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| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone |
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| Movies,
Graham Bower,
03:00:00,
06 December 2001 |
Rating: F3
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What is there to say about Harry Potter that has not been said – a thousand times over.
He’s a boy from the bad side of town (or rather, the bad side of a rather bland looking ex-council estate in the home counties). He’s blessed with magical powers, courtesy of the biggest power of them all, mother love, and these powers enable him to ascend from his humble background to become a proper little toff, complete with a plumy public school accent and some stuck up friend. Oh, but in case you were thinking this was some throw-back to the ancient art of child entertaining fostered by the likes of E Nesbit, Authur Ransom and C S Lewis – stop right there. There’s a black girl in Harry’s school – a real one – she’s called “Token Ethnic Minority #1,” she’s got dredds and she can rap (probably).
As Harry abandons the council estate to become a posh kid instead, something else magically happens – we’re propelled back in time buy over a hundred years and are compelled to travel around everywhere in steam trains and use words like “spiffing.” (I don’t think Harry does say spiffing, but image if he did).
In short – it’s all very annoying stuff. But that’s not news. I think the best thing to report about this movie is that adults don’t appear to like it as much as they “liked” the book. People have told me that it’s more like a kid’s movie. Ah shame. I think perhaps they were embarrassed when they saw the object of last years obsession immortalised in celluloid and realised that it was just a kids book after all.
Having said that - the movie is not so bad – if it was trimmed down from it’s hefty two and a half hour running time it might actually be good. The acting is patch, with some of the child actors bringing back uncomfortable reminders of Rod Hull and Emu’s Pink Windmill show. But let’s make no mistake, it’s a kids movie, and if it wasn’t for the hype, it probably wouldn’t be featured on a site like this.
UK rating:
PG
US rating:
PG
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris, John Cleese
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