OT- Best/Worst movies adapted from books.
Best- The Shawshank Redemption. Took an entertaining short story and made some subtle, but significant, changes to it. Then added in a first rate cast and powerful visual and audio elements. The result being one of the all time classics of cinema.
Worst- The Firm. The novel was a great story of deception and betrayal that was packed with intrigue and suspense right up to the very end. The film stayed more or less true to the book for the first hour, but then took the story in such a totally different direction that it defied description. Culminating in a climax so unbelievably comical you could almost hear the “womp, womp” as it played out. Not even a top flight cast could redeem this turd.
I feel like everyone who reads Ender's game loves it. Man, that movie was a loaded diaper.
You can put me down as not a fan of the Enders Game book, too YA for my tastes. Didn't bother with the movie.
I guess I should say everyone who read it when they were young.
I listened to all of the audiobooks (there are like 15 in the Ender universe) and they are all fantastic. When we all get commutes again, I'd highly recommend them and you can usually get the book on CD at the library (or pay Audible).
I'm also an old man, not a YA.
I read Ender's Game and enjoyed it, but haven't read any of the other books in the series. Mostly because, holy hell, don't look anything up about the author.
Outside of particularly egregious people I try not to know much about authors, actors, musicians, athletes and other people who I like their work. I am certain their political/social views are stupid, but they have a talent, and I don't want to ruin my enjoyment of their talent.
That said, Ender's Game is fantastic, especially if you were vaguely like the characters, growing up thinking that you thought like an adult (you didn't, but you didn't know that). But I never got past the second book in the series, as it seemed to go down the exact opposite path I wanted it to.
I read it in JH (long time ago) when I randomly found it one day - thought it was great. I haven't read it since, but saw the movie within last year and thought it was just ok. I don't recall all the details from the book, but I did recall the climactic ending in the book was different (and better) than the movie.
I thought this was the best movie from the worst book. That's easy: Blade Runner. Everything about "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was a disaster after the title.
I was SO EXCITED to read that book when I found out it was the inspiration for Blade Runner and then basically made it to the end only because I hate myself.
I haven't been able to bring myself to read anything by Phillip K. Dick since. Which I should probably get over as a WHOLE lot of great sci-fi movies were inspired by his works, but just like how I know eating Green Olives is good for you, I just can't do it,
The concept of replicants is the only thing they have in common. I'm grateful to whoever wrote the film script.
Peter Jackson's adaptations of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were great. Then his adaptation of the Hobbit was painfully dragged out into 3 movies.
As a Tolkien nerd, I can safely say “The Hobbit“ movies were a travesty.
Someone apparently went through each movie and cut out all the crap that wasn't in the books and then spliced it together into one film that is a straight adaptation of the book.
Spoiler: Tauriel doesn't make an appearance
You're saying some one created this? Got a link?
A friend of mine edited the "first" three Star Wars movies (the prequels) into one movie removing all of the Jar Jar and romance garbage. It was a little slow, but was entertaining. It felt like one of those old black and white movies about the Spanish Armada with Errol Flynn or someone. I no longer have a link.
Try this [link]
I believe you can download the torrent.
I think you'll have to use a torrent. Here is the site for the guy that did it that has a link to the .torrent towards the bottom of the post.
This almost felt like the turning point to me where Hollywood stopped trying to make great movies and instead started focusing solely on making money.
It was probably always that way, but it's so apparent to me now that they will shit out a terrible movie/sequel/trilogy and continue doing it as long as they know they'll be cash cows.
I saw shawshank for the first time a few days before quarantine started. What a flick.
It makes Stephen King upset but Kubrick's Shining holds up incredibly over forty years later
It’s a shame that King can’t appreciate the movie for its own brilliance.
Fine, it’s nothing like your book! It’s still amazing!
I read about half of the novel over Xmas break. The bones seem to be the same but Kubrick somewhat softened the ending (except for killing off poor Scatman).
Spoiler alert! Dude!
King movies could be both categories, and everything in between. The green mile was fantastic, the IT reboot was pretty good, the Shining was amazing, but so untrue to the source material that King hated it, Pet Cemetary was good, and then you have the Langoliers and the Children of the Corn. Barf.
I like Part One of the IT reboot, but didn't particularly care for Part Two.
