items tagged with Julie Walters

HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART I

About two-thirds of the way through Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part I, Rupert Grint’s Ron Weasley finally has it out with Emma Watson’s Hermione Granger and Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry. Fed up with the apparent hopelessness of their latest quest, and more than a bit peeved about his eternal status as Harry’s second banana, Ron angrily asserts that the three wizards-in-training aren’t finding anything and aren’t getting anywhere, and eventually storms off in a huff. Never in my life have I felt so connected to Rupert Grint.

The Alps (not rated) - The people have chosen, and the people chose good. Last fall's winner of the Putnam Museum's "Everyone's a Critic" series - which follows climber John Harlin's attempts to scale the north face of the Eiger mountain, where his father perished in 1966 - is such a breathtaking spectacle that watching it makes you a little dizzy; not from the Eiger's treacherous inclines and precipitous drops, which are (enjoyably) vertigo-inducing enough, but from the dazzling visual rush provided by director Steve Judson and his remarkable team of camera operators. Judson re-creates Harlin's ascent with jaw-dropping skill - you'll fight the urge to blurt out "How on earth did they film that?!" repeatedly during The Alps' 45-minute running length - and he and his crew photograph the Swiss mountain ranges with crystalline perfection; I'm not sure any movie has ever looked better in IMAX format. When the film turns to matters of geology and the historic make-up of the mountains, things get a little stodgy, but you're quickly returned to the awe-inspiring vistas, an unexpectedly touching human element courtesy of Harlin and his understandably worried wife and daughter, and, believe it or not, a series of marvelously employed Queen tunes that - in this format, at least - suggest what the elevator ride to heaven would sound like.

BECOMING JANE

I have friends, most of them equipped with a Y chromosome, who wouldn't be caught dead at an 18th century British period film studded with corsets and bucolic splendor and one of those "That man is so insolent and frustrating I must be in love with him!" storylines.

ALONG CAME POLLY

There’s a pretty funny movie lurking within Along Came Polly, but unfortunately, it bears little relation to the slack and obvious one Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston are stuck in.

HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Although I didn’t care for last year’s Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, I was more than willing to greet the new Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets with an open mind.