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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Full Screen Edition)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT MOVIE!!!!!
Review: This movie definitely lives up to the Harry Potter book. The movie stays true to the books and helps you visually to. The actors fit the descriptions of the book very well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Could Not Have Been Made Better
Review: I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and was so psyched when the movies started being made. Except for a few minor changes, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone could not have been made any better. The sound and diction is excellent as well as the acting, the sets are phenomenal and whoever casted the characters obviously read the book many times because everyone was exactly how I imagined them when I was reading the books. Now I can put in one of the movies and relive the magic of Harry Potter without having to read the book. I can not even describe how much joy the Harry Potter series has given me, and am glad that the movies were made exactly like the books; beyond outstanding.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hmm.
Review: I still don't know if I like the movie or not.

Though, it's not really the movie in question, it's the book. Personally I dislike the first and (to a certain degree) the second books in the series. Some of the lines are a bit cheesy and I -despise- the ending (you broke all the rules, have a trophy!). Ok, yeah, he kinda saved the world, but still- shouldn't he get some kind of punishment for breaking at least a hundred rules at that school? It suffers from classic 'happy end' syndrome.

Now, the 3rd and 4th I really like, and I totally dig the 5th. Maybe that's because I'm a sick twisted little kid, but that's ok I guess. <3 for Moody.

Onto the actual movie...Hermione and Ron are great. Harry however isn't that great of an actor- he cracks maybe 3 facial expressions in the entire movie (*coughcoughkeanureevescoughcough*...i love the matrix though). Virtually the whole rest of the casting is perfect.

I'm really waiting for the rest of the books to be made into movies, as I believe they will hold up to the spirit of the books more. There is only one problem (Which I believe Abarat, if made into a movie, will suffer of as well). If the 5th/4th books are made into movies they will probably be too scary for the lower end of HP's target audience. I'm talking about the ending of Goblet and just about all of Pheonix. I just hope that they PLEASE don't try to dumb the books down.

In any case, I don't know if I like this movie as a movie or not. The effects are severely lacking (ergh, the troll looks SO fake). It sticks to the books well, I guess. I get that 'oh, jeez' stomach-turn effect at a few lines, though.

Verdict? It's a well made movie, for the most part. I'm just not a huge fan of the early books. I just wish Harry's casting could have been a -tad- better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Harry Goes To Hogwarts!
Review: You have to have a heart of stone - or be a Dursley - to NOT like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I say this not from the perspective of a child, nor the parent of a child, nor even a voracious reader of the J.K. Rowling novels about the boy with glasses and that lightning-shaped star. Indeed, I only have the first of the five books and that, dear readers, only because my former neighbor and computer troubleshooter gave it to me before he moved to South Carolina. My taste in movies rarely goes into the realm of "family fare," even though some of my favorite films (E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Star Wars series, among others) are geared for young and old alike.

I must also admit that I only started reading Harry Potter when I had just about gone through most of my Tom Clancy novels, Star Wars tomes, and history books. I was not sure if I would like it as much as I do, say, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ms. Rowling's tale is appealing not only to the young but to the young-at-heart.

The 2001 film version, adapted by Steve Kloves and directed by Chris (Gremlins) Columbus, is an above-average family film. While warm and whimsical in places, Rowling's tale is not exactly all syrupy and bright, either. For the story of Harry Potter, wizard in training, is also a story which deals with fate, losses, fear, courage, friendship, and the struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

Sorcerer's Stone follows the plot of its source novel faithfully (some have said "too faithfully"): an orphaned Harry Potter is left to be cared by his maternal aunt Petunia and her husband Vernon, the terrible Dursleys, after his parents' tragic demise at the hands of Lord Voldemort, a dark and deadly wizard. For most of his 12 years, Harry lives in a cupboard under the stairs. When strange things start happening on his cousin Dudley's birthday outing and owls start flooding the house on Privet Drive with letters from Hogwart's School of Wizardry, the Dursleys try to hide Harry in a remote shack out in the boonies. But Harry's destiny is not to be denied, and he is whisked away by Hogwart's trusted groundskeeper Hagrid.

