Best and Worse Book to Films

Lost Soal · Post by **Lost Soal** » 2005-12-07 05:00am

The title is pretty self explanitory, quite often I'll read a book which then gets turned into a film. Because I liked the book I'll watch the film. Unfortunately, more often than not I'll find the film is just so wrong, and while on its own it may be a good film, the fact I've read the book means I can't get past some of those facts.
An example is the ring 1 and 2, they do not exist to me. The books were great, the films are some other story entirely. On the other hand The Spiral, is the book in so many ways, while the adaptation of Stephen Kings The Green Mile is possibly the best book to movie conversions I have seen.

So, what else is there? Which conversions remain true to the books you loved, and which ones need to have every copy taken off the shelves and rammed down the film makers throat's.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-12-07 06:44am

LOrd of the rings-
although I hated some of the cuts (especially the scouring of the Shire, Sarumans end & death and the searchlight of Mordor County) it truly was a fantastic trilogy that did credit to it's source.

The Harry potter movies are also nice although the cutting is getting more and more apparent with every sequel, and the first was weaker than the first book.

The Hitchhikers guide was such a blasphemy against my near favourite book that I didn't even watch it (the exhibition in the science museum while amusing convinced me against it decisively).

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2005-12-07 07:44am

Dune.. the Lynch version was eh, the straight to TV.. yikes.

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2005-12-07 09:17am

Not sure which way round it was, but I felt the Princess Bride was better as a film. Master and Commander was also a very good translationin my opinion.

I quite liked the Hitchikers Guide film. Not as good as the books,but I felt they kept close to the 'feel' of the thing.

On the oposite end, the Lord of the Rings annoyed me as a film. Ididn't mind bits having to be cutso much as the changes, some of which I felt were pointless, and some of which were quite bad for the 'feel' of the thing, and bad to the characters involved.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2005-12-07 10:39am

The Lost Word (Michael Chricton one not the ACD one). The movie sucked on its own and about the only resemblance between the two was the name.

General Soontir Fel · Post by **General Soontir Fel** » 2005-12-07 11:06am

The Time Machine (the 2002 version, of course) was a crappy adapatation and a crappy movie in its own right. I can't believe I didn't wait for the DVD on that one...

Post by **Kuja** » 2005-12-07 11:39am

General_Soontir_Fel wrote:The Time Machine (the 2002 version, of course) was a crappy adapatation and a crappy movie in its own right. I can't believe I didn't wait for the DVD on that one...

Behold the power of steam!

That movie made me laugh myself silly.

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2005-12-07 11:52am

Best: Fight Club, Godfather 1&2, LOTR Trilogy, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Worst: Timeline (most Crichton movies blow)

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2005-12-07 12:17pm

Lord of the Rings. I absolutely hated the books, but the films were really quite good.

Fight Club was done very well.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-12-07 12:54pm

DEATH wrote:The Hitchhikers guide was such a blasphemy against my near favourite book that I didn't even watch it (the exhibition in the science museum while amusing convinced me against it decisively).

You know that Douglas Adams wrote it, yeah? So is it blasphemy still?

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2005-12-07 01:01pm

Dalton wrote:
DEATH wrote:The Hitchhikers guide was such a blasphemy against my near favourite book that I didn't even watch it (the exhibition in the science museum while amusing convinced me against it decisively).
You know that Douglas Adams wrote it, yeah? So is it blasphemy still?

I still wonder how many realize what the original source was.

Putting it as blasphemy has whole new connotations when dealing with Hitchhiker's.

And Adams did say it best when asked "I don't know, I was very drunk when I wrote it all!"

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-12-07 01:16pm

Dalton wrote:
DEATH wrote:The Hitchhikers guide was such a blasphemy against my near favourite book that I didn't even watch it (the exhibition in the science museum while amusing convinced me against it decisively).
You know that Douglas Adams wrote it, yeah? So is it blasphemy still?

The bad bit is the Romance, and excess of slapstick humour, but the vast amount of romance and shrieking "heroine's" made me decide not to bother with it until it hit a dvd rental shop.
I understand that some parts where supposed to be fantastic (Magithrea- planet builders), but I felt that I couldn't watch it wqithout the ability to FF any annoying parts.

