Ok, which of you lot went to see that geek Harry Potter this weekend? Is it any good? Or as I suspect, a classic Spielberg-esque kid's flick?

Also, noticed on the telly this morning a report from USA where the cinema advertised "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"...shurley shome mishtake?

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Answers

"But all that he was philosophre, he had but little gold in coffer!"
Apologies to Geof Chaucer

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

I really enjoyed it. Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid is superb.

Apparently the film makers reckoned the US audience would not know what a philosopher was!

Most exciting bit was the trailer for Lord of the Rings. I can't wait... I instantly recognised all the scenes in the trailer and I haven't read the book in 20 years.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Looks set to be a `mega bucks` movie to me...they were queuing three times round the block for ticket in Bournemouth, and that was at 10o`clock on Saturday morning! (:o)

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

We went on Friday night as birthday celebration for having a teenage daughter.

Our family are big fans, we happened upon the first book before it was famous and therefore have a sense of having been there first. (We have signed copies of first two books, think they're worth £4.99 each now).

The film therefore had lots to live up to.

The kids enjoyed it but spotted differences between film and book and seemed annoyed at this. Mum thought it was good. I thought it was no more than okay. I think if Enid Blyton had written it and called it "Three go to Hogwarts" or some such then no one woul dhave noticed the film. Coltrane was good, Rickman perfect, but really it came across to me as a public school story very like a Blyton book. This is particularly sad as the books are so perfect.

Part of my let down was I think the sight of the Fellowship of the Ring trailer, it looked positively awesome. I have just over the last couple of months re-read the Ring stuff and found it pretty tedious. It would be amusing if the film of it was better than the film of the better (in my eyses) Potter book

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

major controversy here...the books been banned from the high school and the pro-christian types were out in force denouncing it as evil... in all it's been sold out three days running, and I am on standby for tix on Wed. night......

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

I wonder if Hollywood has ever considered employing pro-Christian types as part of the publicity machine? Nothing like a good protest to get the unwashed heathens out in force waving those dollar bills. ;-)

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Not particularly overwhelmed with a desire to see that speccy kid (and I do not believe the hype about kids wanting to wear glasses and buy owls for Christmas). Bored of the Rings looks like a decent effort, although the geek factor / nerd quotient is fairly large. That said, the trailers for Star Wars II look cool - 'Empire' revisited I hope.

I'm just off to polish these extra thick glasses and catch up on memorising the lines from Phantom Menace...milky-milky

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

hmmm... I thought the Star Wars trailer looked boring. Of course there are differences between the book and film (as spotted by myself and my kids) but on the whole I thought it was pretty accurate. Anyho... it's a film and was entertaining. It cost about a quarter the price of a footy ticket, lasted longer and I went home happy.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

You calling me a geek booby? i'll twat ya for that! ;))

HP was pretty cool, I was very impressed that they kept it so close to the book...saw it when it was out on advance 10 days ago :)) Lord of the Rings tickets are due to start pre-selling today....45 mins and counting....

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Not calling you a geek, man. But be prepared to find yourself surrounded by homeknit jumpers, prepacked sandwiches and spiral bound notepads... ;-) I will probably go, mind. Never read the books so it'll be a nice surprise :-)

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001