P.R. has certainly hyped this dud into big bucks!

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2001)

Given the choice of waiting 2 hrs. for "Ocean's 11" or heading into a nearly empty theatre (1 of 3) for "LOTR", we foolishly decided take our popcorn and drinks and relax for 3 hrs. What a poor decision!
Having read "The Hobbit" (which, according to a friend, would give me the necessary background for "LOTR"), then reading "LOTR," I thought I might finally understand the fascination and enthrallment by so many by seeing the film. Wrong! The film version was just more icing on an already bad cake. The one thing the film offered was that I finally understood the sizes of each respective group...who knew elves were men sized, or that dwarves were smaller than Hobbits? Both guys with me understood that Frodo was taking the ring back to the mines, with numerous hardships and lots of fighting along the way, but were bored for most of the 3 hrs. (Guess I won't get to pick the movie next time!)
A local movie critic had discussed the film the other night and the vote was not "see it now" but "wait for video"...I should've taken the advice and saved my $6. Or better yet, skipped the whole thing and popped my own corn at home while watching CNN. (Went back and saw "Oceans 11"...popcorn and flic were both good!)