Bovie Movie

Youthful wizard Harry Potter returns to the screen in this, the second film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular series of novels for young people. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) return for a second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris), Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and Hagrid the Giant (Robbie Coltrane) are joined by new faculty members Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a self-centered expert in Defense against the Dark Arts, and Sprout (Miriam Margolyes), who teaches Herbology. However, it isn’t long before Harry and company discover something is amiss at Hogwarts: Students are petrified like statues, threats are written in blood on the walls, and a deadly monster is on the loose. It seems that someone has opened the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, letting loose the monster and all its calamitous powers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find the secret chamber and slay the beast, speculation is rife that one of the heirs of Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of the school, opened the chamber as a warning against the presence of “mudbloods” (magic-users of impure lineage) at the school — and that the culprit may be fellow student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured Richard Harris’ second and final appearance as Headmaster Dumbledore; he died less than a month before the film was released in the United States.

Billed as the first European 3-D CGI feature-length film, Kaena: The Prophecy revolves around a mammoth tree that rises 100 miles from the planet’s surface and provides shelter and sustenance for a variety of different races and species. Referred to as Axis, the tree has been losing its sap at a rate alarming enough to threaten the well-being of some of its inhabitants. Determined to get to the root of the disappearing sap is Kaena (Kirsten Dunst), a rambunctious teenager who leaves her village against the wishes of its elders. She encounters the mysterious Selenites along the way; led by an insidious queen (Anjelica Huston), the Selenites have resorted to enslaving another race in order to prevent the tree’s decline into death. Directed by Pascal Pinon and Chris Delaporte, Kaena: The Prophecy began filming in 1999 on a budget of 26 million dollars, and has been described as having merged elements from Shrek and Final Fantasy.

The guns of Navarone are huge Nazi cannons, installed on an Aegean island behind enemy lines. Anthony Quayle is the officer assigned by the British to lead a task force to put the guns out of commission. When Quayle is injured, the mission winds up in the relatively inexperienced hands of Gregory Peck. There’s little love lost between Peck, explosives expert David Niven and Greek patriot Anthony Quinn, especially when it becomes known that there’s a traitor in their midst. Resistance leader Irene Papas weeds out the traitor, but there’s still those guns to take care of. Filmed on location in Rhodes and distinguished by Oscar-winning special effects, Guns of Navarone (based on Alistair MacLean’s best-seller was a major box-office hit of 1961; less successful was the pared-down 1977 sequel, Force Ten From Navarone.

In Patriot Games, Harrison Ford plays former CIA agent Jack Ryan, taking over from Alec Baldwin, who had played author Tom Clancy’s brainy protagonist in Hunt for Red October. This time around, Ryan foils an attempted assassination, thereby incurring the wrath of a maniacal Irish radical (Sean Bean). After seemingly neutralizing the villains, and deciding to celebrate the occasion with his wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch), everything appears to be back to normal; then all hell breaks loose. Author Tom Clancy himself bemoaned the liberties taken with his novel in the final sequences; the picture scored with audiences, however, and soon inspired a followup, A Clear and Present Danger (1994), also starring Ford.

In medieval Paris, a deformed foundling named Quasimodo grows up under the care and tutelage of Dom Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Quasimodo is humpbacked, lame, and blind in a drooping eye — a human gargoyle who keeps to the shadows of the great church as its bellringer. But the tolling bells inflict upon him another handicap: deafness. On the Festival of Fools in the cathedral square, a crowd elects Quasimodo King of Fools, and a wag quips that the hunchback’s attributes qualify him to become King of France. During the festival, a Gypsy woman of transcendent beauty, Esmeralda, dances for the crowd. Watching her sultry undulations from a cathedral niche, Frollo falls in lust with her. Quasimodo, too, is captivated by her, but in a childlike, innocent way. Though Frollo is a priest committed to celibacy, he decides he must possess Esmeralda, even at the expense of his immortal soul. But after realizing she is beyond his reach, he promotes her execution for a crime she did not commit. When the noose closes around her neck, Quasimodo swoops down on a rope from the fa?ade of the church and rescues her, then ensconces her in the bell tower. The film concludes when mobs storm the church and Quasimodo defends it, believing the attackers will harm Esmeralda.

Few famous novels have been filmed as often as Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo–and few versions are as enjoyable as this 1934 adaptation starring Robert Donat. Donat plays Edmond Dantes, wrongly accused of a plot against the post-Napoleonic French government. Condemned to a prison cell in the impenetrable Chateau D’If, Dantes vows vengeance against the four conspirators who framed him. He is particularly anxious to give his ex-friend Mondego (Sidney Blackmer) his comeuppance, since it was Mondego who married Dantes’ fiancee Mercedes (Elissa Landi). Twelve years pass; with the help of ancient fellow prisoner Abbe Foria (O.P. Heggie), Dantes digs his way out of the Chateau D’If and escapes. He finds the treasure of Monte Cristo, which makes him the wealthiest man in the world. He uses his riches to put his plan of revenge into motion, methodically destroying every one of his enemies. Though he lives for vengeance, Dantes–alias the Count of Monte Cristo–has his humanity restored by the love of Mercede, who despite her marriage has always remained spiritually faithful to him. According to publicity, the 1955 TV series based on The Count of Monte Cristo was filmed on the standing sets from the 1934 film. This might well have been true, since both film and series were produced by Edward Small.

A man robbed of his name and his dignity strives to win them back, and gain the freedom of his people, in this epic historical drama from director Ridley Scott. In the year 180, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus (Russell Crowe) is one of the Roman army’s most capable and trusted generals and a key advisor to the emperor. As Marcus’ devious son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) ascends to the throne, Maximus is set to be executed. He escapes, but is captured by slave traders. Renamed Spaniard and forced to become a gladiator, Maximus must battle to the death with other men for the amusement of paying audiences. His battle skills serve him well, and he becomes one of the most famous and admired men to fight in the Colosseum. Determined to avenge himself against the man who took away his freedom and laid waste to his family, Maximus believes that he can use his fame and skill in the ring to avenge the loss of his family and former glory. As the gladiator begins to challenge his rule, Commodus decides to put his own fighting mettle to the test by squaring off with Maximus in a battle to the death. Gladiator also features Derek Jacobi, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, and Oliver Reed, who died of a heart attack midway through production.