It’s ‘PhilosopherR 17;s’ by the way, not ‘Sorcerer’ s’ (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (DVD))

Member Name: mpafp

Product:	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (DVD)
Date:	24/01/02 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hermione, Snape, Hermione's put-downs/ Snape's cool

Disadvantages: Wood, Wood, Wood (and Dumbledore)

I’d like to start by expressing my angst at yet another example of pandering to the American sub-intelligents at the expense of the huge numbers of intelligent people there are in that nation, and thus reinforcing the idea that some may have that America is populated solely by people like the cast of Deliverence, the cast of The Jerry Springer Show, and George W Bush. I refer, of course, to the film being called ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ in America, which completely demolishes the historio-mythical basis of this element of the plot. I will express this angst through use of the nonsensical word ‘hnnnnnnngharrrgh’.

Hnnnnnnngharrrgh.

There we are. Now on to the film itself.

I thought this film was moderately good. It was let down, for me, by just a few of the cast, and by the cheesy dialogue of the chess game, and by the fact that every girl I’ve spoken to about the film seems to fancy the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Oliver Wood, played by the rather provocatively named Sean Biggerstaff.

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff) was mediocre. Need I say more? OK, a little too wussy for my liking.

Ron Weasly (Rupert Grint) just gulped a lot and spoke in a silly voice, then was cheesy in the chess game.

HOWEVER…. The child-acting was not all bad. Hermoine (Emma Watson) was gorgeously snotty and pompous and girly-swot-swot, slaughtering Ron with her fantastic opening gambit to him (having just recognised Harry as the celebrity he is and now turning to Ron disdainfully) – ‘And who are you?’

Draco, also was fantastically slytherin (yes, it is actually an adjective, if archaic) with his slicked back hair and oily smug voice.

Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) was fine. Good and friendly-cuddly-clumsy.

Dumberdore (Richard Harris) was a disappointment to me, to be frank. He just seemed very tired all the time. The book seems t
o portray him as a man who is young at heart, despite his age, sympathising to some extent with boyish exploits, and with a twinkle in his eye. We only really saw this side of his when he visits Harry during his convalescence, near the end.

Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Madame Hooch (Zoe Wannamaker) and the Dursleys were all fine. Petunia Dursley (Fiona Shaw) was immaculately mummy-loves-her-little-pride-and-joy, and Vernon Dursley (Richard Griffiths) was professionally revolting (in a good way).

Quirrell (Ian Hart) was great. I had recently seen him as Lenny in Pinter’s ‘The Homecoming’ and was impressed by the way he kept some of the oily clamminess he’d used in his rôle as a suave pimp, but also invented a new brand of evil for the conniving teacher.

My personal man-of-the-match, though, had to be Alan Rickman. His performance as Snape was outstanding. He swept elegantly through the film with his evil-looking longish black hair; bullied Potter with magnificently sinister relish, appeared suddenly around corners and drawled out a few words of reprimand with minimal effort, hardly moving his lips, which nevertheless scared everyone sh*tless; and when he was put on the spot, or his house defeated, or he realised about the troll and had to rush off, he responded with wonderfully camp shock. I had pictured Snape as a bent, fat figure, like The Penguin in ‘Batman Returns’, but this version won me over. Cool is the word, hepcat.

The less said about Mr Biggerstaff the better.

So go once, but not twice as I did (not my choice), unless you want to spot the numerous bloopers and laugh at the cheesy-chess again. Or even better, get a friend to make you a video of all the Hermione and Snape bits, when it comes out on video.

Summary: