HARRY POTTER MOVIE

The family went up to Butte to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

I was not impressed.

If you must see this movie on the big screen (assuming you haven't yet), see a matinée and go cheap.

I haven't read any of the HP books. I've sort of listened in when Mrs. Ref and The Kid have read them together, so I sort of know what the plot of this particular episode was about. Even so, not being the HP expert that others are, it was still easy for me to figure out that this movie was mis-named.

Instead of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," it should have been called, "Harry Potter and Only Harry Potter in Every Scene." All of the main characters -- Dumbledore, Prof. McGonagall, Snape, Malfoy, and yes, even Ron and Hermione -- were reduced to bit parts while we watched Harry agonize through dreams and trials.

The other bad news about the movie was that we sat through nine -- NINE -- commercials. Not previews, commercials. One for Fandango, two for the military, one for Priceline, one or two for Coke and I don't recall what else. At least those were followed up by just as many previews (I like previews), so you almost forgot about the commercials. But there was probably a good 20 minutes of pre-movie stuff.

That said, there looks to be a rather humorous movie about classic Disney cartoon characters getting trapped in NYC in the real world. I'm looking forward to that.