Great book, horrible movie

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Evil Dave

New member
The other movie thread got me to thinking about books that were really great but when but on the silver screen failed to deliver.

My two nominations are:
Starship Troopers - A great book that every Sci Fi fan should read at least once.
The movie missed the point completely, and was bad, but still enjoyable in a bad way.

Battlefield Earth - The top of the list.
The book is amazing, even though you can see the beginnings of Scientology being formed. (The author L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction author before he formed his own religion...not much of a leap there.)
The movie, however, was complete and utter dog crap. It was so bad it was painful to watch.

What are movies that you\'ve seen that failed to deliver the sheer pleasure you got out of the book?
 
J

JakeSh

Guest
How bout Hitchhiker\'s Guide? What a boring load of happy horsecrap that ending was. That being said, the cheesy BBC version rocked. The low budget-ness just seemed to fit the Hitchhiker\'s world.
 
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darthfoley

Active member
I enjoyed Starship Troopers (movie)...but then I never read the book.

My votes are pretty much any Stephen King book/story ever made into a movie. There have been some adaptations that aren\'t *terrible*, but for the most part.../shudder
 
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matty1001

New member
Originally posted by darthfoley
I enjoyed Starship Troopers (movie)...but then I never read the book.

My votes are pretty much any Stephen King book/story ever made into a movie. There have been some adaptations that aren\'t *terrible*, but for the most part.../shudder
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The Shining, one of the best adaptations.

It, one of the worst (except for Tim Curry, gotta love that fella)
 
Micha

Micha

Member
Well, I know both book and movie \'Starship troopers\' and i love both, although have only the scenario in common; the book is very intelligent (and very radical, but that´s ho R.A. Heinlein was) and one of the best sci-fi books. the movie, on the other hand, is simply one of the best sci-fi movies ever, the effects still look good, it´s got a nice portion of blood&gore in it, and the actors (Van Dien, Meyer, Richards) just make a good job.

The Jackal by F. Forsyth is maybe the best polotical thriller ever, at least one of the best, but I found the movie very strange and somewhat dull (although it had Bruce Willis in it if I´m not mistaken). I also found \'The time machine\' movie very confusing and bad, while the book is very unual and quite good (like most of H.G. Wells´works).

Micha
 
lizcam

lizcam

New member
Half the Stephen King books are great but the movies suck. With him, as long as he\'s involved the movie comes out really good but if he\'s not involved it\'s usually trash.
 
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AsgardUK

New member
The shawshank redemption was a good stephen king adaptation, so was the green mile but my fave is Christine...love that car

the film of queen of the damned sucked, it was a mish mash of The vampire lestat ( imo the best one out of the 11 books) and queen of the damned.

another good one tho was the Hellbound heart into helraiser....classic
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Originally posted by Micha
the movie, on the other hand, is simply one of the best sci-fi movies ever, the effects still look good, it´s got a nice portion of blood&gore in it, and the actors (Van Dien, Meyer, Richards) just make a good job.
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You need help. The only thing worse was Starship Troopers 2.
They spent an hour and a half on character development. Then at the end, you find out he has none.
 
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Rigged4Mini

New member
\" the movie, on the other hand, is simply one of the best sci-fi movies ever, the effects still look good, it´s got a nice portion of blood&gore in it, and the actors (Van Dien, Meyer, Richards) just make a good job.\"

It was a good sci-fi action flick..but in no way was it one of the best.. probably not even in the top 50. BTW. Van Dien is not a good actor.. Neither is Richards. =)
 
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tomusannonymous

Member
Eregon was a really good book (although you could tell what his inspiration was, lotr, warcraft etc.)
but the movie stunk, it was rushed and they missed a lot of the story, the actors didn\'t look how i imagined them in the book (didn\'t match the description the book gave very well), and it was all-round a very corny movie...even my brother who hadn\'t read the book said that they could have done better
 
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Undave

Flockwit
Starship troopers was great especially the bits with the glaringly obvious propaganda style broadcasts \"do you want to know more?\"

My vote goes to the Da Vinci code. The book was depressingly predictable and also virtually identical to the prequel (which I read afterwards) I cant see what all the fuss is about Brown, but the film...........:moon::moon::moon:

There\'s 2 and a half hours of my life I\'ll never get back.
 
S

supervike

Super Moderator
Have to say I agree with that DaVinci\'s Code assessment....

I just didn\'t get the admiration for it either...and the movie...bleh.
 
D

darthfoley

Active member
Originally posted by No Such Agency
Originally posted by matty1001
The Shining, one of the best adaptations.
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And yet, one of the ones he himself least approves of. Odd.
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Didn\'t he have his hands in a remake of The Shining not too long ago?

I think as far as a pure adaptation goes one of the better ones is The Dead Zone.

Shawshank...great movie, fairly solid adaptation. Same for Green Mile and Stand By Me (The Body). I thought Apt Pupil was a good one...though they completely changed the ending, the movie\'s ending in a way is almost more disturbing. And while we\'re at it...that\'s 3 out of 4 from Different Seasons...where\'s our Breathing Method film?

lol
 
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