Books to films - the best and the worst

House · 26 Jul 2017 at 15:19

With the up coming Ready Player One, over lunch we were discussing books made into films and which ones had left me and my colleges cold or really impressed us:

The Martian,
Really impressed me and while it missed out some parts of the book I loved it was a very good adaption of the novel considering that the had to make a film for a mass audience.

LOTR trilogy
Epic and as above while it trims a little, it made a fantastic set of films shame they fleshed out the hobbit to much and couldn't catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Jurassic Park
While the film is very different to the book in a number of places it uses the source material well, it did however lead to a lot of butchered Crichton books being made into films. (Congo, Sphere and Rising Sun were all much better books than films and Lost World was a terrible book and film).

Many many Stephen King adaptions,
too many to list but while you can count the good King adaptions on one hand the 90s was littered with crappy straight to video movies. I hope the upcoming dark tower is more Mist and less pet sematary.

Girl on the Train
HATED the book, mainly cause i hated all the characters but the film didnt do a bad job of telling the story, shame i hated the story.

The Da Vinci Code
I was bullied into reading this (think i was given about 5 copies) hated it and really didn't like the films much either.

Dune
My dirty pleasure i like the extended version of David Lynchs Dune, a lot of people will say i should be feed to a sandworm for this but i do, it over reaches but its Dune how could it not. the books however make your brain bleed reading them. people who say LOTRs is hard to read should be forced to read the dune books.

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Books are amazing all of them, film is like watered down beer, its beer but not really.

What do you guys think, Best and worst adaptations?

MookJong · 26 Jul 2017 at 15:54

I never read fiction so rarely have the issue. However I did read ready player one and I now know how may Lord of the Rings super fan friend felt when the films came out.

Silence of the Lambs - I can remember my mother reading the book when it came out and the complete disappointment she felt when seeing the film. Yet the film is one of the most critically acclaimed of the 90s!

roge8014 · 26 Jul 2017 at 15:57

Many many Stephen King adaptions,
too many to list but while you can count the good King adaptions on one hand the 90s was littered with crappy straight to video movies. I hope the upcoming dark tower is more Mist and less pet sematary.

Shawshank Redemption
The Mist
The Green Mile
Stand By Me (The Body)
The Dead Zone
Secret Window (I quite liked this one)
Carrie (70's version)
The Shining (even if he didn't like it)
Dolores Claiborne
Misery
Christine

Are all good adaptation (obviously imo) of a few of his novels (excluding TV of course). All pretty much close to the source novel.

Just finished Girl With All The Gifts - not seen the film though, anyone know how close it is to the source novel? Is it any good?

Do Android's Dream of Electric Sleep? Blade Runner bares little resemblance to the novel, still I liked the movie

The War of The Worlds - sorry, Mr Spielberg, not sure what you were trying to do with that movie

Harry Potter - quite a lot of stuff was cut from the books mid series, rest was pretty close to the source

Let The Right One In - quite a few differences between the book and the (two) films; mainly cutting out sub plots. Still I liked the film adaptations, not as much as the book though

Probably think of a few more....

Willir · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:04

Being a big Stephen King fan I have to agree that there are more bad than good adaptations. Some of my favourites are:

The Green Mile
Misery
Stand By Me
The Shawshank Redemption

Aside from King adaptations, I pretty much loved LOTR, I refuse to watch The Hobbit trilogy.

A few others that spring to mind are:

Silence of the Lambs
Fight Club
American Psycho
Goodfellas
One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest
Jackie Brown (Rum Punch)

checjb · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:07

FYI, "The girl with all the gifts" movie is actually pretty close to the book.

Begbie · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:08

Fight Club, I actually prefer the movie.....

VincentHanna · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:09

I don't think a film has ever really lived up to a book. It can't really as you are watching a Directors interpretation of something vs your own imagination.

In fact you are better watching the movies first, as then you don't go in with preconceptions about how Characters should behave, look like etc.

james.miller · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:10

I dont read novels. I find it allows me to enjoy films more

House · 26 Jul 2017 at 16:13

roge8014 said:
Shawshank Redemption
The Mist
The Green Mile
Stand By Me (The Body)
The Dead Zone
Secret Window (I quite liked this one)
Carrie (70's version)
The Shining (even if he didn't like it)
Dolores Claiborne
Misery
Christine

Are all good adaptation (obviously imo) of a few of his novels (excluding TV of course). All pretty much close to the source novel.

