Best/Worst Book to Film adaptation

Flamed Diving

Does what it says on the tin.

Best: American Psycho - Although the book is still far, far better.
Worst: The Beach - Horrible, just horrible. Great book, though.

krudler

All the Harry Potter movies are pretty meh adapatations, except for The Prisoner of Azkaban, the last movie was awful it felt like it was just a summary of everything that happned in the book, random scenes with nothing cohesive holding them together

I Am Legend is pretty shyte too as afar as adaptations go, its like they didnt get the point of the story at all for the Will Smith one

L31mr0d

The lost world: Jurassic Park - The book was fantastic, but the movie just stank, the first 20% tried to be true to the original but then it just completely went OTT hollywood. T-Rex pulling a king kong... what??? Why is that even in there, and where the hell was the chameleon dinosaur?

Don't even get me started on "Timeline", another great Crichton book horribly adapted to film.

pixelburp

The worst book-to-film adaptation?

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"

Thread closed. Thinking about that movie still makes me

F4Fake

Let The Right One In was a great adaptation of the book. It cuts out a number of the side plots but still manages to maintain the overall feel of the story. It also maintained an air of mystery concerning

Eli's gender

, which I liked.

ziedth

i guess you could say shawshank would be best although it was a short story. Worst was by far ps i love you. Not that i've read the book but it has to be better then that truly awful film.

Makaveli

krudler wrote: »

I Am Legend is pretty shyte too as afar as adaptations go, its like they didnt get the point of the story at all for the Will Smith one

This.

I saw the film before reading the book and thought it was fairly meh, then I read the book and watched the film again and absolutely hated the film.

Busi_Girl08

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984,

Worst: PS, I Love You (the book was crapola anyways), I am Legend

smurf94

Best - Fight Club

Worst - All the Harry Potters:cool:

Driver 8

Best- No Country for Old Men (I love McCarthy, but this adaptation probably betters the book)

Worst- I Am Legend (don't hate the film as much as some, but it does spectacularly miss the point of the book)

Kess73

Best: Jaws. Unusually for an adaption, the film is far superior to it's source material.


Honourable mentions for To Kill A Mockingbird, The Old Man And The Sea, The 13th Warrior (Eaters Of The Dead), The Last Of The Mohicans, Jeremiah Johnson (Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson), and The Count Of Monte Cristo (1934 version despite some major changes to the story, or rather some glaring omissions)


Worst: Will have to go with I Am Legend. It was a badly made mish mash attempt, but the dog was bloody brilliant in it.

Angus MacGyver

Best : Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

bnt

I don't have an absolute best, but these are up there:
- Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris' novel)
- Apocalypse Now (from Conrad's Heart of Darkness)
- The Long Goodbye (Altman's laconic take on Raymond Chandler)

chopperbyrne

Eragon is by far the worst book to film adaptation I've ever seen.

It had Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich and still somehow managed to be awful.

It was so bad the planned sequels were scrapped.

Brow

The Prestige was a very good adaptation. It took a different approach than the book in a way but didnt take anything away from it

Flamed Diving

Watched 1984 last night. I must say it was superbly done. They never deviated from the books story, and only cut out the less relevant stuff. This should be a template for any director who wants to adapt a book to screen.

Busi_Girl08

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Watched 1984 last night. I must say it was superbly done. They never deviated from the books story, and only cut out the less relevant stuff. This should be a template for any director who wants to adapt a book to screen.

Which makes me clam up with fear over the remake that will hit screens in 2011 or so

STOP WITH THE FIRE TRUCKING REMAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

Flamed Diving

Who is doing it? Also, was Winston also the BB guy in V for Vendetta?

Busi_Girl08

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Who is doing it? Also, was Winston also the BB guy in V for Vendetta?

I don't know who's directing, but Tim Burton is connected.

Yes, that was John Hurt in V for Vendetta.

Flamed Diving

Tim Burton...

