Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Dir: Chris Columbus
2001
***
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the first film adaptation of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series is a family friendly fantasy and I can see how it appealed to kids and adults alike. I'm as big a geek as someone can be but as a child I was never much into Goblins, Witches, Wizards etc, I was more of a Dinosaurs and Astronauts kid, so I do wonder how I'd felt about the film if I had been a child in 2001. The fact of the matter is that in 1997 when the book was released I was an 18 year old and the story of a schoolboy wizard was pretty far from what I was interested in and in 2001 I was 22 years old and working long hours in a job I disliked, the phenomenon pretty much passed me by and neither reading the book or watching the film was high on my priority list. The film is pretty good though, I do admire it, particularly its brilliant cast of British favorites. It got kids reading and helped the British film industry so I'm all for it.