Stardate 20011117.0848 (On Screen): So the Harry Potter movie is finally in theaters, and by all accounts it's going to be a smash hit.
Ebert gave it 4 stars,
Berardinelli gave it three, and right now it's got a 79% on the
Tomatometer. There's good reason to believe it's going to set a box office record this weekend.
And if it's good, then why? Because it's based on good material. The one thing that Hollywood never seems to twig on: good movies are based on good scripts. Big name actors and lots of explosions and special effects cannot retrieve a lousy script. But rather than learning the lesson that "Harry Potter is a winner because it's a good story, so let's go find some more good stories" it's a sure thing that in about 9 months we're going t be drenched with Potter-alikes, because Hollywood will think that the lesson is "Stories about kids and magic are winners now." And they're almost all sure to be execrable. (discuss)
And there's a damned good chance that we'll see a Potter-alike TV show next year. And it will be done with American actors, and it's going to suck.
