393 replies to this topic

[Baitac]

My beloved Entertainment Weekly had a feature on this topic last week. I figured I would post it here because one must have had to read the book in order to have an opinion on the movie. Anyway, EW listed the following, and I sooo agree.

Great Books/Lousy Movies
1)The Great Gatsby (1974)
2)Dune (1984)
3)Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil(1997)
4)The Bonfire of the Vanities(1990)
5) Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat(2003)

The Vice Versa part is when the movie overcomes the book.
1)Jaws(1975)
2)Carrie(1976)
3)Jurassic Park(1993)

Please discuss comic books v. movies If you'd like!

Edited by Baitac, 21 August 2012 - 09:14 PM.

[Monday]

I was disappointed with the changes the I Am Legend movie made from the story. It had a reasonably strong first half, with the day to day minutia of being the last man on earth and the relationship with his dog, but it lost it's way in an epic fashion. The original story was relateable. Neville was a very flawed man, just trying to survive. Not some convenient scientist trying to create a cure. Neville's relationship with Cortman was haunting and intensely interesting (Neeeeville.Come out, Neville!). Then the ending?! Fuck. Don't even get me started on the ending of that movie.   The original story had a fabulous ending. The title "I Am Legend" doesn't even make sense for the movie because they messed with the ending so much. I don't understand why they would deviate from a great story like that and feel the need to rewrite it with that garbage. Criminal.

I've only seen the Will Smith version, but I there have been three movies based on the story (Omega Man and one I can't remember) and none of them got it right, or so I hear.

Edited by Monday, 18 March 2012 - 08:46 PM.

[Baitac]

I think that sometimes screenwriters are told to adapt screenplays for specific audiences. However, even then, they can disappoint. I couldn't wait for Dune. I liked their cast too. Somehow, it all went awry in a horrible, horrible way. I felt like the movie threw up the book, it mistreated it so.

[SkynJay]

I  can give you a couple that I put on equal footing.  I liked both book and movie of Princess Bride.  Blade Runner is great, while Do Androids......Sheep is a classic.

For movies being better, I tried to read Heart of Darkness, bleh.  Ill stick with Stanley Kubrick.

Just about everything else, I prefer the book, including the earlier mentioned Jurassic park, and the much hated on this board Starship Troopers.

edit: pointed out down thread that I don't know directors at all.  Still, prefer the movie.

Edited by SkynJay, 19 March 2012 - 07:25 AM.

[Grack21]

I like certain Harry Potter movies more then the books. I won;t mention specifics because I've already fought off two angry mobs this week

Oddly enough I've never seen or read Dune(I know I'll get to it shut up) but Frank Herbert reportedly liked Lynch's version of the film o.O

Um. Most books that were turned into movies I tend to think either sucked to begin with or were turned into shit.
I could write a thesis on how much I hated I,Robot.

[Grack21]

Interesting story about the Starship Troopers movie, apparently it was it's own film fairly fair into production when the company bought the starship trooper rights and basically told Verhoven, "hey, this is based on starship troopers now". Which is why, allegedly, the book and movie have almost nothing in common.

I actually thought Total Recall was better then the short story.
Blade Runner is also excellent.

[Monday]

Question, not opinion here.

I loved The Talented Mr. Ripley movie. I've been meaning to read the book, although I heard the movie was better. Has anyone here read the book? If so, how does it compare?

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

Monday, on 18 March 2012 - 08:45 PM, said:

I was disappointed with the changes the I Am Legend movie made from the story. It had a reasonably strong first half, with the day to day minutia of being the last man on earth and the relationship with his dog, but it lost it's way in an epic fashion.

Agreed. Many things irritate me about the movie. Especially that kid who they put into the movie who literally does not have a single line of dialogue through out the entire film. I guess it was meant to add the tension of "oh no, what if the kid gets killed, that'd be so horrible!" But I find it hard to care about a mute character with no personality.

Also agree about it being a mistake to remove Neville's relationships with the people he knew, like Cortman. Would it really have been that hard to use actors in make up for the vampires? It would have looked better than the cookie cutter CG monsters, and would have maintained one of the most interesting parts of the book by Neville knowing the people he was killing.

[Nukelavee]

"Dad!  You killed the zombie Flanders!"
"He was a zombie?".

[Reposado]

tons and tons of vice versas. most of them you don't end up reading the book.

while I can't say for certain, I highly doubt the book is anywhere close to the movie for:

rear window
vertigo
the hustler
treasure of the sierra madre
high noon

[Roose Bolton's Pet Leech]

Grack21, on 18 March 2012 - 09:28 PM, said:

Interesting story about the Starship Troopers movie, apparently it was it's own film fairly fair into production when the company bought the starship trooper rights and basically told Verhoven, "hey, this is based on starship troopers now". Which is why, allegedly, the book and movie have almost nothing in common.

That and the fact that the film-makers regarded the book as pseudo-fascist, so went to town on parodying it (unfortunately, they show the protagonists as basically brave, good-looking, and xenophobic, so you end up with a film that almost comes across as being pro-fascist).

