Movie Junkie

[Mr.Yankees]

Great book. Let's see how good the movie is. I read both the Da vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Da vinci Code movie was not that bad mostly because of Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen. Both are great actors.

If you have the chance to read the book, do so before you go to watch the movie. You won't regret it or maybe you will, who knows?

[JuliaAJA]

Great book. Let's see how good the movie is. I read both the Da vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Da vinci Code movie was not that bad mostly because of Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen. Both are great actors.

If you have the chance to read the book, do so before you go to watch the movie. You won't regret it or maybe you will, who knows?

I don't read fast enough for that large of a book.

[AngryMollusc]

Great book. Let's see how good the movie is. I read both the Da vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Da vinci Code movie was not that bad mostly because of Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen. Both are great actors.

If you have the chance to read the book, do so before you go to watch the movie. You won't regret it or maybe you will, who knows?

...

Read a real book. Please. For me. I'm not demanding that you read pretentious intellectual twattery, just a good book, like, I don't know, To Kill A Mockingbird or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something. Then go back and read Angels and Demons again. You'll be amazed that you ever wrote that.

[Molotov]

Waltz with Bashir does definitely look good. I heard Gomorrah was okay but lacked a proper story. You should watch Watchmen, George. Awesome film, the only film I've seen based on a book of any kind that isn't worse than the book, apart from Fight Club maybe. Also, definitely watch Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, The Orphanage and best of all Pan's Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro is a bloody genius.

I really want to see Coraline and I still haven't seen Frost/Nixon or The Damned United. Anyone seen the last two?

[jethro]

I saw Frost/Nixon a week or so ago. It was interesting but seemed to drag on a bit. Still, I recommend it.

[Mr.Yankees]

Great book. Let's see how good the movie is. I read both the Da vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Da vinci Code movie was not that bad mostly because of Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen. Both are great actors.

If you have the chance to read the book, do so before you go to watch the movie. You won't regret it or maybe you will, who knows?

...

Read a real book. Please. For me. I'm not demanding that you read pretentious intellectual twattery, just a good book, like, I don't know, To Kill A Mockingbird or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something. Then go back and read Angels and Demons again. You'll be amazed that you ever wrote that.

Since you don't know me, I will be soft. I have read more than one hundred books easily. You do not get a Ph.D if you don't read that much. So, please don't talk about what you don't know.

And while I have no problem with you not liking the book, it's a good piece of fiction. Not the best, obviously, but good nevertheless.

I still recommend reading the book before watching the movie.

[GreekIdiot]

It's always recommended to read the book before watching the movie.

[AngryMollusc]

Since you don't know me, I will be soft. I have read more than one hundred books easily. You do not get a Ph.D if you don't read that much. So, please don't talk about what you don't know.

And while I have no problem with you not liking the book, it's a good piece of fiction. Not the best, obviously, but good nevertheless.

I still recommend reading the book before watching the movie.

Hmmm. I'm going to be generous and assume that the figure of one hundred books was in error (a quick calculation tells me that the shelves in the room I'm in alone contains over three times that number and I'm not a particularly voracious reader anyway). However, I'm genuinely interested to know what the books you've been reading are, such that you think The Da Vinci Code qualifies as good. So out of interest, if tDVC isn't one of your favourite books, what are?

Anyway: I'm not criticising Angels and Demons for it's accessibility (there are a lot of brilliant; easily accessible authors- Sir Terry Pratchett being a classic example), just for its unconvincing, highly generic characterisation (note that he uses essentially the same templates for his characters in all four books), ineffectual cliffhangers and hopelessly inept plotting. It's one of those rare books (off the top of my head, the only other such book I can think of is Eragon) that I actually think I could have written better and believe me, I'm under no illusions about my lack of writing talent...

As to the last part: well obviously. I'd recommend that for any film, although it has the significant disadvantage that very few films actually live up to the book they're based on, so you often end up feeling a bit cheated. (Molotov's list, plus Stardust is about all I can think of off the top of my head). Plus there are the cases like Northen Lights/The Golden Compass where the source material is so horrifically butchered that you just cannot stand the film.

[Molotov]

Perhaps he meant a thousand books?

Still, it's bewildering how anyone could possibly think The Da Vinci Code a good book. Characterisation is awful, the writing is really bad, the plot is see-through. I worked out what was happening less than five chapters in, skipped to the end and dropped it. It was an incredibly bad book. Fine for a bit of detective pulp, reading-on-the-loo or something, but it never deserved the fame it got. It also spawned loads of awful copy-cat books.

I'm looking forward to the film Armando Ianucci is making, with the chap out of The Thick Of It.

[GreekIdiot]

Any controversial book, no matter how fucked up it is, gets to go onto the best-seller shelf.