I guess we're getting unreasonable in out old age - not wanting to spend money on crummy films :-) It's funny - I love Johnny Depp and have most of his movies, but it's his acting I love - I never thought he was cute! George Clooney is a perfect example of the man I'd love to run away with :-) Back in the day, the big love of my 14 year old life was one of those guys in the band Duran Duran. I can't even remember what his name was now - not the singer, the guy with the hair and the hat... My brother got me the big box set of Monty Python's Flying Circus for my birthday, so I think we'll be satisfying our movie urges with that for awhile. BP

Julie my friend was telling me on the Final Destination 3 DVD you can pick who dies or something like that. I haven't seen the third one yet, but I liked the first two. I watched Evil Dead again saturday night. That's a classic. The next movie I am awaiting to come to the theater is Spider-Man 3. I have seen one preview and it looked good. I'm glad that Sam Raimi was picked as the director. He has stuck close to the original story line. Which is something a lot of directors don't usually do. Also Bruce Campbell might have a more promonent role in this one as a villian. Since I'm on film adaptations I always thought it would be cool if the Dragonlance Chronicals (War of the Lance) were made into movies. Of course if it was me I would do 9 movies with the Meeting of the Sextet leading up to the War of the Lance. That would be asking a lot though, so I would settle for The Chronicals. oH someone could do The Legand of Huma, or just about any of the great DL books. Any other Dragonlance fans out there? Tim

I was thinking, "Gee - it's a long way to Wisconsin from here". Maybe I could drop in on my next trip through - but it's been a long time since I went that route, as I usually go to visit my brother and friends on the prairies through N. Michigan. Looks as though we'll soon need a passport to go over the border (on land - need one to fly over, now) and I haven't had one of them in 40 years or so. A guy at the *busy* passport office told me the other day that it'll cost me about $85.00. Golly - one doesn't get anything free, anymore - except air. And that's polluted, in spite of what Georgie boy and his oilfield buddies that hold positions of some authority claim. I'd have said a few years ago that water was (almost) free. And if anyone had suggested to me that people'd soon be buying water in little plastic bottles - and at a higher price per gallon than gasoline ... ... I'd have said that they were nuts. And we complain about the price of gas - but not a peep about the price of water. Plus the bottles won't degrade for something like 100 years. Plus some say that there's stuff in the plastic that leaches out into the water and makes it not good for us - especially if it sits in the sunlight for a while. (Maybe we should run that by snopes to see if it, too, is an urban legend). And you tell me that humans are ratiional? Do you know any other funny stories?? By the way - if the folks in cities who don't like the taste/smell/odour of the chlorine in the water ... ... leave it in a jug, sitting in the sun for a while - no more evidence of chlorine. Our nearby univ. has movie nights, too, with similar listings, I think, but I think that there's a fee, possibly about half of the regular rate. But it costs a mint to park there, probably about half of the price of the movie - maybe more. When I used to attend the dental school, for teeth repair/replacement, I'd park about 10 blocks away, where it was free. They say that we need exercise. Have a lovely week, everyone. ole joyful

Vee, thanks for the link to the Gallup poll. Whew! It will take me a while to assimilate it. As for "the sad state of affairs": I understand now. I tied it to the wrong paragraph. :-) Woodnymph, yeah, I realize that I'm in the minority about the film of To Kill a Mockingbird. I figure my love of the whole book makes me too critical of the adaptation, which picks out and gives emphasis to a particular part. Which reminds me: June, if you watch the Olivier/Oberon Wuthering Heights, don't expect to see the whole story -- you will only get part of it. Otherwise, it's a quite fascinating interpretation: telling, I think, of what adaptors of the 1930s thought was important and what subsequent audiences have taken in. Woodnymph, I saw The English Patient film first, and then read the book. While the "essence" of the book might have been captured in the film, the two are so different! I like the film better. Another essence capturer, I think, is The French Lieutenant's Woman. Oh gosh, yes, the Polanski-directed Tess is superb, I think, and very faithful. Actually I like nearly all of the film versions of Hardy's books, particularly Tess and Far from the Madding Crowd -- Alan Bates will always be my Gabriel Oak. I also liked most of the Merchant-Ivory productions. I certainly like their adaptations of Forster, though I find Forster's writing insufferably Edwardian. I do like some Edwardian writing but Forster's was even more uptight than most. Knowing his bio and the times, I can understand why he wrote the way he did but the priggishness still exasperates me. Speaking of another Forster -- Margaret Forster, that is -- and Alan Bates: I adore the 1966 adaptation of Forster's Georgy Girl. I loved that book so much as a teenager that I determined I was to live in London. When this subject comes up, I always have to mention two of my favorite short story adaptations: John Huston's "The Dead" (from Joyce's Dubliners) and "Babette's Feast" (from Dinesen's Anecdotes of Destiny). June, you're right: there are so many good films that owe their genesis to a book.