Kloves and Columbus recreate Rowling's novel almost perfectly, catching all the nuances and details just right. Though this makes for a running time of 152 minutes, Sorcerer's Stone never drags or brings on snores...at least not for older kids and young-hearted adults. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grant and Emma Watson are excellent in their roles as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger; their camaraderie and pluck is convincing, and the supporting cast, which includes John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, and the late Richard Harris as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is an exciting and talented ensemble. Adding his usual musical magic to Harry's adventures is none other than composer/conductor John Williams, whose soaring themes and gentle underscores give extra excitement to the Quidditch match and dark menace to those dark passages within the walls of Hogwarts.

The Special Widescreen Edition DVD consists of one disc that contains the film itself (with English and Spanish audio tracks, plus subtitles in both languages) and a few extra features, plus a second disc with DVD-ROM features, games, puzzles, interviews, and links to the Web.

The sound and picture are excellent, and the movie itself seems destined to be a family classic along the lines of The Wizard of Oz and the great films of Walt Disney.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers.
Review: The story is exciting and there are a lot of action and suspense. There are a few mistakes, but at all it's very good. The actors act very well, particularly Tom Felton and Rupert Grint.
I suggest it to all Potter's fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just the better I have seen
Review: This movie is almost as good as the book "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". in this movie a boy go to a magical castle to learn magic, now prepare to leave the "muggle" life and get a little floo powder and leave!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great transition; terrible bonus features
Review: I had never been so hyped about a book becoming a movie until the Harry Potter series. I was surprised to see how close the movie was to the book, though it wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen.
The acting among the younger group wasn't too bad, but the legends such as Richard Harris and Alan Rickman were remarkable, making their characters come to life. The special effects weren't that impressive--the Quidditch scenes were cool, but a little too obvious that they weren't real. And the troll in the girls' bathroom...well...that speaks for itself. In spite of that, it was a great movie that anyone of any age can enjoy.

The one thing I must rant about is the bonus features disc. It might be appealing to a younger child who enjoys games, but for an older person who is looking for behind-the-scenes features, this is not it. The entire disc is mostly a game where you go to Diagon Alley to buy your wand and such and it's nearly impossible to find the deleted scenes. Also, the 15-minute interview with the crew wasn't worth the time to watch. But, then again, a kid who enjoys playing games would find the bonus features entertaining.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The movie that started it all for me
Review: Before the movie came out I had heard a lot about Harry Potter, but didn't enter this entertaining universe until this movie had come out. I got so much out of this movie and was impressed with its story and imagination tha I had all of the four books that were released at the time read within a month of seeing the movie. One of the best movies I've seen in a VERY LONG TIME.

So, why 4 stars? The 4 stars is for the movie itself. The fifth star is for the DVD. I was really excited for the DVD to come out so I could watch the special features. After reading the book, I had wanted to see the scenes that hadn't made it into the movie. I STILL haven't found it and just got tired of all the stupid games it wanted me to go through just to get to them. Buy this DVD for the excellent movie and picture/sound quality. Don't buy it for the special features. I was left very disappointed by them. If you don't care for the digital picture and sound, get it on VHS.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Movie, but one thing that really got to me
Review: This movie was extravagant, the actors are phenomenal and the special effects are also very good. But one thing, IT'S HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE! I'm sorry but this really got on my nerves, the title was made up by J.K.Rowling, and should be left at it, I mean, they didn't change any of the other titles, (i.e. The Chamber of Secrets didn't become The chamber of deaths or anything), but why change the first one, I'm sure Americans know what a philosopher is, oh, and they changed some of the words (crisps to chips, chips to fries etc) which really wasn't necessary.

Harry Potter and The Philosophersstone was a marvellous film, but please american publishers, KEEP THE BLOODY ORIGINAL NAME!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Movie
Review: I would like say that this was a good movie. Weird in a since but overall a good movie. I also like the music for this movie.


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