Double Feature

July 2007 - Go ahead. Admit it. You can't wait to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The boy wizard flies back onto the big screen on July 13. Even if, like me, you haven’t read the books, it's hard not to fall under the spell of these enjoyable movies.

Order of the Phoenix will pick up where 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire left off. In the PG-13 Goblet, Harry and his band of young wizards return to Hogwarts for their fourth year, and what a year it promises to be. Hogwarts is hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament, and wizards from two other schools come to play. School officials consider Harry too young to compete. But, when the goblet of fire spits out the names of the contestants, Harry is among them.

As the competition moves forward, Harry is troubled by visions of the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). These visions come to fruition during the final challenge, when Harry is transported to the place he's seen in his visions. He unwillingly helps bring Voldemort back to his complete self, then faces the dark wizard in an epic battle. Harry survives, but he's now connected to Voldemort at the most basic level.

Overall review: Liked it. A little on the long side, but plenty of action. It's pretty self-contained so you can follow along even if you haven't read any of the books or seen any of the previous movies. As for Harry's connection to Voldemort, things are getting interesting.

For another interesting film, try Unbreakable from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. This PG-13 movie came out in 2000. It stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright Penn.

Willis plays David Dunn, a former college football star who now works security at the stadium. His marriage to Penn is on the rocks. They live in the same house for the sake of their son, but they sleep in separate rooms.

The movie opens with Dunn on a train, headed back to Philadelphia from a job interview in New York. Suddenly, the train crashes. Everyone is killed except Dunn. He survives without a scratch.

That's when Elijah Price (Jackson) makes contact. Price suffers from a disease that causes him to have very brittle bones. He's always breaking something. When he was a kid, Elijah got interested in comic books. Ever since then, he's been looking for a superhero, someone totally opposite from himself, someone who never gets sick, never gets hurt. Elijah thinks Dunn is that man. Soon, Dunn starts to wonder if it might not be true.

Overall Review: Liked it. This film was Shyamalan's follow-up to The Sixth Sense. It's not quite as good but is still very effective. Willis doesn't have a lot of lines, but what he needs to say he says with his silence and his expressions. And, of course, there are the trademark supernatural elements and a twist at the end.