bluearmy

I was just having a look at some of the older threads and came across the one regarding the Bourne Supremacy. The people who had read the book first, seemed to be disappointed with the film; that started me thinking about recent books I have read and the quality of the resulting film.

I have recently seen two films from books that I really enjoyed. The two films and books being, John Grishams The runaway jury and J K Rowlings Prisoner of Azkaban aka Harry Potter.

I thought that the Harry Potter film was excellent, with the books original work followed as closely as could reasonably be expected.

The Runaway Jury however, was a huge disappointment to me with the some of the central themes and characters deviating greatly from the original work.

I am interested to know what books to films you can tell me about, would you recommend both formats or do you have a preference; over to you.

ShaniFaye

The Shining

The original was better than the remake...but they both still paled in comparison

I thought they did a really good job adapting King's story The Body into Stand By Me, but they didnt do near as well with Apt Pupil

The Godfather was a good adaption IMO

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BigGov

Fight Club is one of the few recent cases where both the book and the movie were very well done.

The movie I'm waiting to see is Survivor, based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) because it has the potential to be truely great.

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One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

mirevolver

After the Scifi channel managed only a halfway decent rendition of Dune, by Frank Herbert, and it was 6 hours long, I'm convinced that there will never be a truely good visual adaptation of Frank Herbert's masterpiece.

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djtestudo

One of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies: Jurassic Park.

The book is definately better then the movie, but both are very good. The book just gets more in-depth with the scientific explanations.

An example of one that didn't translate well at all is Gods and Generals. The book just covers so much that it is impossible to make a very interesting movie out of it, even with the four hours it gets.

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alpha

I was gonna write the exact same thing.

Also.. The Lord of the rings, but I guess that's obvious. I do prefer the book though.

Journeyman

LotR gets obvious props for being exceedingly top-notch in both book and movie form.
Fight Club, I think the movie did a fantastic job of translating a lot of the book into the big screen (Thank you, David Fincher).
The World According to Garp: Great book, but there's just too much to accurately translate into a movie. And well... yeah, the movie sucked regardless.
American Psycho, interesting book of a style and content I've not read before it and haven't read since (outside of Brett Easton Ellis' own works), and it made an ok movie. There were some monologues of Patrick Bateman's in the book that gave insight to his motives, and weren't in the movie, though.
Along Came A Spider, I thoroughly enjoyed as a book, and thoroughly hated as a movie.
Red Dragon, I actually saw the first film (named Manhunter, but the same story) made from it and hated it with a passion. Then, when they went to produce an Edward Norton flick out of it, I read the book and enjoyed it, and the movie was another nice Hannibal Lecter chronicle.
HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy: You know it's a fucking great book, and you know it made a horrible TV series. Utterly horrible. But I'm still looking forward to the upcoming movie.
Jesus' Son: I liked the book. Even my dad liked the book. The movie was a little plodding at some points, but ok.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: I've gotta say, the movie I liked better than the book. I enjoyed the book, but not nearly as much as I enjoy the movie.
Leaving Las Vegas: Good movie, great book. The author really communicated the depravity of a downward alcoholic spiral.
1984, was a good movie, but just couldn't express the emotions garnered from the text. I'm thoroughly glad they made a movie of it, though, if only to bring Orwell to a wider audience.

I'm sure there's more I've gone through, but it's late.

Sphinkx

Stephen King again.
The Green Mile & The Shawshank Redemption. Great books & great movies!

Together with The Shining prob'ly the best King movies that I've seen.

pan6467

First, Journey... I respect your opinion but I loved the movie ".... Garp" I still think it was one of Robin williams' best if not his best. The book was good but like all Irving it was long and drawn out in spots.

Secondly.... best book to movie for me was F Scott Fitzerald's The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford as Gatsby..... very very few differences great acting and it brought one of the greatest most awesome books to life..... God I love that movie and book... (in the last 20 years, I have seen the movie 75 times and read the book 25+ can anyone say obsessed with it over the years.) A couple others tried to do the book to movie on it and they sucked. redford in my opinion was Gatsby..... "and so we beat on boats against the current borne ceaselessly into the past..."

