Harry Potter turns 11 and discovers that he is a wizard after living a lifetime of neglect with a family of Muggles (non wizards).

Harry gets to study at Hogwarts and discovers he is famous (as a baby, he once almost destroyed evil Voldemort (he who should not be named)).

The movie follows Harry's first year at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"The most evil man in the world has to walk backwards all the while? No wonder he is so fed up!"

"Great story, except the child actors are a little too posh for my liking. Couldn't they have used fully grown actors with very young make up?"

"...Nonsense. The child actors are wonderful, and so cheap. Grown up actors would have demanded considerably more than the pittance we paid the actors in the first movie. Sadly, the next one may not be so cheap however."

"An invisibility cloak is what I always wanted. It will become invaluable in later episodes me thinks, and such a simple special effect to boot! Bravo! "

Weird and wonderful things are happening at mysterious school for wizards, Hogwarts.

It seems that our hero, Harry Potter, is in danger. While trying to get to the bottom of a mystery he ends up playing a game of violent, oversized Chess.

Then he ends up face-to-face with Professor Quirrell who reveals that he is carrying Lord Voldemort on the back of his head.

Evil Voldemort is recovering and is soon to be much stronger. But Voldemort hasn't enough strength to murder Harry this time.... Harry lives on after a few sticky moments.

"That's bloody brilliant."

The fundamental problem with the movie, for us, was that it needed 11 year old actors who, with the best will in the world, are annoying. However, the 11 year old target audience will probably love this movie with passion, rightly so - it's among the best children's movies of all time.

May 15 , 2002