I would agree with:
Shawshank Redemption
The Mist
The Green Mile
Stand By Me (The Body)
Misery

The dead zone is ok probably would add that one,
Christine and Carrie weren't great but i didn't think the books were either.
Shining is fairly different to the book but the film is great and really scared the crap out of me as a kid (watched it the first time my parent left me at home alone, that was a mistake).
Have to admit i still haven't seen Dolores Claiborne or secret window, need to make an effort there.

I like The Stand mini series but didn't like IT very much, though i know i'm in the minority there.

IvanDobskey · 27 Jul 2017 at 11:04

checjb said:
FYI, "The girl with all the gifts" movie is actually pretty close to the book.

Yep, I enjoyed both book and film very much.

Film is very close to the book.

schneeb · 27 Jul 2017 at 11:38

I hated how they dumbed down the journey on the martian when they could have told it like the book without the random fluff at the end of the film!

House · 27 Jul 2017 at 15:28

schneeb said:
I hated how they dumbed down the journey on the martian when they could have told it like the book without the random fluff at the end of the film!

I agree, but i understand why.
They didn't want him to lose coms with nasa again and the whole thing doesn't work without that. Its also very maths heavy so not sure how it would work on film. good part of the book though.

roge8014 · 27 Jul 2017 at 15:32

IvanDobskey said:
Yep, I enjoyed both book and film very much.

Film is very close to the book.

Good to know.

Anyone read the prequel The Boy On The Bridge? Tempted to pick it up and I really enjoyed The Girl With All The Gifts.

IvanDobskey · 27 Jul 2017 at 15:35

roge8014 said:
Good to know.

Anyone read the prequel The Boy On The Bridge? Tempted to pick it up and I really enjoyed The Girl With All The Gifts.

I didn't know there was a prequel, will have to look that one up.

aardvark · 28 Jul 2017 at 11:20

House said:
I would agree with:
Shawshank Redemption
The Mist
The Green Mile
Stand By Me (The Body)
Misery

The dead zone is ok probably would add that one,
Christine and Carrie weren't great but i didn't think the books were either.
Shining is fairly different to the book but the film is great and really scared the crap out of me as a kid (watched it the first time my parent left me at home alone, that was a mistake).
Have to admit i still haven't seen Dolores Claiborne or secret window, need to make an effort there.

I like The Stand mini series but didn't like IT very much, though i know i'm in the minority there.

yeah i kind of agree, although i thought the stand and IT were both crap.

best adaptation was shawshank for me - its probably the only film that i walked out of with the exact same feeling i had after reading the book - no mean feat.

Vonhelmet · 28 Jul 2017 at 14:01

Begbie said:
Fight Club, I actually prefer the movie.....

Both were good. There were some bits that you couldn't do in the film that worked in the book - the near life experience in the car comes to mind.

lltfdaniel · 28 Jul 2017 at 14:03

I was wondering where harry potter was on your guys lists.

Hades · 28 Jul 2017 at 15:57

World War Z
Superb, fantastic book
What the hell happened to the film???

DrToffnar · 28 Jul 2017 at 16:34

lltfdaniel said:
I was wondering where harry potter was on your guys lists.

Tbf, I think a lot of people (including myself) have really warmed to them over the years. There are ones that are inexcusably bad (Chamber and Goblet, I'm looking at you), but the rest have some really great qualities to them.

Still not as good as the books mind, but great in there own right.

Marsman · 28 Jul 2017 at 17:50

Hades said:
World War Z
Superb, fantastic book
What the hell happened to the film???

I'm wondering what the hell happened to the film and I haven't read the book. I do intend to one day, as I've seen many say how good it is; but alas, I'm not much of a reader. I take ages to get through a book, and I've got others I'm trying to get through as it is!

I don't know about best, as I've not read many books that have been turned into films. Despite it's faults, I thought Lord of the Rings was done well. Some things could have been done better and some things added, left out, but for anyone else to do a better job than Jackson did, would have been a real tall order.

As for the poor adaptations; of the few I've read, The Hobbit is the complete opposite of LotR. Over all, the films were an over bloated mess.

Northern Lights: His Dark Materials adaptation; The Golden Compass, was another poor one for me. Loved the book; the film sucked, bad. Relieved The Subtle Knife was never attempted.