Honorable mention:

Less Than Zero.... would have thought Bob Downey JR would have learnt something from that movie, the book tho was far better but the movie tried very hard to stick to the book

Finally book I am waiting for to become a movie..... I'd love to see Ray or Dave Davies' autobio's become a movie but won't happen. I'd really like to see Sula by Toni Morrison become a movie then I might understand the damn book (had to read it for English last semester and found it deathly boring, convoluted and I just had no understanding of it whatsoever..... but that aside it is a very good book if you like and can stomach that style.)

P.S. Best King book to movie ..... The Stand

His best short stories (novellas).... Green Mile and Stand By Me.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

amonkie

Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers - whoever thought of naming the movie after book should have *maybe* actually read the book, thoroughly. LOVED the book, hate that the movie bears little relative similarity

Princess Bride - There's a lot more information in the book than there is in the movie, but if you didn't know there was a book, you can still enjoy a light, well made film.

Catch 22- The movie has that WW II feel, and does a good job of creating a war like atmosphere.

Animal Farm - since it's a cartoon, it follows the book pretty closely, except for the ending. Why do people always mess with the endings?!?

Hannibal Lecture trilogy - Journeyman, I was surprised someone else had seen Manhunter! I enjoyed the new Red Dragon much better, although I would have expected someone a little more buff than Ralph Fiennes, but the story was well thought out. Liked Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs as well, except for them changing the ending at the end of Hannibal.

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Gabbyness

I like both the book and the movie Starship Troopers, just for wildly different reasons.

I thought "Of Mice and Men" was a fairly good adaptation.

ShaniFaye

Goodness, I saw Manhunter when it came it, some of it was filmed here in Atlanta, I liked it but I liked the remake better...but then Im an Anthony Hopkins lover hehehe. That book made me fear getting my film developed for a LONG time hehehe

I HATED they changed the ending of Hannibal but on the whole all three books with Hopkins as the "villian" was classic, he makes it VERY easy to visualize the character when I re-read the books

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Derwood

I thought American Psycho was a good movie, but the book was way better. You just can't give the kind of first person perspective on insanity in a movie that you can in the book. Plus, large portions of the book are unfilmable.....graphic sex followed by even more graphic violence.

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Fremen

The movie "Shane" was very well done, and it's a classic now, the book, in my opinion, was only "okay".

The books Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones were much better, to me, than the films.

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maleficent

Rebecca (book by daphne DuMaurier, movie by Alfred Hitchcock) movie ending was different tahn the book, because well, Laurence Olivier had the lead and they couldn't have him play the part as it was written... I liked both equally.

Breakfast at Tiffany's. Again, book was different than the movie, movie was lighter, and less depressing than the book, both were quite good.

Primal Fear book by william diehl, movie with richard gere. Loved both and was true to the book to, which kinda disappointed me, because I knew what was coming. The book was far creepier, but ed norton played a great victim/psychopath...

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seretogis

Interview with the Vampire was a very well done movie, though it should have been an hour longer to do the book justice.

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seretogis - sieg heil
perfect little dream the kind that hurts the most, forgot how it feels well almost
no one to blame always the same, open my eyes wake up in flames

maleficent

Just reminded me of another Ann Rice book

Exit to Eden -- decent book- -the movie with Rosie O'Donnell (in leather) and Dan Akroyd was just bad, words can't describe how bad this movie was...

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Untitled

The ONLY time that a movie has been better than the book is Forrest Gump. Just don't even attempt to read that thing. Absolutely horrible.

mystmarimatt

Forrest Gump - I like both, for different reasons
Big Fish - Same

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Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

MageB420666

The Lost World - Excellent book, movie sucked, the book ended 2\3 into the movie.
Interview with the Vampire - I have read the book and seen the movie and both are excellent.
Brave New World - One of my favorite books, but the tv adaptation made me want to vomit cause it sucked so bad
I have read all the Harry Potter books(that are out) and seen all the movies(that are out) and have to say that all the books are excellent, but the second movie was below par with the first and third movies being great.

Journeyman - when are they making a Hitchhiker movie? I have heard nothing about it.

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