A nice surprise, a memorable film

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2001)

When I heard that Chris Columbus was directing the first Harry Potter movie, I had my doubts. But "The Sorcerer's Stone" turned out to be splendid -- as Ron would say, wicked. Looked good, good story, generally acted well. I was thinking as I took it in, this may be the Star Wars for my kids' generation.

The child actors, perhaps expertly coaxed by Columbus, all turned in good performances, particularly Rupert Grint as Ron. Emma Watson did overemote as Hermoine, but because her character's also a ham, and because the girl is so darn cute, I could cut her some slack this time.
As for the adults, I'm thinking that at the least, Robbie Coltrane deserves a supporting actor Oscar nom. The movie was well-cast, especially with J.K. Rowling's personal choice for Snape, Alan Rickman.
A couple of nit-picks: the Quidditch field (pitch?) looked rather phony from the sky, like it was in a Harry Potter video game. And I'm not sure I would've detected this had I not seen the NBC interview with Daniel Radcliffe, but in more than half the scenes, you can tell if you look close that there's no lenses in Harry's glasses.