Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - Potter and Co. return for handsome if overlong first sequel

2/21/2022

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - Potter and Co. return for handsome if overlong first sequel

♥♥♥

The three wizard kids have a new sickly-looking friend on this gold-exuding poster for Chris Columbus' Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter escapes his Muggle home and Dobby the house elf to go back to Hogwarts, where mystical blood trails appear, and a student goes missing. It turns out to be a Slytherin heir, who is causing chaos.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is written by Steve Kloves (Wonder Boys (2000)), adapting the same-titled 1998 novel by J.K. Rowling (The Casual Vacancy (2012)), and directed by great Pennsylvanian filmmaker Chris Columbus (Adventures in Babysitting (1987)). It is the 2nd film in the Harry Potter franchise.

Mostly Chamber of Secrets is at least as good as the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). There are good characters, handsome effects, - with especially the snake dragon monster impressing, - and Kenneth Branagh's (Peter's Friends (1992)) Gilderoy Lockhart character is introduced.

Unfortunately Harry's sidekick, Rupert Grint's (Thunderpants (2002)) Ron Weasley, is a colorless, talentless 'character', - though he seems more like a ceaseless parade of grimaces than an actual flesh-and-blood character. And the film carries some of the same weight about it with especially the third act being overlong beyond the acceptable. - More than 2½ hours running time is just too much for a Potter entry.

The Harry Potter franchise: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) - Columbus lands new family franchise successfully (also by Columbus)
Chris Columbus: Top 10: Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) - Columbus and Robin Williams score with a truly great family jewel

The Goonies (1985) - Sweet child performances drive Donner's beloved, uneven adventure (writer)
Gremlins (1984) - Dante's 1980s puppetry classic (writer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 879.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.79 times its cost)

[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets premiered 3 November (London) and runs 161 minutes. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)) was paid 3 mil. $ for his performance as Harry, while Grint and Emma Watson (Beauty and the Beast (2017)) each received 125k $ as sidekicks Ron and Hermione. Production began 3 days after the release of the first film. Shooting took place from November 2001 - July 2002 in England, including London, and in Scotland. The 'Chamber of Secrets' set was the biggest created for the Potter saga, measuring 76x36.5 meters. The film opened #1 to an 88.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5, one of them again in #1, grossing 261.9 mil. $ (29.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd markets were Japan with 142.7 mil. $ (16.2 %) and the UK with 88.1 mil. $ (10 %). The film was the year's 2nd highest-grossing worldwide, behind The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, and the 4th highest-grossing of the year in North America. It was nominated for 5 BAFTA's, winning one; and it also won an AFI award and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. The film made more than 27.3 mil. $ on the North-American video market. Columbus returned with Rent (2005). Radcliffe, Grint and Watson all returned first in the next Potter entry, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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2/21/2022

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - Potter and Co. return for handsome if overlong first sequel

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