No, I was just talking about the movie version of that scene. I think it was supposed to be OTT. I found it humourous, rather than cringeworthy.

In that case, the answer is "no", I was too busy trying to hide under my seat, to even contemplate smiling. As someone's mentioned before, the song choice for that scene was appalling. I don't know what exactly Zack was trying to convey here, but my best guess would be that he was mocking the aforementioned metaphor. I could be wrong.

Damn. Tough crowd.

Thanks, I will make use of one or both of those next time I read the book.

I recently watched the movie, and I must say it keeps getting worse. I guess I was originally so thrilled about it just being filmed, I couldn't help feeling generous.

The soundtrack is badly chosen, most times the songs don't add to the narrative, and in some instances (as mentioned, but not just then) get in the way. Right from the onset, I got disturbed with Cole's Unforgettable, playing in the background, for the Comedian's murder. A sequence that was further ruined with the fight sequence and Blake's parting words (plus that uncalled for, smile).

Alongside this problem, there's another question that crops out trough the entirety of the film: an excessive amount of action. In the comic, Moore chose to keep violence and overall super-heroics to a minimum, but Snider overrules this decision by inflating, exaggerating, extending or merely fabricating, action sequences.

There's the issue then, of endings and beginnings. We already covered the change in Ozymandia's plan, but I forgot a corollary: The Comedian's visit to Edgar William Jacobi. In the comic, this is motivated by Blake's accidental discovery of an uncharted island with suspicious activity, but in the movie the island isn't used, and so, a different explanation is given, Nixon ordered him to spy on the other watchmen. This isn't nearly as powerful, and doesn't explain neither why he'd crack nor why he'd keep silent. As for beginnings, I'm talking about the psychological genesis of costumed crime fighters. In the comic, this is a fundamental piece, into which Moore put obviously a lot of thought. His solution for explaining a human behavior that doesn't exist was quite crafty, he gave characters as much depth as he could, including physiological reports and quotes from fictional books, but in reality, he only explained the behavior of people acting vicariously, the real problem, the first person to put on the mask, is shrouded in mystery. And this is the brilliant trick, Snyder misses, by parading Hooded Justice as just another vigilante, and giving an alternate, much weaker explanation, for the existence of masked adventurers.

Other minor problems are: the transition to the animated scenes from Tales of the Black Freighter, the Miller inspired TV use, Nixon, Ozymandias' penitence, the way Laurie finds out about her father…

I'd give it a 9. I find something new about it every time I read it. Plus, I think Ozy's scene of 'I did it 15 minutes ago' to be one of the best single scenes ever in comics.

As for the film, the biggest fault I see with it is that you really need to have read the book before watching it. It's one of the few films that I can think of where the source material actually helps you fill in the blanks of the Hollywood makeover and allows you to better follow the actions and drama. 

For example, when I first watched it, my wife was watching it too and she has never read the book. Halfway through the film,  she looks at me with a bored expression and asks,"What is this film about?"

Says it all, I think.

I give it a 9. Like others have siad, that one part of the ending keeps it from being a 10. As for the film, I actually like the movie a lot. I look at it as a different interpretation of the same story. It does some things the same, does its own thing in its own way in other instances. So I do prefer the movie's ending over the alien ending of the original story. That alien ending wasn't enough to harm my overall love for the story when i first read it or re-read it over the years.