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HOME PAGE  Death Race Star Wars: Clone Wars The Dark Knight Journey to the Center of the Earth Hancock Get Smart The Incredible Hulk The Strangers Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull  Weekend Results: 1. Tropic Thunder($11,505,000) 2. Babylon A.D.($9,565,000) 3. The Dark Knight($8,615,000) 4. The House Bunny($8,300,000) 5. Traitor($7,800,000) |
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In his third year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter (Radcliffe) finds out that convicted murderer Sirius Black
(Gary Oldman) has escaped from Azkaban Prison. What's worse is Black seems intent on killing Harry.
What exactly is Black's connection to Harry Potter, and what role will the Dementors play in this
whole sordid affair? Four-eyed wizard antics ensue.
I feel obligated to preface this review by saying I'm not a big Harry Potter fan. I haven't read any
of the books, and this may surprise you, but I haven't seen either of the first two movies. So I'm
asking all you Harry Potter marks not to cry too hard at the fact that this review won't be a total
praise-fest. OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, we may proceed.
For me, this is what I would consider mild entertainment. It's not a bad movie. In fact, I thought it was
quite entertaining in parts. Case in point, the special effects are very good. I thought the Dementors were
pretty cool, and I was especially impressed with the half-horse, half-eagle hippogriff. That thing looked
surprisingly real. And there were some nice moments of humor as well - particularly when Harry made his Aunt
Marge puff up and float away like a big balloon. But to be honest, after all the hype I was really hoping to
be blown away, and I just wasn't. It's hard not to have high expectations when this is the typical
conversation I have with a Harry Potter fan:
Harry Potter is the type of movie I probably would've enjoyed a LOT more when I was young, and especially
if I had read the books. I think my biggest hang-up is the characters. My type of fantasy movie is Star
Wars. I like a tough guy hero (or anti-hero) like Han Solo, and I want a vicious, unmerciful bad guy like
Darth Vader. Harry Potter, as a hero, just doesn't do it for me. Radcliffe doesn't do a bad job, but the
fact that he looks like SNL's Rachel Dratch really doesn't pump me up to root for him. And Ronald the
red-headed kid, man, his incessant whining and frowning annoyed me more than watching an episode of
Oprah.
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is sure to give fans of the series exactly what they want,
especially in regard to the top-notch special effects. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, and this movie didn't
do enough to make me a convert, but I still found it mildly entertaining if not mind-blowing. If you loved
the previous two movies then you won't be disappointed.
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Copyright © 2004 The Movie Mark. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction of these reviews or any of the original material on this site is allowed without prior permission from Johnny Betts. Comply or suffer the consequences of Johnny's size 11 biker boot. Wanna be a Movie Mark? Send Johnny Betts an email (johnny_betts@hotmail.com) to be added to the list or complete: The Movie Mark Questionnaire.
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