No, it will be all wrong. 1984 isn't a fairy tale and doing it Batman style would be a joke.

Busi_Girl08

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Tim Burton...

No, it will be all wrong. 1984 isn't a fairy tale and doing it Batman style would be a joke.

He probably won't be directing, just production stuff.

But ya...it will be a disaster. I can tell now. It will be made all Hollywood.

And I am hearing some scary rumours about a To Kill a Mockingbird remake.
I hope they stay that way...

chalad07

I'd have to say the Godfather would be up there in terms of adaptions. Definitely better than the book.

The only thing the film was missing was a really strange obsession with the size of Sonny's manhood!

Fad

I did not enjoy the film of A Clockwork Orange at all tbh, the book was just so good!

Wacker

chalad07 wrote: »

I'd have to say the Godfather would be up there in terms of adaptions. Definitely better than the book.

The only thing the film was missing was a really strange obsession with the size of Sonny's manhood!

I fully agree. It did feature a scene with Sonny's wife demonstrating the size of the thing to her friends at the wedding, just as he was sneaking off with Lucy Mancini. Speaking of her, one thing the film did not share with the book was extensive descriptions her 'size'.

Dubhthamlacht

Best: Gomorrah - The book was terrific and the film really captured it brilliantly.

Worst: Hannibal - For such a great book, they made such a terrible film out of it.

Anakin.S

The Worst adaptation ever has to be The Shawshank Redemption.

While the movie is a quality movie with great acting there is just too much missing from the source material that you just couldn't ignore its a terrible adaptation

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would be a good choice for me, although its been a while from I read the book

Cactus Col

chalad07 wrote: »

I'd have to say the Godfather would be up there in terms of adaptions. Definitely better than the book.

The only thing the film was missing was a really strange obsession with the size of Sonny's manhood!

I think if you mention the Godfather, you have mention Goodfella's which was based on Nicolas Pilleggi's book Wise Guy.

Agree with most of the sugestions people have put forward. Schindler's List should be mentioned too I think.

I'd also throw in The Hunt For Red October, and Misery.

foxyboxer

The Shining was a good adaptation. Though there's been some Stephen King complaints.

A poor adaptation was a Beautiful Mind. Pure Hollywood dross.

eviltimeban

About A Boy was a great adaptation, different in places to the book but better overall.

I never saw it but I've heard the Island Of Dr Moreau was BAAAD. The one with Val Kilmer. I only say it cos I thought it was excellent (but how do you film that!).

What about good adaptations that have nothing to do with the original source? Staying on the HG Wells theme, I really like Speilberg's War Of The Worlds, which shares some elements with the book but the setting and characters are all different.

grames_bond

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Best: American Psycho - Although the book is still far, far better..

the best bret easton ellis book adaptation is rules of attraction, has it almost perfect with the source material, brilliantly directed and gets the B.E.E. complete stamp of approval! (american psycho didnt even get that....bret hated batemans moonwalk)

irishwarrior

Best -The Bourne Identity(slightly deviated from book but was great movie)
Worst-Dreamcatcher(steven King) like most of his books the movie didnt live up to it

eviltimeban

grames_bond wrote: »

the best bret easton ellis book adaptation is rules of attraction, has it almost perfect with the source material, brilliantly directed and gets the B.E.E. complete stamp of approval! (american psycho didnt even get that....bret hated batemans moonwalk)

In fairness BEE said it was the "only thing" he didn't like about the movie, IIRC.

olaola

I agree with OP, American Physco was a fantastic adaptation. Can't think of the worst at the moment!

OutlawPete

Best:
Stand By Me .. (Nailed the book dead on - classic)
In The Name Of The Father .. (based on Gerry Conlon's book .. superb)


Worst:
Blind Flight .. (Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling - Best Book I've ever read so it was always on a loser but it should have been a classic)
Michael Collins .. (whatever books it was based on I sure never read )