How to Train Your Dragon

The movie was totally different than the book. I suppose the basic premise was the same. But in the book, the Vikings already have dragons as their pets. In the movie, Hiccup discovers that all the dragons are stealing their food because they are afraid of one huge dragon. The movie is really a better plot. In both, Hiccup gets his time to shine.

Silver Linings Playbook

I can't believe all the changes they made to the book. I guess there was reason, but I think it took some of the heart out of it. I like how Danny keeps showing up, which wasn't in the book at all. He did mention him a lot, though, so I guess it makes sense that he shows up in the film. I didn't like how the story of Nikki's infidelity was revealed almost immediately. The whole book moved towards him remembering that incident.

I also don't quite understand the changes with his father. In the book, his father is such a dirtbag. He completely ignores Pat except for gameday. Pat loves gameday, cannot wait to finally communicate with his dad. But in the movie, it is the dad that is consistently trying to bond with him.

Also, the father in the book is constantly exploding, losing his temper, being violent. You get the feeling Pat could hardly help the way he turned out. That does not come through in the film at all.

Also, Jake keeps his wife a secret in the book. It is sweet; he doesn't reveal her existence until he thinks Pat is ready for it. In the film, he mentions it immediately. He also seems like kinda a prick, where he is a good guy in the book.

In the book, time was a huge factor. Pat comes to realize that he spent at least 4 years in the "bad place", gradually. His family tries to hide it from him, because they know he has basically forgotten years of that existence. In the film, he was only in the facility for eight months.

The fight at the Eagles game happened slightly differently, although he was defending his brother.

All the betting stuff is not in the book. I did like the scene where Tiffany showed all the times that the Eagles and Phillies won when Tiffany and Pat got together. They also change the jersey Pat has; why would they change that? I like how Pat's dad and Tiffany pal up, though. Again, completely different from the book.

Also, Pat figures out that Tiffany is writing the letter from a phrase she says that is in the letter.

Also missing is the part where Tiffany is "scouting" Pat to see if he will make a good dance partner, and she decides that he is the strongest person she has met.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

I enjoyed the book more than I expected to. A lot of it is just straight from the story of Abraham Lincoln's life. I like how the vampires are weaved in, somewhat seemlessly. The movie made significant changes. Ann Rutledge was left out altogether, which somewhat disappointed me. But I guess it doesn't make sense to have a movie with two love interests.

In the book, Abe kills Barts right away, his first vampire killing. He also learns about vampires from his father, not Henry. He also knows Henry is a vampire before Henry starts sending him on missions.

In general, this movie was terrible. The elegance of the book was that the author kept all the facts of Lincoln's life accurate. He just added in some vampires to explain some of the nuances, and some of the terrible deaths of Lincoln's loved ones. The author also had many vampires helping the South in the Civil War, but also a strong group of vampires assisting the North. And the great line of the book "Some people are too interesting to die" was not used at all in the movie. The biggest disappointment was when I saw on the credits that the author wrote the screenplay. UGH! I guess the changes were meant to keep more of the focus on action and carnage.

Lincoln

This movie was based loosely on the book "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I listened to all 36 CDs of Goodwin's book, and it was very interesting.

The movie only covers a few months, and therefore only a small portion of the book. However, I enjoyed how the screenplay worked in nuances of Lincoln's personality (which was consistent with descriptions in the book). For example, his love of stories/anecdotes, and his tendency to give his small boys whatever attention they asked for. Also, we can see that his marriage was certainly rocky, but not without love and affection.

The movie concentrated on the Cabinet's approach to basically buy votes to pass the 13th Amendment. Although his reputation was as "honest Abe", Abe felt that this particular legislation was worth almost any underhanded approach. I believe the movie was accurate in its portrayal of the somewhat-sleazy Bilbo, but I cannot recall any mention of this person in Goodwin's book.

I thought it was in good taste to skip Lincoln's actual assassination, instead focusing on his son's reaction.

The Gettysburg address was quoted at the beginning by soldiers visiting with Lincoln. This was a creative way to include his famous words. After the wonderful line "Now he belongs to the Ages", we see Lincoln giving his 2nd inaugural address, which was also an amazing tapestry of words.

Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his performance as Lincoln. Honestly, I'm not sure I agree. I was not all that impressed with his impersonation of this amazing man.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Megan and I read this a couple years ago. In the book, Percy meets Tyson at school. In the film, there is no reference to Percy's time at school. The movie opens at camp, and Percy is introduced to Tyson as his brother. I also pictured Tyson a little more dopey than he was portrayed in the film, and a little more hulking.

The hippocampus that brought the three heroes to the ship Andromeda was beautifully done. However, a large part of the book is how Beckendorf sacrificed himself in destroying the Andromeda, which in the book is a huge cruise ship (not just a yacht) filled with horrific monsters. The film does not even see the ship destroyed, but rather the heroes simply escape from it. I believe the thermos with the 4 winds inside was in the book, but the "packaging tape" that Percy used to escape from their cells was not.

Kronos did not rise in this particular book as he did in the movie, but rather in a later book in the series. (we think, this input is from Megan) On the island of Circe, the book did not have an amusement park. But it was a nice touch for the film.

Overall, a decent, action-packed film, but it was a little thin on developing the rapport between the heroes.

The 39 Steps

I read this book because David and I were going to see the play. The play is based on the movie, and is a humorous take. I had 7 pages left of the book when we arrive at the play. I found the play amusing. Some of the text of the book was hard to understand, because the brogue was so exaggerated. I guess it was Scottish brogue. In the play several characters were so exaggerated in their speech that certain words were completely altered. The main character was always on stage, but the multitude of other characters were played by just two actors. It was enjoyable to see them constantly changing from one character to another (including women). I also enjoyed the various references to other Hitchcock films. (these were added just for humor in the play, they were not present in the Hitchcock movie)

The movie introduces a love interest for the main character. The book actually had no female characters. The "spy"/ secret holder is male in the book, and female in the movie. Hannay (the main character) falls into both the police and the "bad guys" hands more than once in the movie, but only once in the book. He also escapes in more dramatic fashion in the book, setting the house where he is being held on fire.

The movie also introduces an act, "Mr Memory", which holds the secret, and "The 39 Steps" is a group of spies. Neither of these are in the book. "The 39 Steps" are actually steps that go down to the ocean from a beach house, and Hannay helps the authorities find this house and capture the foreign spies.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is a great movie, with wonderful acting and effects. Just about everything in the movie is straight from the book. But at over 2 hours, it is still missing large chunks. However, most of the omissions were probably for the best, and kept the action going. There was not one minute of Quidditch in the film. It had probably been just about done to death in the first 4 films, so this omission is understandable, even though it played a decent role in the book. Cho and Harry did not go on their date, but are the Harry Potter films really consistent with teenage angst and romance? Maybe not so much.

I was a little disappointed that the screeching letter to Harry's aunt was gone. Also, that we didn't get to see that Dudley supports Harry's story of the dementors. Fred and George's tricks are condensed into one great scene. This could have been a nice series of short clips: the students torturing Delores after she becomes headmaster.