79. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter Series)

79. One might assume anyone who adopted the Hogwarts logo would be gliding, Nimbus 2000 on hand, onto this list. After all, there are few things I receive more joy out of then a new tidbit of Harry Potter wonder and adventure. However, when you have a young actor like Daniel Radcliffe, who manages to make me not long for the boy wizard, but instead start imagining him in the stead of my literary mind's snapshot of him, you know that you've got someone with a future beyond Hogwarts.

The Harry Potter movies, for me, are filled with flaws that I can stomach. Perhaps because I love the series so much that any output will make me happy and I'll end up waxing soliloques about how perfectly Alfonso Cuaron's replication of Professor Lupin was or how wonderfully Chris Columbus recreated Diagon Alley. And while I acknowledge that there are some flaws in all of the movies, I'm going to defend Dan Radcliffe in his role-I mean, anyone who has the guts to take on one of literature's most beloved children's adventurers has to have some respect. Radcliffe takes the rather naive creation of J.K. Rowling and moves it onto the screen with pluck, but also some internal self-conflict. Radcliffe is obviously a student of the books: how else could he have so well shown the awkwardness of talking to Cedric about the dragons? Or shown such determination in the scene fighting the Boggarts (probably my favorite scene in the entire cinematic series)? Radcliffe makes you believe in magic, and more importantly in he as the boy wizard, and that is why he ranks Number 79 on the countdown.

All right, buckle down for this one, since the film festival is going to be a long one: start out with the childhood pluck and simplicity of Sorcerer's Stone, move into the darker tones of Dobby, Basilisks, and Kenneth Branagh in Chamber of Secrets, reach the pinnacle of magic in the whispy Prisoner of Azkaban, and end up counting on Ralph Fiennes in Goblet of Fire. Enjoy some Bertie Bott's and chocolate frogs, and afterwards call up your favorite mate for a nice game of chess.