20 Comments
User's avatar
camden noir's avatar

Fight Club is a good example of, “the movie is better.”

Palahniuk agreed himself, in an interview somewhere. Both are fantastic though

Expand full comment
Mark's avatar

Good stuff!

Jaws is one of my all time favorites. Love the book except for the affair nonsense. Quint, and the Sea Hunt in the book are excellent. But you are right, the movie is better.

They Live! I've always loved the movie. I keep forgetting about the book.

(I'm not a Dune guy)

Thanks!

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

Here’s the short story They Live is based on:

https://pvto.weebly.com/uploads/9/1/5/0/91508780/eight_o%E2%80%99clock_in_the_morning-nelson.pdf

Give it a read it’s really quick and a fun one.

Expand full comment
Mark's avatar

Good story! So glad Carpenter found it. And Roddy Pipers performance is perfect.

And of course the alley fight with Keith David is legendary.

Expand full comment
Mark's avatar

Thanks!

Expand full comment
Daniel Mazzola's avatar

Jurassic Park movie > Jurassic Park book.

Yeah, I said it.

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

Those are fighting words, sir!

Expand full comment
Michael Newberry's avatar

A movie poster of Jaws and the Name of the Rose, so bad it was great. hahaha. I am thinking of making a book suggestion ... : )

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

Glad you appreciated it 😂 suggest away!

Expand full comment
Michael Newberry's avatar

One of my favorites is Aristophanes, and Paul Roche is a fantastic translator, ha, he communicates like you and Melissa. These are comedies, like the woman withholding sex until the stupid men stop their war! : ) And he pokes fun at his contemporary Socrates, one scene opens with Socrates floating in basket, head in the clouds. We could possibly read one of the plays? Additionally, Aristophanes wrote during the collapse of the golden age of Athens, he was aware of the leadership was destroying Greece, but he was only a comic writer ... yet he kept is benevolence and humor...also historically is he is the father of two kinds of humor, the later when the Spartans ruled Athens, and had intense censorship, Aristophanes created humor of prototypes, like the sassy tart, the butler, etc. Much is that is typical Hollywood comedy now. https://a.co/d/gZ0CPVX

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

That sounds like a fun one—and right up Melissa’s alley too. Would you recommend starting with any play in particular?

Expand full comment
Michael Newberry's avatar

I would like to skim them first before picking one.

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

Ok cool let us know!

Expand full comment
Scott's avatar

I was in the third grade when this movie came out, back when they would put out a TV edit for the broadcast networks a year after any successful movie left theaters.

I remember carrying that book around at school, with the shark coming up to devour our first victim.

Now I live a short walk from Narragansett Bay which is were the title and closing credits sequence were filmed, I can see the landscape is still much the same.

I don’t go in the water….

Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

At least you have a beautiful view from the shore! Melissa and I love that area, it’s on our list of places to move to one day if we were ever brave enough to finally move away from NYC.

Expand full comment
John Saleeby's avatar

That book is awful

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
May 28, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

I cracked up like 3 times reading this. When you disagree with my Dune call out, are you talking about the book or the David Lynch train wreck? (I laughed writing that, hopefully we’re both on the same page regarding the Lynch movie.)

I’ve never seen the Lord of the Ring movies (or read the books). This is shocking for a self proclaimed film buff such as myself. I plan on watching them in the near future though so I can report back to you on them.

PS. I was trying to come up with a funny bit about Tolkien (formerly Token) from South Park, sadly to no avail.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
May 29, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

I didn’t even realize there was a 4 hour version of Lynch’s Dune. That makes way more since since the 2 hour one we tries watching wasn’t nearly enough time to fit in everything the novel had to offer. However, the cinematic experience that was Dune Part 2 in theaters this year was something special.

I’m all for the extended version of films to get the most respectable book adaptation out of it. The Watchmen movie with Tales of the Black Freighter included is definitely the best version of that adaptation (even though I still think it sucks because it has none of the soul of Moore and Gibbon’s masterpiece and should have never been made. Don’t even get me started on the HBO series…)

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
May 29, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
John Mistretta's avatar

Now that is sacrilege! Watchmen the graphic novel is the best thing I’ve ever read, hands down. The movie doesn’t hold a candle to it IMO. Cool that you know someone in the series, but it really pains me to think that so many people will think of that show when they hear Watchmen mentioned, and won’t ever realize the genius that was the book.

Expand full comment
M Le Baron's avatar

Wow! I agree with your position on Dune. You are clearly channeling the Harvard Lampoon’s “Bored of the Rings” in your assessment of Tom Bombadil. I find a Tom Bombadil on psychedelics to be much more entertaining. If you haven’t read this book, I would recommend it highly. Some of the humor is low, but much is clever. Definitely worth the time and effort.

Expand full comment