Review of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by

After the record-breaking run in theaters last summer, its no surprise that the home video was accompanied by a deluge of promotional hype. But even skeptics would have to agree that Harry Potter deserves all the hoopla. Its simply a grand movie - based on the series of children's books by J.K. Rowling, the film is a perfect fantasy about an orphaned boy hopelessly struggling against the injustice of a cruel foster family who discovers he's actually the son of wizards and now that he has come of age, he is becoming a wizard, too! But he needs to go to a special school to learn how to use his powers.

The film is superbly cast from Daniel Radcliffe who plays young Potter to the cast of stars - Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltraine, John Cleese, and more. I was struck by how deftly the director, Chris Columbus, handled the special effects. After all, a movie about wizardry made these days could easily go overboard with the computer-generated images, but Columbus kept things relatively low-key. Even the monsters were not overplayed by the technicians. But its the charm of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry and his classmates that carries the film through the 2-1/2 hour running time. Old fogies like me enjoy the performances of the British stars, but I suspect that most of the audience took little notice of their wit and grace.

As good as the movie was, I was disappointed by the extras included on the DVD. There's interviews with the director and producers, and a handful of simple games, but little meat. The highlight was the virtual tour of Hogwart's accompanied by John William's enchanting score from the movie.

If you have kids, you'll want to have a copy of this movie.