I've seen and enjoyed all of these! They all follow their respective books pretty well. I really liked that a lot of Julia Child's autobiography was added in to Julie and Julia (the movie, not the book). And Powell is pretty whiny, but she's also funnier in the book than she comes off in the film.

Loved Percy Jackson, and my stepdaughter has a huge crush now.

The book version of The Road is pretty bleak itself, but I haven't seen the movie. I just watched Lightning Thief yesterday and thought it strayed quite a bit from the book. I'm usually fine with that, but found it a little distracting in this case. It was fairly entertaining though.

I haven't read or seen the first one. Although I also enjoy Viggo Mortensen (:.

I watched Julie/Julia when it first came out and really enjoyed it. I loved it when her husband says," and you better not put this on your blog!" I know Ben (and the kids!!) have said that to me a few times. LOL

As for Percy Jackson. We watched it on the plane to Mom's house. I thought it was really good but I hadn't read the books, just the kids. So now that I have read it, I was shocked at how much is missing from the movie. They missed a LOT. Of course movies from books can't have everything but...I was dissapointed in some of things they did/didn't do. Had I read it first, I probably would have been more dissapointed. Having said that though, we did enjoy the movie and thought it was fun. The kids love the books and the movies. I am reading the 2nd in the series right now.

I read The Road. I liked it and hated it. Didnt watch the movie but my husband did and it sounds like it stuck pretty close to the book. Very bleak.
I'm the only person in the world that didnt like the book The Lightning Thief. Everyone says the next book in the series is better but I cant bring my self to try it.

Didnt read Julie and Julia but I thought the movie was pretty good. My sister read the book and said she is very fond of using the "F" word

Skip the book by Powell and read Julia's autobiography instead.