It's term two and this time our heroes can't get onto platform 9 3/4 so Ron drives the flying car without the wings and no singing (thus Chitty Chitty Bang Bang doesn't sue) to school. Nobody dies.

The scene is set for an early exit for Harry, someone is out to kill him... Is it possible, no surely not, that our hero might not make it to star in the next 6 novels which are to bare his name?

"This movie is almost two and a half hours long! It is the shortest book! How long is book four going to be? Seven hours? My botty is going all numb just thinking about it."

"Draco Malfoy, that beastly blond, is set to take blondism to a whole 'nother level..."

"What a wonderfully strong negotiating position our mini-stars have at contract re-negotiation time. All they have to do for a raise is to say they don't want to do another one! However, 0 out of 10 to Richard Harris (Dumbledore) who died just after filming finished."

"Richard Harris looked very ill throughout."

Tom Riddle, the author of a book Harry discovers, is in fact Voldemort.

Hogwart students keep getting 'petrified' - made into living statues - and Harry keeps hearing voices that nobody else does. (This is because Harry can converse with snakes - a snake travels through the drainage system, attacking the students).

Gilderoy Lockhart, played with bouffant brilliance by Kenneth Branagh, is the glamorous, but not very magical, teacher of the Defense against the Dark Arts... He's not much use to anyone...

Voldemort manages to get Dumbledore and Hagrid off the scene so that Harry can be destroyed. However, at crunch time, Harry's devotion to Dumbledore saves the day, calling Dumbledore's magical phoenix to the rescue.

They all live happily until the next book.

A better movie than the first, even the child actors are getting less annoying, although their over-elocution really does deserve a slap at times.

It is a real concern, what with this being the second book (one of the shortest) being around 2 and a half hours long.... what will be the length of book number 4 be when it is movie-ized?. Book 4 is the longest so far...

April 15 , 2002