Your Best and Worst Movie Adaptations of a Book

[zeroendless]

"The Kite Runner" got me good.. and i'll wait patiently for "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

[Dobick]

I am a Larry McMurtry fan (and being this is a Texas forum...)


Best - Lonesome Dove. The book was awesome and engaging with depth and reality in the character development. The movie nailed it on all fronts.
Honorable mention Best - The Wizard of Oz. Totally more entertaining than the written story which was a political novel about the conversion of the monetary system being backed by gold instead of silver.

Worst - Last Picture Show. The book is an incredible portrayal of life in a small forgotten Texas Town, complete with all of the intricacies that come with it. The acting in the movie seemed very stiff and forced and not at all authentic.
Also rans -- any movie based on a novel by Hemingway. Have not seen one yet that lives up to the masterpiece that was his written word

[kneemeaux]

Starship Troopers has to be one of the worst. Trivia: I remember reading it back in the 70's and being shocked that these troopers wore earrings (almost taboo for 1959 when the book as written). Anyway, when the awful movie came out there was no shock value to earrings on guys so it was totally left out. There was nothing else memorable about the movie IMHO.

I'll vote for The Lord of the Rings as the best.

[heard03]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy are actually my favorite movies of all time, and they're excellent film adaptations of outstanding books. I think Jackson made a good decision to leave out Tom Bombadil, though a little homage would have appealed to my inner nerd. I went with The Natural as my best adaptation though because it was such a great movie made from a book I thought was terrible.

There's some good ideas in here for my Audible.com wish list.

[miffed67]

Originally Posted by thejakestir

"The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand by Me" are two that didn't disappoint after reading the stories.

Oh, I totally forgot about Stand By Me. Excellent book and movie!

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

One word... Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The best in the history of EVER!

I don't think anything will ever beat Lord of the Rings for me! I haven't seen The Time Traveler's Wife yet, tho, and it's one of my FAVORITE books (behind my forever favorites of LOTR and the Dune series). I'm hoping the movie does it justice.

Originally Posted by heard03

The Lord of the Rings trilogy are actually my favorite movies of all time, and they're excellent film adaptations of outstanding books. I think Jackson made a good decision to leave out Tom Bombadil, though a little homage would have appealed to my inner nerd.

I understand why he left Tom Bombadil out, but I still would have liked to see the scene in the movie. Leaving ANYthing out upsets the purist in me. The other scene that I wanted to see was Aragorn and Arwen's wedding. It got kind of an "afterthought" treatment at the end of The Return of the King, imo. There were a couple scenes that were exactly like I pictured them, tho, Gandalf and the Balrog, being chased by the Ringwraiths, Bilbo's birthday party......Mordor was exactly like I'd imagined it would be. All in all, Peter Jackson nailed it. Can't wait to see The Hobbit!

[KD5NRH]

I'd have to put Cheech and Chong's Corsican Brothers in both categories. Hilariously awful, but at least that was intentional.