A great movie from a decent novella--The Shawshank Redemption. Although I do think that, since they have less plot that have to be stripped away for the film version, short stories and novellas probably have an edge when it comes to adaptation.

Name-calling is so for the non-LOTR enhanced. Just cast gentle aspersions at upbringing and sensibility, and smile sadly.

Hah! I bow to your greater wisdom, JS.

But--but--The Last Starfighter as a musical? Without Robert Preston? How cruel.

I know. The irony is particularly cruel.

So I've been told. Doesn't make the LoTR books any less boring to me. But I do appreciate that other people, people who's taste I completely respect, view them as classics. There's plenty of other great books out there for me to read and love.

Okay, so I drop you down a notch to slightly loony. I wouldn't go so far as to call the books great literature but I enjoyed them enough that I've read them over a dozen times and will read them again before I die (unless I'm hit by a bus on the way to work tonight). My problem with the movies is that I found all the pre- and post-release hype to be specious. The moment I saw that Jackson had turned Merry and Pippin into bumbling fools, I realised that the truth was the opposite of the hype. Jackson showed a total disrespect for the source material and had redefined the meaning of "faithful".

Yeah, I know, what more could I expect from Hollywood. I guess Merry and Pippin were Jackson's "wise retard" and "magical negro".

I guess Merry and Pippin were Jackson's "wise retard" and "magical negro".

Magical Negroes don't get redeemed. Merry and Pippin managed to pull that off.

The bumbling part was to show character growth; by the end of the trilogy they're both seasoned warriors, confident and strong. They're bumbling at first, maybe a little, but brave. They just don't know how to fight. I thought the way he handled that was particularly inspired.

Magical Negroes don't get redeemed.

See! See! Jackson can't even respect the Magical Negro!

The bumbling part was to show character growth...

Yeah but Jackson also managed to undermine Gandalf at the same time. No way would a hobbit--young or old--steal one of Gandalf's fireworks; they were too respectful and afraid of the Wizard. Tolkein also gave the characters growth by ultimately giving them direction and purpose but from the very beginning they were intelligent and had basic common sense.

Anyway, this is a tired old argument and I know you're all sick of hearing it. I respect that the majority likes the movies, so I'll just sit in a corner and grumble quietly to myself. Sorta like Gollum but without the CGI.

Oh and to change the topic: Shaun of the Dead is set loose on the Aussie cinema screens next week! w00t!

From the description above, it sounds similar to Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, only without a sense of irony.

It's Foucalt's Pendulum rewritten by a moron. It's abysmal.

THe english Patient: Great book made into a good movie because they had the bottle to ditch a lot of (good) stuff and focus on one throughline. There are at least 2 other stories in the book you could make into equally good films.

I always thought The English Patient was a better movie than its hype. Partly because, I saw the movie (and liked it) before the public swooning began, and by the time that was in full bore I came to hate the movie briefly, as the cause of all that annoying swooning.

Actually, in very similar fashion to the way I soured on Saving Private Ryan long before seeing it, due to the piety of its reception. I mean, upon finally seeing it, I was even madder at the film, for being exactly as pandering a pile of tripe as I'd been led to expect.

I own a copy of GWTW now (it was my grandmother's). I have never read the book nor seen the movie. Then again, it's one of those movies you don't really need to have seen to know everything about it, like Casablanca.

My all time favorite, no bitches about it book to movie adaptation was Misery.

To me, it was absolutely perfect.

The English Patient got a lot of backlash due to the Ralph Fiennes Panty-Throwing Brigade, undeservedly so, I thought. I found it complicated and affecting, although I wished they'd delved deeper into Kip's back-story.

The music in that film was great--the juxtaposition of the vocal of the Hungarian folk singer and the ...Bach, I think, near the end was just gorgeous. Minghella always does an amazing job picking out music for his flicks--I dig the music in his films, even when I don't care much for the flick itself. (e.g. Cold Mountain)