Watched these films for pretty much the first time this week. I've seen them in parts over the years, and knew the story generally and the cool scenes, but there was a lot I didn't really know.
Anyway, I watched the 3 of them over 5 sittings, and I was very impressed. I'm not sure what fans of the books think of the films, but I really enjoyed them. The only real issue I had was Gimli's 'humour' took away from quite a lot of the scenes.
I used to think people who watched the extended editions were mental (The Return of the King is already over 3 hours, how could you want another hour on top of that), but I'm quite tempted to watch them the next time I feel up for going through these. Do they add much, or is it all just filler that's not too interesting?