Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

tnilfo If you came here as a fan of Kotzwinkle's excellent book, 'Jack in the Box', I suggest you don't make the mistake I did and watch this movie expecting to find the same story. Yes, the narrative holds close to the content of the novel, but the film captures none of the spirit of the tale. It's a little mystifying that Kotzwinkle was also responsible for the screenplay, as he seems to have betrayed his own original work.Director Robert Shaye seemed to completely misunderstand the book as well -- not only did he clean up all the grit and desperation that gave the novel such depth, he also emasculated the wicked sense of danger that made the story so thrilling and surprising. As an example, in the scout camping scene in the novel, Twiller and his friends are confronted with a violent and sadistic rapist who threatens them with a similar act. In the movie the scene is sanitized, turning a frightening violation into a silly prank.The film's setting had none of the grime and economic depression of the novel's coal-mining central Pennsylvanian town. You can't swap Southern California for Scranton. As well, many of the book's excellent dank and dirty characters have been lost to cleaned-up 50s stereotypes. Spider in the novel is a filthy, twisted bastard who rapes his 5th grade sister -- in the movie he's barely distinguishable from any of Twiller's wholesome friends.Perhaps worst of all is the betrayal of the novel's main character. Twiller by the end of the novel is pretty much a hopeless case -- he is too dumb for college and seems destined for a depressed blue-collar future in the local button mill. In fact in his best dreams he imagines living in a run-down shack with a view of the local junkyard. Somehow Shaye saw him escape that fate and made him a wealthy professional with a sleek house, expensive electronics and fancy clothes. This is not the Twiller I liked so much. If you liked him too, don't bother looking for him in this movie.

reviewerinoimdbino I hadn't seen this movie in years, and I was so lucky to see it by chance on Comedy Central this morning. This movie is a charmer.Set in 1955, it covers some of the same nostalgic territory as "A Christmas Story," but it does so beautifully, with very accurate and attractive art direction.Chris Young, Keith Coogan, Danny Nucci, and John Cameron Mitchell are all at their most attractive and charming youthful best here. The fact that the film has all of them doing good work, as well as a lot of other talented character actors, is an indication of the craftsmanship that went into this picture.It's a portrait, a slice-of-life of our hero's last year of so of high school.The very last minute of the picture, seeing Michael McKeen as the hero grown up, just doesn't mesh with what came before, but don't let that keep you from seeing and appreciating this film. It's a delight.This is a pretty darn clean and wholesome picture. There may be some understandable sexual, hormonal aspects and humor here, but pretty much anyone age 14 (or 12) on up will be mature enough to enjoy this film.It's just too bad there aren't more recent credits for Chris Young. He's sweet, charming, and sensitive here. Surely there's a place for that among roles for character actors in their 30s.

jennie0409 "Book of Love" is a great movie to sit down with on a Saturday afternoon or on a rainy day. It's one of those movies that's considered "cute." The movie is told from teenager Jack's point of view. It's about his life. It's really fun to look back at the 50's and see how different things are now...even if you're not from that generation. The hairdos, the clothes, the cars? All authentic...or at least very realistic. This movie is a definite must-see if you're in the mood to see a good movie and you're just not sure what you want to see.

jamesbourke50 Here is a well worn scenario, I as the viewer, view the movie first andthen read the book thereafter. Cynics would cast judgement by saying that the movie could never hold a candle to the written source or vice versa is almost common place in today's transworld transference of book's into movie's.For myself, i had always been a fan of this nostalgia genre, whereby characters hark back to the past so as to rekindle that something they think is missing. Movies like "Back To The Future" "Mischief" and "Stand By Me" with the exception of the first named the last two were good old fashioned trips down memory lane.Based on the book "Jack In The Box" by the author William Kotzwinkle, who also wrote the script, The movie is a veritable cavalcade of what was best and somewhat naughty about being a teenager living in the 1950's, and who better to adapt the source novel than that of the original scribe himself, who one gets a sneaky suspicion the lead character is based.Now the curious thing about this whole production is that looking at it now, compared to then, this movie represents a who's who, who went onto what in the genre field. Firstly the company behind the movie and the director Robert Shaye, produced (i make no apologies for missing out the obvious) the classic "Alone In The Dark" and "Xtro". The Scripter surprisingly penned the story/script for "Nightmare On Elm Street 4" (Theory installed here was a two picture deal, scribble a story for Freddy and then we'll translate the novel).As for the cast Chris Young turned up in "Runestone" "Warlock 2" Danny Nucci appeared in "The Rock" and some other overblown Simpson/Bruckheimer productions. Finally John Cameron Mitchell transformed his offbroadway musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" into a really offbeat movie experience.In the novel there exists only one main character, that of Jack Twiller, an extreme dreamer from another age, everything he went through in the book was by turns funny and very graphic, but what the author did, was split the character of Jack into two character's giving Jack in the movie a younger brother named Peanut, who discovers like Jack did in the novel all things sexual.Regardless of what those jaded persons out there unknown might think of this movie and others like it, you just can't beat, it represents an age we children of another time (myself being a seventies child) never new. A great soundtrack, well rounded characters, outlandish scenes of major pornography allbeit of a PG13 nature pushing the envelope of an R rating.To this day "Book Of Love" is a movie that i cherish dearly, discover it and discover yourself, set aside that critic and appreciate a movie where everything works.A resounding 10 out of 10