HP and the Half Bottle of Ketchup

As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.

So begins yet another money spinning pile of dross as the "kids" now reach puberty and discover "snogging". Chuck in a game of the incomprehensible "Quidditch", a bastardised sport of rounders, lacrosse and ice hockey, a wizard's duel, a rambling intro before the wannabe wizards return to Hogsnot and before you know it, it's two and a half hours lost of your life and it's time to grab a cab to the airport.

What is most disappointing is that they have followed the blatant rip off formula of finishing a filum on a "cliff hanger" (don't worry kids, he doesn't die, I swear I saw him/her breathing) and because I don't want to chuck in a spoiler, I won't be able to say much more about the plot. Because that's all there is that is in any way new.

So instead I will just bitch about the dire acting (we have now discovered why the Amazon rain forest is in danger of becoming extinct; all the wood is being sent to the HP and Pals acting classes), the hotch potch, mismatched continuity of scenes and the inexplicable reason an entire entourage of learned wizards and witches cannot cast a spell or two to deal with a few baddies.

Dumblbore is supposed to be rock hard and yet he relies on HP, a sixth year newbie, to duff up the Voldemort? Pathetic- and yet he's coining it in by setting up a school to teach wizardry? BIG CON!

Another problem for me is that the gibbon-faced, ham sandwiched-acting Bonham Cater is in this and I can't abide her. She probably feels the same about me so we're quits, but as I am writing this review I can comment first. I really do not understand why acting as if on stage in a filum is considered to be a good performance. It isn't, it's luvvie's drama and belongs in a theatre in front of a live audience for the benefit of the povs in the back rows.

Gambon is good though, as is Rickman (and like we really don't know which side he's batting for?) and a great performance by Jim Broadbent as Professor Horace Slughorn, but aside from that, it's a nowt film, milking the pennies from the fans of the books and movies alike. I've never been a fan of either but it is a good way to while away a few hours and for a quid a time, I can't complain. Pay any more though and I'd suggest you're being mugged. Quite honestly you're better off buying a teen burd's magazine and reading the problems pages as you cringe at the teenage fumblings of the tree stumps trying to get to second base.