'Harry Potter's Chamber of 'Freshness' Overshadows 'Rotten' 'Half Past Dead'
HOLLYWOOD (Box Office Mojo) - J.K. Rowling's beloved boy wizard returns to theaters this weekend in the highly anticipated follow-up to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the No. 1 movie of 2001 that conjured nearly $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide. Opening in Potter's shadow is the Steven Seagal starrer Half Past Dead. Is the Potter sequel worth your hard-earned Galleons? Is Seagal destined for another critical beating? Yes is the answer to both these questions, according to the nation's top critics.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Web site that tracks the nation's movie reviews and doles out the consensus in the form of a Tomatometer rating, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is as good as if not better than its predecessor with more "Fresh" (positive) reviews than "Rotten" (negative) ones, while Half Past Dead is nearly "Rotten" to the core, with just a single positive review so far.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second of four planned adaptations of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter books has proven that critical lightning can strike twice. Out of 92 reviews, 72 are positive registering a "Fresh" 78% on the Tomatometer, which is determined by dividing the number of positive reviews by the total. To be considered "Fresh" a movie must have a Tomatometer reading of 60% or more.
At this point Chamber of Secrets is tracking on par with Sorcerer's Stone in terms of critical acclaim. Sorcerer's Stone maintains a 78 percent rating with 122 of 156 reviews labeling the movie as "Fresh."
The majority of critics seem to agree that Chamber is every bit as magical as the first Potter movie. "Chris Columbus' sequel is faster, livelier and a good deal funnier than his original," writes Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly. Philip Wuntch of The Dallas Morning News writes, "As The Empire Strikes Back was to Star Wars, so Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is to last year's freshman introduction. In short, it's bigger and better."
Not all critics are feeling the magic. Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly describes the sequel as "A watered-down, CG-saturated nod to moviemaking convention." Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com pans the movie as a rehash of the original. "Mercilessly padded, the movie drags us through ages of all-too-familiar territory: a Quidditch match ends predictably; spells go awry; the trio works on a potion together; one-note characters appear only to say their line and soon exit the story."
Steven Seagal is in for another critical bomb. Half Past Dead maintains a "Rotten" rating, with 35 of 36 reviews negative. His last movie, Exit Wounds was also a critical stinker, registering a "Rotten" 29 percent on the Tomatometer with only 17 of 59 reviews positive.
"It's no use: At this point, the bloated action figure [Seagal] couldn't restore his street cred if he joined the Wu-Tang Clan," says Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly. Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel claims the title of the movie is the best indicator of its quality. "The best thing about Half Past Dead is that its title provides an accurate description of how you will feel after watching it."
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Web site that tracks the nation's movie reviews and doles out the consensus in the form of a Tomatometer rating, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is as good as if not better than its predecessor with more "Fresh" (positive) reviews than "Rotten" (negative) ones, while Half Past Dead is nearly "Rotten" to the core, with just a single positive review so far.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second of four planned adaptations of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter books has proven that critical lightning can strike twice. Out of 92 reviews, 72 are positive registering a "Fresh" 78% on the Tomatometer, which is determined by dividing the number of positive reviews by the total. To be considered "Fresh" a movie must have a Tomatometer reading of 60% or more.
At this point Chamber of Secrets is tracking on par with Sorcerer's Stone in terms of critical acclaim. Sorcerer's Stone maintains a 78 percent rating with 122 of 156 reviews labeling the movie as "Fresh."
The majority of critics seem to agree that Chamber is every bit as magical as the first Potter movie. "Chris Columbus' sequel is faster, livelier and a good deal funnier than his original," writes Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly. Philip Wuntch of The Dallas Morning News writes, "As The Empire Strikes Back was to Star Wars, so Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is to last year's freshman introduction. In short, it's bigger and better."
Not all critics are feeling the magic. Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly describes the sequel as "A watered-down, CG-saturated nod to moviemaking convention." Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com pans the movie as a rehash of the original. "Mercilessly padded, the movie drags us through ages of all-too-familiar territory: a Quidditch match ends predictably; spells go awry; the trio works on a potion together; one-note characters appear only to say their line and soon exit the story."
Steven Seagal is in for another critical bomb. Half Past Dead maintains a "Rotten" rating, with 35 of 36 reviews negative. His last movie, Exit Wounds was also a critical stinker, registering a "Rotten" 29 percent on the Tomatometer with only 17 of 59 reviews positive.
"It's no use: At this point, the bloated action figure [Seagal] couldn't restore his street cred if he joined the Wu-Tang Clan," says Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly. Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel claims the title of the movie is the best indicator of its quality. "The best thing about Half Past Dead is that its title provides an accurate description of how you will feel after watching it."
