There you go! :)

lmao Yeah! I thought that would wake him up!

Reminds me of something... "Like a virgin! Touched for the very first time....like a vir-uh-uh-uh-gin..." Yeah, Madonna ;) B PS No, actually Moulin Rouge, but you wont get the joke if you haven't seen this best movie of the year! (Together with Momento the best 2 movies of the last 10 years or so)

BEST MOVIE/BOOK EVER is now OFFICIALLY LORD OF THE RINGS Moulin Rouge is NOTHING compared to this MASTERPIECE of entertainment. I'm not even into all that crystal wizardry, but this film blows even the original star wars series away. Can't wait until the other 2 and a possible Hobbit spin off. SEE IT. (trust me)

I wrote a very, very long message, which took me over half an hour to write, to explain you that so many people have managed to find books that were at first much less interesting that LOTR, but did manage to surpass their expectations, just because they had to courage to find out what other books have been written in human history. I deleted it, cause I think everybody here would call me a fool after today and never take me serious again :) Anyway, I have seen LOTR a few times (for some mysterious reason it was released here a week before the US, lol). I DO like it for it's amazing details and well done CG FX's and the amazing sets. I DO like it for it's length, and that the director has taken all the time to show everything that needed to be shown. I DON'T like it because of it's acting and it's actors. Eventhough they do a great job, I think LOTR's story is mostly a story about interpersonal relationships and not about wars, travels, adventures or SFX, and I think the result (no matter how grand it is) doesn't do the core of the whole story any good....all the great things just blow the 'thin red line' away. Shame. I DON'T like it either because it's got nothing to do with the book, for a book stimulates our imagination....therefor this guy's interpretation of it is completely different from how I read it. Seeing the movie a few times almost completely faded my memory of the book away. Afterall, imagination is what reading books is about....Tolkien wrote a book, and if he wanted to make a film he would have followed directing classes instead. While I've read a lot of books (with Being There, The Unbareble Lightness of Being, Deccamerone and Romeo & Juliet as some of my favorites) I can't say that I know enough to be able to compare so many works of literature to state that LOTR is the best book ever, as you put it so boldy. But I do know a little, humble bit about film (I'll just leave the reason why alone right now) and I can say that Lord of the Rings is a very US orientated kind of story. I haven't got a clue why though, but it's the same thing with games and stuff....very typical. Anyway, I do feel really annoyed by reading that LOTR is the best movie ever 'even better than star wars'. Please, Star Wars was a moment in time. A great moment in a great time....watching star wars is lovely, just cause it was so new, but also cause it brings back a lot of memories of that time. No doubt about it. But no matter if you realize it or not, people like Lasse Halstrom, Darren Aronofsky and Baz Luhrman are on their way to become film legends right now.....and half of the world doesn't even notice it! These people don't need great books to amaze you with a little piece of what's going on in their brains. I'm not saying that you have to LIKE a film like Moulin Rouge, but if you can't see that Luhrman must be a genius there's really something wrong.....really something seriously, totally wrong. And aside of this all, how can you just whipe the floor with movies like Vertigo, Citizen Kane, Metropolis or so many others. Nobody of the actors of the last 10 years can measure up to people like Orson Wells or Jimmy Stewart...get real! You're just overexcited by an awesome movie...it'll pass.... If you want to see some really good movies (to make sure you'll be able to talk about the upcoming Oscar nominations) go see Mullholland Drive, The Man Who Wasn't There, Requiem for a Dream and most of all Memento. Anyway, happy new year to everyone!

Whoa. Dude. Happy new year to all! J.P.

Love the spirited discussions that take place here! (I haven't seen LOTR yet) Have seen Momento, and it was great! Haven't seen M-R but will next week...I shall report back with my totally irrelevant critique soon!