[Howdyphillip]

I prefer books as an entertainment medium because of the exercise of the imagination. There are only two films that I can think of that I didn't enjoy reading the books more

Dances with Wolves This book had none of the heart or the grandness of the story telling that the movie had.

Forest Gump The character in the book was a deviant. Having read it after I had seen the movie it was disappointing.

SkynJay, on 18 March 2012 - 09:25 PM, said:

For movies being better, I tried to read Heart of Darkness, bleh.  Ill stick with Stanley Kubrick.

I can not stand Kubrik for screwing up 2001, the Shining, and A Clockwork Orange. All of these books are way better than the movies. He did not however direct Apocalypse Now. That was Francais Ford Copola and for me, the book and movie are kind of a toss up.

Edited by Howdyphillip, 18 March 2012 - 10:23 PM.

[Grack21]

Roose Bolton, on 18 March 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

That and the fact that the film-makers regarded the book as pseudo-fascist, so went to town on parodying it (unfortunately, they show the protagonists as basically brave, good-looking, and xenophobic, so you end up with a film that almost comes across as being pro-fascist).

Ha, that film is like a parody of a parody of parody, but ironically.

[Grack21]

I actually like The Golden Compass movie more than the book *ducks rocks*

[Roose Bolton's Pet Leech]

Good film/good book:

- Bladerunner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
- 2001 A Space Odyssey
- LOTR (I loathe Jackson's third film, but the first is great and the second very good)

I haven't read Baum's original Oz stories, so I can't comment on that, but The Wizard of Oz film is, of course, an iconic movie.

Good film/bad book

- The Godfather
- Later Harry Potter

Good book/bad film

- I Am Legend

Bad book/bad film: can't immediately think of any, generally because one puts you off the other.

[Chise]

don't nobody bring up the trainwreck that is Vanity Fair
Fantastic book, the movie with Reese Witherspoon... not so much. The complete rewrite of the ending didn't help matters either. And Reese being so likeable overall was actually helping Becky's persona too!

Wizard of Oz movie never fails to put me to sleep, but adore the book. Hell, I even adore the russian bootleg versions (if you know what I'm talking about, +1 geek to you)

Count of Monte Cristo ..90s[?] or was it 2002 movie was pretty shit. Looked gorgeous, but seemed to have forgotten that the entire point of the story is carefully laid out plans, not tons of pretty swordfights

for Isaac Asimov in movie form adaptation has been shit. I, Robot and Bicentennial Man movies, looking at you
for Philip K. Dick - Paycheck (remember, Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman? Woo does the usual high action chases?), Minority Report (3 fuckin' endings! my respect for Speilberg never recovered), The Adjustment Bureau (again, it looks so good.. and then that ending... *rage*)

and my biggest gripe of all time - Where the Wild Things Are. If you need me to explain this,...you've either not seen it, or probably enjoyed it a bit? i dunno... this was just all sorts of bad movie

can comicbooks count BTW? 'cause then The Surrogates is on this list too. The movie rewrites the ending, thus making the whole thing lose its punch


Movie better than book
The Shawshank Redemption aka Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. At least the movie organized the overall plot to actually go somewhere

Edited by Chise, 18 March 2012 - 10:55 PM.

[Zar Lannister]

No no no no... GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Hands Down. Destroyed one of my favorite books in 96 minutes. Thank you, Jack Black, for ruining my Childhood book.

Also: Secret Window, anyone?

And Chise, I am totally with you with Where The Wild Things are: WTH was that?

On another note:

I think Of Mice and Men stands fairly even in both. So does The Color Purple.

Um... I can't say I particularly liked The Great Gatsby, either the book, or the Film.

The Scarlet Letter wasn't particularly noteworthy in either. I mean, the whole Hester I'mma stalk nekkid-Dimmesdale was not exactly a great turn of events, but the book was also cumbersome (at least to me).

[Zar Lannister]

I never finished reading "The English Patient", I found the book tremendously boring. I did like the Movie, but maybe I should watch it again since it was such a long time ago.

[RedEyedGhost]

How about a great book and great movie?  I'll nominate The Prestige for that.

Monday, on 18 March 2012 - 08:45 PM, said:

I was disappointed with the changes the I Am Legend movie made from the story. It had a reasonably strong first half, with the day to day minutia of being the last man on earth and the relationship with his dog, but it lost it's way in an epic fashion. The original story was relateable. Neville was a very flawed man, just trying to survive. Not some convenient scientist trying to create a cure. Neville's relationship with Cortman was haunting and intensely interesting (Neeeeville.Come out, Neville!). Then the ending?! Fuck. Don't even get me started on the ending of that movie.   The original story had a fabulous ending. The title "I Am Legend" doesn't even make sense for the movie because they messed with the ending so much. I don't understand why they would deviate from a great story like that and feel the need to rewrite it with that garbage. Criminal.

I've only seen the Will Smith version, but I there have been three movies based on the story (Omega Man and one I can't remember) and none of them got it right, or so I hear.

This.  All three were awful.  The book is fucking brilliant, but nobody has the stones to film it properly.

[Mack Kilimaro]

For the good movie/bad book category, I'd like to throw out there:

The Princess Bride