A recurring topic of discussion in my circle of friends is to argue about movies that are better than the books that they were based on. And Stanley always comes to the forefront in the discussion.

While "Lolita" and "A Clockwork Orange" are marvelous movies, the books are much better.

On the other hand "Dr. Stangelove" is orders of magnitude better than "Red Alert" and , yes, I have read the book. I wish that I still possessed it, but it is long gone.

One of the main ones that we argue about is "Barry Lyndon". Personally I prefer the movie, but others prefer the book.

I won't even attempt to enter the "The Shining" discussion. I greatly prefer the movie, but others are in the extreme opposite camp.

I have not read the novel on which "Eyes Wide Shut" was based, but it would have to be pretty bad not to "trump" the movie. There are lots of things that I like in the movie, but for the most part it isn't up to the enormously high standards of the other Kubrick films.