EDIT: Also I thought that only part of the screen play was written by Adam's with the remainder being filled out or modified by Hollywood hacks. I also wouldn't have a problem with a subtle romance but not in the first damn book.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-12-07 01:36pm

DEATH wrote: EDIT: Also I thought that only part of the screen play was written by Adam's with the remainder being filled out or modified by Hollywood hacks. I also wouldn't have a problem with a subtle romance but not in the first damn book.

According to IMDb:

The producers have stated that this film is not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams himself. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-12-07 01:39pm

If you think the movie was bad with the romance, think how bad it would be with Trillian being utterlly useless to the plot besides carrying mice around?

USSEnterprise · Post by **USSEnterprise** » 2005-12-07 02:24pm

Best Book to Movie:
To Kill a Mockingbird

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2005-12-07 02:26pm

I think Silence of the Lambs is one of the best book to movie.

Worst book to movie are to numerous to list.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2005-12-07 02:59pm

Hunt for Red October was a good book made into a shitty movie.
I will confess to placing Battlefield Earth into this category as well.

I loved the book but hated the movie.

Spacebeard · Post by **Spacebeard** » 2005-12-07 06:30pm

Good:

LoTR
Name of the Rose
Bicentennial Man
On the Beach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (either of them)
2001: A Space Odyssey (does this count?)

Bad:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I don't care how much material Douglas Adams came up with. It still sucked.)
Minority Report (Decent movie, but it paid little attention to the original story)
I, Robot (Likewise; an anthology of short stories becomes one story which bears little resemblance to any of them)
Paycheck

Holding out hope that it will be good:

A Scanner Darkly

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-12-07 06:35pm

Worst book to movie of alltime??

Starship F***ing Troopers.

About the ONLY thing the movie and the book shared in common was the name and killer bugs.

Lost Soal · Post by **Lost Soal** » 2005-12-07 06:41pm

I just remembered a book which was uterly changed for the film and fucked it up. The Running Man.
The show is called The Running Man, and he is called Ben Richards. Other than that, I think the script writer saw the title and thought, Ummm, I'll write a film called that.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-12-07 11:48pm

DEATH wrote: The Hitchhikers guide was such a blasphemy against my near favourite book that I didn't even watch it (the exhibition in the science museum while amusing convinced me against it decisively).

H2G2 was not a book-to-film adaptation, so it is not relevent to this thread.

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2005-12-08 02:13am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Worst book to movie of alltime??

Starship F***ing Troopers.

About the ONLY thing the movie and the book shared in common was the name and killer bugs.

I second that. Seriously, comparing the movie to the book is like comparing Austin Powers to James Bond-- one pretends to be cool, while one IS cool.

Of course, if we include COMIC BOOK ADAPTATIONS, the list of bad ones would crash this server. (What the fuck is up with Hollywood and their "Anything you can do, I can do better!" attitudes?!)

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2005-12-08 02:32am

Sidewinder wrote:
Crossroads Inc. wrote:Worst book to movie of alltime??

Starship F***ing Troopers.

About the ONLY thing the movie and the book shared in common was the name and killer bugs.
I second that. Seriously, comparing the movie to the book is like comparing Austin Powers to James Bond-- one pretends to be cool, while one IS cool.

Of course, if we include COMIC BOOK ADAPTATIONS, the list of bad ones would crash this server. (What the fuck is up with Hollywood and their "Anything you can do, I can do better!" attitudes?!)

I third that. I mean, WHERE IN FUCK WAS THE POWER ARMOR? WHERE WAS THE COMPLEX MILITOCRACRY? WHERE DAMN YOU WHERE???!!?

Danny Bhoy · Post by **Danny Bhoy** » 2005-12-08 02:37am

Glocksman wrote:Hunt for Red October was a good book made into a shitty movie.
I will confess to placing Battlefield Earth into this category as well.
I loved the book but hated the movie.

HFRO the movie was mediocre at best. The rest of the TC into movie was shit. Of course to do justice to Clear and Present Danger, it should be a mini-series or an entire TV season.

Movies from Clive Cussler flicks should be destroyed the moment some idiot thinks that they're a good idea. I liked the Pitt stories, but Raise the Titanic and Sahara movies were beyond clusterfucks.

dacis2 · Post by **dacis2** » 2005-12-08 02:44am

generally Tom Clancy books are a wee bit too long to make a faithful adaptation.

HFRO ignored the fleet bits, the decoy bits, etc. while CAPD really compressed the whole abandoned desperate fighting thing.

As for what I'm hoping for that turns out well is the Honor Harrington movie in the pipeline.