Today’s movie: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Of course, there was no waiting a week or two to see this one. Warner Brothers has The Official Harry Potter Website, with online games and such, and IMDB (which is part of Amazon.com, actually) has the more informative site. Good movie, lots of great effects, and the three kids who star as Harry, Ron, and Hermoine do a super job carrying this film. Certainly worth seeing and you can see the trailer online if you want.

Director Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, Bicentennial Man) and screenwriter Steve Kloves (Wonder Boys, The Fabulous Baker Boys–how did he get this assignment?) put a solid story up on the screen, you can see where the $125 million was gloriously spent. They had a tough time choosing which 20% of the novel to include in the movie and did a mostly good job–although novelist J.K. Rowling was noted as having substantial input– but I think we needed more on the Harry/Draco Malfoy animosity and the same on Professor Snape (Alan Rickman does a smart job in the role). Along with Rickman, Columbus will be providing significant numbers of older English actors with employment as this and the other six Potter movies are made, including John Cleese, John Hurt, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Griffiths, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, and Richard Bremmer.