Arts & Entertainment

Potter puts magic on DVD

By Nathan Nix
The Daily Cougar

If the number of quality DVDs scheduled for release this week is any indication, itis apparent Hollywood isnit even going to try to stifle the mammoth that is the Harry Potter series. 

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

In fact, letis hope that whoever in Tinseltown decided to put Sharon Stoneis jailhouse drama Last Dance up against the second installment of one of the largest franchises in film history is getting part of the magic loot for not putting up a fight, and for giving us something to chuckle about as we pick up four copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the nieces and nephews.

If you werenit aware that The Chamber of Secrets is being released on DVD and home video today, then … I guess thatis what this article is for. The sequel to 2001is Harry Potter and the Sorcereris Stone picks up with the three main characters returning to the Hogwartis School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their second year only to find inert fellow students and clues leading to a larger-than-life adventure in the Chamber of Secrets.

For the already initiated, the DVD offers 19 additional scenes (in addition to the filmis 161 minutes), cast interviews, a tour of the Chamber of Secrets and a DVD-ROM special with at least 15 extra features. For those who havenit experienced half the millenniumis return to well-crafted adventure films in the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark (the other half being, of course, the Lord of the Rings series), itis never too late to start on the Harry Potter series.

For those uninterested in fantasy or children, much less the two combined, the 1989 ensemble film New York Stories is also being released today. The attractive ensemble in this film though, is the directors. 

Three of the finest directors of all time, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, each directed a short film for the piece, presenting three separate views of life in New York City.

The film contains what some consider the greatest short film of all time, in which Martin Scorsese directs Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette, among others, in the segment called "Life Lessons," which depicts a successful artist (Nolte) and the way he manipulates a young female artist to keep her as his trophy girl. The film serves as an accurate depiction of the New York art world in the late 1980s. 

Despite being widely panned, Coppolais segment gives us a glimpse into the mind of his co-writer, his daughter Sofia, who wrote and directed the brilliant film The Virgin Suicides.

. Send comments to dcshobiz@mail.uh.edu