Yeah Mullholland Drive was a good movie! What about RAN, The Seven Samarai, Yojimbo, Behind the Green Door! Star Wars was a good movie too!! Carlito's Way, Fistfull of Dollars, The Good the Bad, and The Ugly, Metropolis, A Boy and His Dog, The Birds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Right Stuff, they were good movies too. I think people often forget that a good movie can just be an enjoyable film just as they can be thought provoking ones. The great one of course are both. Which is why I advise people to see Tokyo Decadence! , Carlitos Way, Dancer in the Dark, Carlitos Way, and relax with She's Gotta Have It. I don't think a director can show the interpersonal goings on of LOR withought making a serial!!! lets face it the poetry and songs ect are a part of the book. But they must go away if the movie can be seen in under one day! I liked the move and am glad I saw it. I espically look forward to the other movies because I just couldn't finish the books. What is interesting is that the books seem to written to the IQ of a teen. Let's face it the main characters are essentially teens. Very interesting. I don't think it was a US styled book though but that is just me. Rork. Nobody take me serious. Even after meeting me face to face. Go ahead and write your novel. It would be interesting to see your point of view. BTW. Antoonio. Are you interested in Large virgins? there is a movie about that too! Britt-I was expecting something a little more rotund. You arr teasing Antoonio. How did we get off of statues and turn to movies anyway. Oh yeah virgins! I still don't get the relations of virgins to statues.....something about hardness and smoth skinn I guess. =:-) Bsteph

Rork1973..........dood lighten up....I'm just messing around. That was just my exaggerated opinion since I just got back from seeing the actual film AGAIN, which I haven't done SINCE Star Wars....Hence the comparison yadda yadda yadda. Star Wars doesn't follow the books that closely either.....then again, what movie does? I'm done with this before I enrage some more of you.

Oh lol! I feel incredibly embrassed about this :) Hey pal, I hope you don't feel insulted or anything like that, cause the last thing I want to do is tell someone what they have to like/don't like. Well, I'm really sorry if I gave that impression (if it did, it only shows what kind of fool I am ;).....eventhough I'm dutch, there is a bit of Italian blood running through my veins, so if I'm really good at something it must be exaggeration my own view :) Anyway, I just love movies that are different from what we usually get to see, but then again when you'd try to make a movie like LOTR you'll never please everyone I guess....so I have to be honest and show some more respect for taking up that challenge, no matter what the result is. You do need some guts to try to do that, don't you ? :) Well, again my apologies and I hope you guys have an awesomely good start of the new year! I just did (it's almost 4am now) and I made a toast to everyone at the forum! ;) Take care you good people =)

Hey bsteph, wow, those are awesome films! Especially the Sergio Leone stuff.....last year I bought Once Upon a Time in the West on vhs, long time I saw that one, wow! Dancer was nice too, very surprising Btw, I was serious about the bit that the US seems to be much more fantasy fans than Europeans.....I don't mean this as a bad thing. Oh, RAN was just mindblowing! Although I can't remember a lot of the actual film....weird. I remember how it looked and that it was about brothers battling for the power after their dad died or something like that :) Oh man, somehow I get all fired up when thinking about movies! I saw The Truman Show yesterday on tv, and it was so weird and funny and weird and funny....made me think about that all the whole day.

Allright Rork is nice and sauced!!! Hey pal both you and Antoonio need to eat som Extra Virgin Olive oil and drink a nice glass of red wine for me! I never did see the Truman show but I've heard it real good. RAN is actually King Lear so if you've read King Lear then you basically have read RAN. Dancer in the Dark... Good soundtrack. I can't imagine what made a person create suce a dipressing musical though. Thought provoking. And painfull. Bsteph

No hard feelings....That's what I get for making such a "bold" statement. Actually, my favorite movie of all time would have to be BladeRunner. Don't know what it is, but every time I see it there is something new that I didn't catch before. Just one of those films that strikes a particular chord with me.

