Fahrenheit 451 (1966 & 2018)

A fireman meets a woman and they become friends. The fireman is in the business of finding and burning books and the woman is in league with book hoarders. Eventually, the fireman starts questioning why things are the way they are and begins to read the forbidden books.

1966 A British science fiction directed by Francois Truffaut, starring Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack.
The 1966 British film was great. I liked it because the plot fit in with Brave New World, 1984 and THX 1138. It also seemed to accurately reflect what Wikipedia says about the book synopsis. The characters seemed to act like they were on a 1960s British sitcom, but they did fit their roles. Although the special effects looked fake, but were convincing as far as plot was concerned, everything else looked and sounded plausibly realistic. I thought it was a really cool movie and rate it awesome. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the books/movies mentioned above.

2018 An American science fiction directed by Ramin Bahrani, starring Michael Shannon and Martin Donovan.
The 2018 American version was bad. I almost immediately wanted to turn it off for many reasons. The top of these reasons was the plot not accurately reflecting Ray Bradbury's novel. Even the characters and their relationships were rewritten. Montag doesn't even have a wife in 2018! As I said with The Hobbit (2012 - 2014), apparently Ray Bradbury's writing was not good enough for Ramin Bahrani. Who cares if it's classic literature which has stood the test of time? The acting was way over the top: overacting. Compared with the 1966 version, these people should be committed to a mental hospital for the way they played their roles. The special effects looked realistic, but were not convincing in the least bit, except the library fire. Obviously, modern technology allows a reasonably realistic representation of a person being burned. The only thing that I really liked was the "+100" bit. Anything above and beyond expectations was +100, implying that the population had lost conception of numbers and degrees of magnitude. I rate this shit because I ended up turning it off at around the hour and ten minutes mark.

Don't Look Now (1973)

A British Italian thriller directed by Nicolas Roeg, starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.
The daughter of a married couple drowns in a pond. The husband is then working on restoring a church in Italy when the wife meets a mysterious duo of older women. One of the women seems to have psychic powers and is predicting disaster in the family. The wife is called away back to England where her son in school has had an accident. The husband thinks that he sees the wife still in Italy, with the old women and goes to the police.
The pros outweigh the cons on this one, making it worth watching. The plot was a little confusing and choppy. There were some sections that were unclear, like the daughter's death. The characters were memorable and acted their roles very well. The dialogue seemed poorly written, though because it led to some of the plot confusion. An example of this is the Husband calling his wife at the school in England. It seemed like she was lying to him or evading his questions, but it turned out that she was being honest. Video is where this shines. The shot compositions, framing and editing were amazingly artsy. Everything from the English countryside with the pond to the ancient labyrinth of Italy looked good because of proper lighting and exposures. They used steady tripod shots and rough, handheld shots in all the right places and there was some compositing. The daughter appearing in the waters of Italian canals was done very tastefully. There was an extended sex scene which was interspersed with footage of the couple putting their clothes on. I know that it makes a bold statement, but am at a loss for what that statement is. The audio was another good point. I could hear all of the dialogue. Even though some was in Italian, it did more to establish the setting than drive the plot. The all-classical music soundtrack worked wonderfully to set the mood. Overall, watch this for the video aspect. I rate it good.