Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

An ancient prophecy seems to be coming true when a mysterious presence begins stalking the corridors of a school of magic and leaving its victims paralyzed.

Director:

Chris Columbus

Writers:

J.K. Rowling (novel), Steve Kloves (screenplay)

Stars:

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 13 wins & 43 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Radcliffe	...	Harry Potter
Rupert Grint	...	Ron Weasley
Emma Watson	...	Hermione Granger
Richard Griffiths	...	Uncle Vernon
Fiona Shaw	...	Aunt Petunia
Harry Melling	...	Dudley Dursley
Toby Jones	...	Dobby (voice)
Jim Norton	...	Mr Mason
Veronica Clifford	...	Mrs Mason
James Phelps	...	Fred Weasley
Oliver Phelps	...	George Weasley
Julie Walters	...	Mrs. Weasley
Bonnie Wright	...	Ginny Weasley
Mark Williams	...	Mr. Weasley
Chris Rankin	...	Percy Weasley

Storyline

Forced to spend his summer holidays with his muggle relations, Harry Potter gets a real shock when he gets a surprise visitor: Dobby the house-elf, who warns Harry Potter against returning to Hogwarts, for terrible things are going to happen. Harry decides to ignore Dobby's warning and continues with his pre-arranged schedule. But at Hogwarts, strange and terrible things are indeed happening. Harry is suddenly hearing mysterious voices from inside the walls, muggle-born students are being attacked, and a message scrawled on the wall in blood puts everyone on his or her guard, "The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of The Heir, Beware" .

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Plot Keywords:

invisibility cloak | basilisk | magical book | killing a monster | child protagonist | 

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Taglines:

The second year begins November 15

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for scary moments, some creature violence and mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [UK]

Country:

UK USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 November 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Filming Locations:

Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$88,357,488, 17 November 2002

Gross USA:

$262,450,136

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$879,465,594

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Heyday Films, 1492 Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

161 min 174 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS (8 channels) IMAX 6-Track 12-Track Digital Sound DTS (DTS: X)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the second time and the second movie Harry and Ron get detention. Harry receives detention two more times in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) under Umbridge for telling "lies" and teaching "Dumbledore's Army". Ron and Hermione get detention for the third and second time, respectively, in the latter movie for being part of "Dumbledore's Army".

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Goofs

(at around 1h 48 mins) When Harry and Ron are in the car fleeing from the spiders, there is a close-up of them looking towards the back of the car as they drive backwards. Two shots before the close-up of them yelling, "Wooooh!!!" there is a wide shot of the Dark Forest and the car at the top of the screen just as it starts to jump over the tree roots. In this wide shot at the bottom of the screen, the heads of two crew members are visible.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Hedwig wants to be let out of her cage]
Harry: I can't let you out, Hedwig! I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school. Besides, if Uncle Vernon...
Uncle Vernon: [yells] Harry Potter!
Harry: Now you've done it.

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Crazy Credits

The film begins with some dark clouds, one of them moves aside to reveal the Warner Bros logo which zooms in then turns away out of the picture, some more clouds then move aside to reveal the film title shining a bit in the sunset.

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Alternate Versions

In Disney Channel's showing, the scene where Colin Creevey introduces himself to Harry by taking his picture is extended by Colin explaining his family history.

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Connections

Referenced in Cinematic Excrement: Eight Crazy Nights (2017)

User Reviews

A great sequel!

If you liked the first one then you're going to love this! There's a darker atmosphere this time around and more characters are introduced including Gilderoy Lockhart (hilariously played by Kenneth Branagh), Draco Malfoy's father, Lucius (a great performance by Jason Isaacs, exactly how I imagined the character from the books!), Ron's father, Arthur, and the mysterious Dobby the house elf (fortunately he isn't anywhere near as annoying as other CG characters in other movies, but I won't name any names... *cough*JarJarBinks*cough*)

The movie sticks closely to the novel, but as in the last movie we miss some of those scenes where we start to learn a little more about the characters, especially the hate-hate relationship between Harry and Professor Snape (who was seriously underused in this movie!)

All in all it's definitely worth checking out, the running time of 160 minutes may seem a little long but it doesn't seem that long when you're watching it. By the way, whatever you do DO NOT leave until the credits have ended, otherwise you'll miss a little extra treat...