I think it's like the book in that way, the part when they were kids always felt like the strongest part of the novel as well.
Don't forget to add he Dark Tower movie. How you compress 7+ books into 90 minutes is amazing to me.
Can't forget to add something that NEVER happened.
Didn’t happen didn’t happen didn’t happen lalalala. If can we please just agree that movie didn’t happen. My god
I heard the supposed cast was going to be great, and probably would have been... But you know, 90 minutes...
Nicholson is such a great actor. He profoundly nails the American wit more than any other.
I digress. I once read For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway. Good book but the film was so bad I had to stop watching after five minutes.
To be fair, that movie is from the 40s. There are some good movies from that time period, but film has changed a lot over the last 70-80 years. A lot of movies from that era probably wouldn't stand the test of time.
It's a real shame that the Leonardo DiCaprio version of For Whom the Bell Tolls that was rumored to be in the works never got made. It would've been incredible if it had been done right. Blood Diamond was fantastic, and was somewhat similar, though.
I am Sam was a great adaptation of the book Reaching Higher: Mark Dantonio and the Rise of Michigan State Football
You never go full panasiuk.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” was adapted from a short story called “The Greatest Gift,” which I haven’t read. But it the greatest movie ever, so that makes it the best adaptation automatically.
Worst: “The Da Vinci Code.” The book was dumb, but in a fun way. The movie was just dumb in a “kill me” way.
They really botched the casting. Imagine the same movie, but with:
--Gary Oldman as Robert Langdon
--Julie Delpy as Sophie Neveu
--Gerard Depardieu as Fache (would need a haircut)
--someone who weighs twice as much as Paul Bettany as Silas
With those changes alone (or various other options that would also have been better), you get a dramatically better movie.
Just about every movie ever would be better with Gary Oldman.
I didn't know that about It's a Wonderful Life. Your post prompted me to read the short story. It's good too. The premise is the same, but there were additions and changes, one of main ones being that the main character's wife, instead of being an old maid is married to an alcoholic.
I would say all the Harry Potter movies are good adaptations of the books.
The Shrek book was short and dumb and they made a good movie out of it.
My son is reading the Harry Potter books atm, after seeing each of the movies 50 times. He's amazed at how much stuff didn't make it to the films.
That's how books work, kid.
Best - LOTR. I know a lot of material from the books couldn’t make it into the movies, but you’ve only got so much running time to work with. The movies were near flawless.
Worst - any of the movies based on Dan Brown novels. I’ll admit that after Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code that the subsequent books started heading downward, but the first two were great, and Angels and Demons is one of my favorites. The movies were completely forgettable.
I liked the “Angels and Demons” flick, but maybe only because it was so much better than “The Da Vinci Code.”
Neither of the movies are any good. The Da Vinci Code as a book was good but I’m sure part of that is because it was so controversial.
I don’t remember being as hooked to it as I was with Angels and Demons, though. Read it in high school and I think it’s one of the only books I’ve ever read that voluntarily re-read because I enjoyed it so much. All of his books since these first two, Lost Symbol, Inferno and Origin, are all entertaining but they’re more or less the same story re-packaged with a different female lead in a different country.
Forrest Gump and The Godfather are both pretty bad books but the film adaptations are excellent. I don't know if they are the best film adaptations but in terms of quality difference they lead the pack.
Some of the Harry Potter movies are pretty awful but Azkaban is excellent.
I heard from someone that like 25% of the Godfather book is about the one dame having a big vagina.
Wait, so the Austin Powers trilogy is actual from the Godfather???
Agreed...logged in to post Forrest Gump and Shoeless Joe/Field of Dreams.
Tom Hanks' character was so different than the book's, much more likeable.
The Big Short is one of the best.
Great call. How they made a movie out of it was damn impressive. Dry content
i thought the Martian was a great book, although I wasn’t able to appreciate the calculations in the book but thought the movie ending was better than the book
That reminds me: Get Shorty is a great adaptation of a great book.
Loved the book but not the movie. Too clever by half, and Steve Carrell was a terrible casting decision. The whole movie is overacted.
I agree - but am going to go out on a limb and that you work in finance.
I will say the movie does a decent job of taking a very complex thing and making it understandable so I get why people like the movie so much, especially compared to the book