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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which stars Hot Bad Guy
Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, Cool Bad
Guy Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, the
eponymous Prisoner, and Cute Bad Kid Tom
Felton as Draco Malfoy, is the third movie based on the
well-known books by J.K. Rowling. Hang on. Are there people out
there who haven't heard of Harry Potter? Anyone? I thought not.
Moving on, here's the short story: Harry returns to Hogwarts for his third year of school. The air is full of danger because of the escape of prisoner Sirius Black, thought to be a supporter of Lord Voldemort, a Bad Guy we can all get behind. I mean, his followers get robes and masks! But I digress. Anyway, once at school he has to deal with a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin. General wackiness ensues.
Although it's based on my favorite of the novels (so far), Prisoner of Azkaban just doesn't hold up to the film version as well as the first two. More cuts are made to the story that leave out much of the best information. And Professor Lupin In My Head is much Hotter than David Thewlis. (I always thought Hot Bad Guy Ewan McGregor would be great in this role.) Add that to the continual criminal underuse of Alan Rickman and you get a good movie, just not a great one. However, the Dementors were scary as...heck.
Concerning the DVD extras, the games included in the extras are Evil. Absolutely Evil. I was very impressed. The deleted scenes were clearly deleted for a reason. However, be sure to check out the interviews, particularly the one with Cute Bad Kid Tom Felton. Alas, no interview with Alan Rickman.
Alan Rickman, yes, but maybe ten minutes of screen time
the guys we thought were Bad are not so much, and the real Bad Guy is fairly pathetic
just not a particularly well done screenplay
overall pretty disappointing