Latest Harry Potter movie is a fine film - beautifully rendered, strong narrative, 8.5/10

Horace Slughorn: These are mad times we live in! Mad!

"It's all about sex, drugs and rock n' roll," British director David Yates has said to The Daily Telegraph. "Okay, maybe we should take the 'drugs' out. Really, this film is more sex, potions and rock n' roll."

I'm not sure if there's rock 'n roll, or sex, but "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" is stellar. It's the edgiest Potter flick of the lot so far. The cinematography is top notch, Steve Kloves has written a screenplay that is tight and well-conceived, and David Yates delivers a Potter flick that's a crafty combination of intelligence and sheer cinematic beauty. It's edgy.

The themes in Half Blood Prince are essentially love and death. The stakes go up a few notches in this one, and the film is undoubtedly the best of the Potter series thus far.

Ron Weasley: I'm in love with her!
Harry Potter: Alright. Fine. You're in love with her. Have you ever actually met her?
Ron Weasley: [pauses] No. Can you introduce me?

There's an unusual combination of levity and darkness in this one, but it's pulled off very well, with numerous artful representations that colorfully epitomise the tone and texture of wizards, castles, the battle between light and dark. This is some of the most skillful use of technology in the cinema. And there's a good story - and a lot to get through - to boot.

Albus Dumbledore: Oh to be young and to feel love's keen sting.

The ceramic Emma Watson (as Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) have matured as performers, and are also old enough now to bring oodles of chemistry to the screen. They bring a delightful subplot (high school wrestling matches, infatuation versus love delightfully portrayed in the Hogwarts setting).

Lavender Brown: I happen to be his girlfriend!
Hermione Granger: Well, I happen to be his... friend.

Naturally there are the usual Potter (AKA 'The Chosen One') efforts - to counter the shenanigans of Voldemort (oops shouldn't have said that). Harry gets more than his fair share of luck, as you might recall from the J.K. Rowling book, especially when he discovers a potions textbook owned by The Half Blood Prince, which he uses to good effect in the new lecturers (Professor Slughorn's) class. Slughorn is played credibly by the veteran Jim Broadbent (you'll remember he was Bridget Jones' father), but there are plenty of fine cameos besides. Who is the Half Blood Prince? What is a horcrux? Who falls in love with who? There's plenty waiting for you in this one, including HARRY POTTER KISSING A GIRL, but Harry has an awful lot on his plate here, as the flick's motif suggests: Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry.

Half Blood Prince requires Harry to work with the difficult subtleties of emotions and memories, and I'll give this away. Someone dies in this film. [Yes, you probably knew that already if you read the book, but do you remember how?].

Remus Lupin: [from trailer] Voldemort has chosen Draco Malfoy for a mission.

Draco Malfoy adds another subtext to this intricate, interesting flick. Malvoy is uncharacteristically ashen, and keeps company with a new set of dark allies. One of them is played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Half Blood Prince in the end is a wonderful concoction of chuckles, light romance, beautiful flourishes and delicate touches and then some brutal and visceral magic. The magic is probably the real star, and it is woven throughout with such perfect brushstrokes that this has got to be one of the best flicks of 2009. I think Star Trek might have pipped Potter to the post, but by a whisker, by a flickering fairy light.

After this one there's only one more, sadlym so enjoy Half Blood Prince. It really is a triumph - but before I send you on your way to watch this, two warnings:

First, a last quote: Albus Dumbledore: Take my arm. That was fun. Most people vomit their first time.
Second, you really don't want to miss a glowing morsel of this flick, so visit the loo beforehand, and get an extra large popcorn for the ride. It's a tad over 2 hours 33 minutes long.

You'll walk out eager for more of what has become a high value product for young and old (besides the owners of this now billion dollar franchise). It's become an increasingly meaningful collection of stories about a sensitive but strong young man, who is growing up, who is trying to remember who he is and what he is meant to be doing. Good, right?

Groundhog Day 2008

Sorry dudes, 6 more weeks of winter has been predicted. The Groundhog - Punxsutawney Phil - came out of his burrow, saw his shadow and we know what that means....we might as well all go back into our for the next 6 weeks.

From OG PAPER:

More than 30,000 people gathered in the central Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney to witness the event and cheer the most famous groundhog in the world. Punxsutawney Phil was taken out of the tree stump on a hill called Gobbler's Knob and brought to William Cooper, President of Punxsutawney's Inner Circle, who is the only one that could "speak" to the groundhog. Cooper read the prediction scroll: "As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be."

According to tradition, if the groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it will return into its burrow, and the winter will continue for 6 more weeks. The earliest reference to Groundhog Day was made in 1841 and the tradition has been kept alive ever since. Most analysis claim that the groundhog has about 40% success rate in predicting the weather, which doesn't stop thousands of people from celebrating Groundhog Day every year.

Harry Potter and the Mirror

I had an epiphany watching what I thought would be arbitrary entertainment on etv. It was the very first Harry Potter movie, HP and the Philosopher's Stone. At one point Harry is standing in front of a mirror. The mirror shows one's deepest desires, deepest longings. Thus when Harry looks in the mirror, he sees his parents. Dumbledore finds him there late at night, or perhaps in the wee hours of the morning, sitting alone in the room, staring into the mirror. He says to Harry:

Dumbledore: It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live.

That made an impression, and a disturbing one.