to suppress of all talk of You-Know-Who among students. And so Harry—now played by Radcliffe with all the intensity, pigheadedness and defiance one associates with adolescent angst—instantly runs afoul of the spiteful by-the-book bureaucrat Dolores Umbridge (Vera Drake's Imelda Staunton). Wearing a fake smile that never cracks, and letting out a loud squeak whenever she makes herself laugh, Staunton is delightfully unctuous and menacing as a pint-sized Tomàs de Torquemada squeezed into a matronly pink suit. Indeed, it's Umbridge's assumed role as Hogwarts' grand inquisitor that finally prompts Potter to become a man among boys. There's certainly no trace of the innocent and naive young school boy who first arrived at Hogwarts all those many years ago. Also participating in the witch hunt in some shape or form are Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, David Thewlis, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters, who all continue to pad their pensions with their fleeting return appearances. Even Gambon doesnít make his presence felt until he and the unrecognizable Fiennes go at it à la Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader in Star Wars. Gary Oldman, though, finally makes his mark as Harry's ill-fated godfather Sirius Black. With his attention now focused on passing on his magic skills to his fellow students, Harry no longer has time for anything as foolish as a game Qudditch. Now it's all about assembling "Dumbledore's Army," which includes pals Ron Weasley (a toughened Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (a typically no-nonsense Emma Watson). Indeed, there's not much fun to be found in The Order of the Phoenix. Inheriting a world that's already been created and explored to no end by his predecessors, director David Yates' job is simply to help Harry fully realize his powers and to cultivate his leadership skills. Consequently, The Order of the Phoenix is one long training session designed to test Harry's mettle and prepare him for the events that will unfold in the last two installments in this seven-part franchise. But while The Order of the Phoenix is another effects-heavy spectacle, it's rather light on action. And it's probably for the best, considering Yates is the least experienced of the four directors to so far oversee Harry Potter's schooling. While The Order of the Phoenix clearly plays to Yates' strength as a director of politically-minded character studies—most noticeably the HBO romance The Girl in the Café—he receives a couple of on-the-job lessons in staging nail-biting encounters between the forces of good and evil. Based on the opening attack on Harry by several Death Eaters that's right out of 28 Days Later, and the climatic showdown between Dumbledore and Voldemort that's being shown in 3D at the Blockbuster IMAX Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Yates will be up to the task of directing next yearís Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Here's hoping, though, for a somewhat more eventful sixth year for Harry and his classmates.
—Robert Sims

Reviews:
Boca News (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)
Hollywood.com (3 out of 4 stars)
Local 10 (2 out of 4 stars)
The Miami Herald (3 out of 4 stars)
Miami SunPost (2 out of 4 stars)
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
The Palm Beach Post (B)
The Sun-Sentinel (2 1/2 out of 4 stars)