Monday, May. 18, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In Theaters July 15

They're too long, too complicated, and so bloody English. But those impediments — let alone the viewer's challenge of sitting through a 2-1/2hr. film without a bathroom break — don't trouble the kids (and adults) who have been as faithful to the movies as they were addicted to the books, and who helped spur the five previous Potter films to a worldwide take of $4.5 billion. Episode six, delayed from last November's release to secure a prime summer slot, is likely to change nothing. The pressures on the teenage wizard will mount, the plexes will be packed and — since director David Yates, who did a fine job with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is back at the helm — the movie should be pretty darned good.

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