I have to agree with EdFromNY. To Kill a Mockingbird was one of the few film adaptations that were, at least the equal of the book. In a more commercial sense, Jaws the book, was rubbish. Jaws the film was brilliant. IMHO.
I would have to go with Shawshank Redemption (I think someone else already voted on this one, but it's the first thing that popped into my head). Outstanding movie. While we're talking Steven King, The Shining might be another one. And in the same collection of short stories as Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, there was The Body which translated into film as Stand By Me More really good movies from books: About a Boy, Bridget Jones Diary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, Interview with a Vampire, The Devil Wears Prada, Practical Magic...I liked the movie versions of Jane Austen Book Club and Nanny Diaries better than the books. Um...Silence of the Lambs..I - for one - have always been a big fan of contemporary remakes of classics, i.e. Clueless (from Emma) and Ten Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew)
I was going to come here and say these three same movies. Anybody mention Fight Club yet? Gotta be honest, I liked the fight club movie better than the book, mainly because I feel the story loses some of it's magic when it's not told visually.
The book that was turned into a film that I enjoyed were The Last Song, which the book was written by Nicholas Sparks and films based upon Stephen King novels (the ones I have watched anyway), such as, Children of the Corn, The Green Mile, 1408, The Mist, Carrie, Firestarter, Pet Sematary and Maximum Overdrive. Though I will sound a tad silly when I admit that I have never read any books by Stephen King, but somehow, I know he was a fantastic author and very demented at that. King is like the modern day Poe. I understand that this got a little off topic, I apologize. But on top of all, the Last Song was definitely my favorite, but I find myself enjoying the book a lot better than the film only because the film left out alot.
I wonder if it is to do with how quickly after the books were written the film was made. To Kill a Mockingbird there was only two years between publication of book and the film coming out. Goodbye Mr Chips, I love the book was written in 1933 it is a very brief story. The film in 1939 was an amazing adaptation in someways better than the book. The 1960s film adaptation lost some of the warmth and dignity of the original.
Goodbye Mr Chips (the thirties version ) is absolutely lovely and warm! The Scarlet Pimpernel effort from the thirties also deserves a mention.. is very funny.
I'd say fight club by chuck palahniuk, or maybe the shipping news by e.anne proulx... although the movie adaption itself left a lot to be desired. the girl next door was incredibly disturbing as a movie, but I am yet to read the book. not sure if I want to.
Stardust, The Princess Bride, and The Lord of the Rings. From these three, the only book I didn't like was Stardust; I thought the movie was a lot better.
The movie of Stardust is fantastic, it's one of my favorites. I've tried to read the book but I couldn't get past the first few chapters...i just found it way to boring... The Princess Bride movie is almost a perfect match of the book which is really cool-both of them are really good
Sadly I read the whole thing and then wished I hadn't. It was surprisingly boring and dull. Sometimes it just didn't make sense and lost its drama and suspense from the movie. Oh well. Lesson learned; won't read it again. Glad I'm not the only one! I agree! The movie did a wonderful job of keeping true to the magic and humor of the book, which was probably a task in itself.
I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of glad you said that because I swear every time I've even mentioned not liking Neil Gaiman's books a bunch of people start jumping down my throat and saying they're the best thing ever created lol Usually if I'm going to see a movie based on a book I try to read the book first, but I didn't know Stardust was a book so I saw the movie long before I got the book and with how the book started I'm very glad I saw the movie first. I really didn't see much of the charm and personality of the movie in the beginning of the book.
Well, Stardust is the only one of Neil Gaiman's books that I've read so I can't say I don't like any of them. But I can say I didn't like Stardust. So you're not alone with that anymore. Sorry to hear people jump down your throats for your own opinions! Hate it when people do that.
Not sure if it's been posted already, and to be honest it's Friday evening and i can't be faffed with going through every post - "Virgin Suicides", Jeffery Eugenides - done over by Sofia Coppola, and both are truly works of art. Jeffrey has a way of writing sentences in a style that i covet; the kind of descriptions that make you nod, smile and go "yeah, i get it" - that's what i aspire to. Some really unexpected, and beautiful, images. He gets inside the heads of five teenage girls very deftly, but still doesn't quite touch on the raw bittersweetness that Sofia manages in her cinematic adaptation. Whether this is because she's been through the growing pains of womanhood herself, is not for me to say - some men write better "women" than women, if you catch my drift. Anyway - both are a must have.
...haha, So because I heard all the hubabaloo about Stardust I decided to borrow it from our local library and give it a chance. It had faeries in it, right? Big mistake. I'm not trying to get down on those of you who did like it, but I agee very strongly with yellowm&m and Annunial. It was dull. The characters needed more fleshing out. And he couldn't come up more interesting sounding names? I just didn't like it. Haha, well I actually didn't finish it, but looked up its synopsis on wikipedia and then shouted, "What?! That's how it ends? He dies!"
My favourite book / film has to be K-Pax. Kevin Spacey is awesome as Prot. There's nothing much wrong with the book but one of my favourite actors is Jeff Bridges and the film has that air of feel good wrapped around it, even though what actually happened to Prot isn't all too pretty.
^I agree. Kevin Spacey was amazing in K-Pax. He had the role from the start. Yeah, unfortunate for the ending result. Didn't much like it. A Wrinkle in Time was in my opinion better than the book. That and it was nearly two hours long I loved it. I need to watch it again sometime soon.
Yeah... But one of the deleted scenes from the movie was the book's ending. I'm really glad they trashed it and went with the one they did. Did you watch the movie Taylee? I'd recommend seeing it if you haven't.
^I will consider it. I didn't mean to be so cynical or anything before, sorry I can see how fans liked it with all its mystic qualities. I was just kinda mad to learn that Tristran died in the end. haha
Although I haven't read Fight Club or American Psycho they are two movies I really enjoyed. Also to echo previous comments Lord of the Rings is an amazing trilogy of movies...Thing is I read the books first, when I was a kid and I will always think of the books first and foremost. The same goes for Narnia and Harry Potter.
^ Oh you should totally read the book of Fight Club. I did recently and it was excellent. I look forward to reading American Psycho at some point in the future.
I'm a big fan of Rules of Attraction. It's by the same author as American Psycho and has a similar style. While I thought Rules of Attraction was a better movie, American Psycho is a little better as a novel. Honorable mention goes out to The Accidental Billionaires (The Social Network) and The Lincoln Lawyer.