Worst (& Best) Movie Adaptations

[mjh215]

What has been your least favorite film based on a book? (Which inevitably will lead to people stating what their favorite ones were as well )

-MJ

[FizzyWater]

This is tough, because I almost always dislike the movie over the book.

My first thought, though, was "Mystic River". It was such a rich novel, and the movie reduced it to dark, dreary filming and revenge.

[RWood]

Best? There are two (both based on Ken Kesey books), Sometimes a Great Notion and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yes, the books were richer; but, the films were great, true to the spirit of the books, and followed the books. I did read both books prior to seeing the films.

[montsnmags]

Neverending Story (and II). Shame really, as, thinking about it now (I haven't thought about it for a while), it was one of my favourite books.

Best would probably be Bliss (based on Peter Carey's book) or Angel Heart (based on William Hjortsberg Falling Angel).

Cheers,
Marc

[pshrynk]

Worst is also the Worst Movie Of All Time Period: High Crusade, based on a book by Fredrick Pohl. And by based on I mean, it has the same title and people wearing armor appear in both. The rest of the movie is excrutiatingly horrible. I transcends the "it's so bad that it is cool, let's make it a cult classic." You will want to gouge out your eyes for putting such nastiness into your brain. You will want to hunt downt he director and all of his family and torture them slowly. You will want to enroll at MIT and research time machines so you can go back in time and hunt down his ancestors and torture them slowly.

Best would have to be the LOTR Director's Cuts.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Worst is also the Worst Movie Of All Time Period: High Crusade, based on a book by Fredrick Pohl. And by based on I mean, it has the same title and people wearing armor appear in both. The rest of the movie is excrutiatingly horrible. I transcends the "it's so bad that it is cool, let's make it a cult classic." You will want to gouge out your eyes for putting such nastiness into your brain. You will want to hunt downt he director and all of his family and torture them slowly. You will want to enroll at MIT and research time machines so you can go back in time and hunt down his ancestors and torture them slowly.

"Don't mince words, Bones. Tell me what you really think."

[Sparrow]

My nomination for worst film adaptation would be 'Day of the Triffids'.

Best could be 'Moby Dick', '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', or any other film based on a novel that contains page after page after page of turgid nonsense on whales or underwater life in general.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

My nomination for worst film adaptation would be 'Day of the Triffids'.

Best could be 'Moby Dick', '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', or any other film based on a novel that contains page after page after page of turgid nonsense on whales or underwater life in general.

Ooh! that was a stinker, too. Another film that shares the title and the presence of humans in both stories and not much else.

[Greg Anos]

I'll throw in among the best - Captain Newman, MD. Movie follows the book quite well, and both are excellent. I'll also throw in the Bogart Maltese Falcon.

[TallMomof2]

Best - LOTR, I was blown away at how well Peter Jackson adapted the trilogy to the big screen.

Worst - Just about everything else.

[GeoffC]

Peter Jackson's version of LOTR took great liberties with the book - in some ways he improved the story....

A bad one would be the adaptation of "Earthsea" ....

[ravenne]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Best - LOTR, I was blown away at how well Peter Jackson adapted the trilogy to the big screen.

Yes, I agree! Would´ve never guessed it was possible that I felt the films were even better than the books.

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Worst - Just about everything else.

I could think of some I really liked (even if they sometimes don´t follow the book precisely), such as Interview with a Vampire, Gone with the Wind, The Name of the Rose, The Merchant of Venice (thanks to Al Pacino!), Shining, The Godfather, Blade Runner, The Silence of the Lambs, East of Eden or Cyrano de Bergerac...

[mtravellerh]

Best: The Name of the Rose. It was so difficult to bring that book to film and so brilliantly done.
Worst: Winnetou 1 (german movie) It had nothing at all to do with the books except the title. Well. all those Karl May movies, really. Blech!

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by ravenne

Blade Runner

I love the movie and I like the story but the movie has a life of it's own and is only loosely based on the idea of the story.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Worst is also the Worst Movie Of All Time Period: High Crusade, based on a book by Fredrick Pohl. And by based on I mean, it has the same title and people wearing armor appear in both. The rest of the movie is excrutiatingly horrible. I transcends the "it's so bad that it is cool, let's make it a cult classic." You will want to gouge out your eyes for putting such nastiness into your brain. You will want to hunt downt he director and all of his family and torture them slowly. You will want to enroll at MIT and research time machines so you can go back in time and hunt down his ancestors and torture them slowly.
[SNIP]

Actually, the author of the book was Poul Anderson. Otherwise, Pshrynk is exactly on target with his description of the horror that is the movie.

Xenophon