I just recently started reading manga (can't believe it took me this long...), and one of my favorite titles so far is Death Note.

Hunting around on the Internet for any additional sliver of information I could find on Death Note, I found out that it was made into a live action movie in 2006 (in Japanese).  Apparently it was a massive hit in Japan.  It had limited release elsewhere...  In the US, they showed it only for two days in only 300 theaters nation-wide.

Naturally, I had to see this movie.  I lucked out and managed to find it a local comic book store (the english dubbed version).  I thought the movie was fantastic!  There were some differences from the books, but they added to the movie.

Things I didn't like: some of the English voice-acting was awful (but they were minor roles, so it wasn't too annoying), the Ryuk character was a little too obviously CGI, and finally the pace.  Something about the movie felt... I don't know...  slow.  Maybe I'd think differently about the pace had I not read the manga first.

Anyway, I also found out that WB has the movie rights for the US and is working on a remake (2011 release).  Here's to hoping they don't screw it up.

Apologies if all this is old news to everyone.

Some links for those interested:

Death Note movie trailer on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPAJXXZ_HFU

Link to Amazon product page:  http://www.amazon.com/Death-Note-Action-Tatsuya-Fujiwara/dp/B0017SVH5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1251580206&sr=8-1

Article on WB licensing the movie for US:  http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003063.html?categoryid=19&cs=1

yeah, the Deathnote movies [both I and II and I'm assuming the L movie as well] were much more palatable if you watched it in the original japanese with english subtitles.