Now you have to read the book -er Short Story. and compare the two. " Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip K Dick. By the way he was a California native of Berkeley as I recal. Nplus if you really want to have fun read and watch "The Final Programe"-By Michael Moorcock. Some books are hard to convert exactly to the big screen. However it is amazing that people try and often suceed. Expecially in light of books like LOR or Hearts of Darkness or Dune even. BTW. Has anybody seen Gor-Staring Jack Palance? How does it compare to the books. Just wondering if the movie will get banned or whatever too. All thirty plus novels suddenly disappeared in the late 80's across the US as far as I can tell. Bsteph Bsteph

Gawd, all this reading the thread, who needs books???? The nearest a film ever came to a book (in my opinion) has to be Stephen Kings Pet Semetary - I saw the film literally hours after reading it, and was AMAZED at how closely it had been followed. Still, I'm well behind on films and have a list of 'must sees' that I'll never get caught up on...... (",)

Start small and large at the same time. Tokyo Decadence! Bsteph

LOL ...damn you, now my workmates think I'm even more messed up they tought, I'm sitting here and laughing, alone. ..large virgins... Well, send 'em in hon, I'm ready for rock'n roll. ;oD Yep, pic is really nice, and I dig that there are no shadow. And works like hammer without that blur too. AND, about movies... There are tonns of great movies, but if we forget obvious choises like fight club, matrix, moulin rogue, LOR, saving private ryan etc.. Trust me on these, if you havent seen yet, you're missing a lot. -Happiness. One of the best films ever. Not the easiest one, and I dont get where the director got those ideas, but soooo damn good movie. -Crouching tiger hidden dragon. One of the most visual films I have ever seen, incredible stunts without computer manipulation. Fragile feelings with beautiful story, something totally unseen and unique. -Nightmare before Christmas. Tim Burtons animation. The most clever movie I have ever seen. Every time I see it, there are things I havent noticed before. Very very visual film. .n

I think LOTR is a US film because we have such an obsession with political correctness and female equality. I was very upset by the portrayal of Arwen and Galadriel. A friend of mine said they had to change Arwen's part because there were no good female leads in the book. Oh, well!!! Arwen was much more of a mysterious character in the book and her feelings for Aragorn were much more private and unspoken. Galadriel was supposed to be so beautiful and compasionate but the movie has her way too angry and certainly not that lovely to look on. I love the books and if I hadn't read them so many times I would love the movie. But considering that a movie can never live up to the images and imagination a book imparts, it wasn't too bad.

I had read in Entertainment magazine that at one time they were afraid that it was not going to be a trilogy but a -two parter. To handle less time certain characters were basically ignored. Galadriel was definitely one of them. Which is a big pitty because they got such a good actress to play her. Doesen't Arwen appear in later books? Bsteph

Arwen appears in the first and last books. Aragorn sees her in Rivendel where she gives him a stone and in the Return of the King she goes to GOndor where they get married

Arwin give Aragorn a ROCK. Gee his love comes cheap EH! Well all's well that ends well. Bsteph

--Star Wars doesn't follow the books that closely either.....then again, what movie does?-- Of Mice and Men was a movie very much faithful to the book, and it wasn't so bad either. I know that Star Wars was a movie ahead of its time and I like it, but sadly I have to say that George Lucas should stick to directing and producing, a good scriptwriter he doesn't make. Except for Arwen's "substitution" for Glorfindel's role, I am very much satisfied with LOTR. I think it's a good movie for LOTR fans and non-readers alike. Hard to achieve for a commercial movie.

This thread still going! LOL! Nplus, I really liked 'Blade Runner' (the Directors Cut) and I had read the book/short story "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep" (Great title don't you think!) many times and many years prior to the film coming out! Bsteph do you think the film stuck very closely to the book?...I didn't think so, but I still liked the film! I have to agree with Niko on "Nightmare before Christmas" such an excellent, imaginative and as you say Niko, visual film! One of the best mixtures of Sci-Fi and suspense, just to digress...IMO, was Alien (another Ridley Scott one) When I first saw it on the Big Screen, I was scared witless! of course with everyone knowing what the Aliens look like now, a lot of the surprise and suspense has gone from that gem....oh well!