01-14-2010, 10:24 PM | #1 |
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What are some of the better book to film adaptions out there?
What are some of the better book to film adaptions out there?
I have over 1500 DVDs in my collection if you count my kids' and wife's movies. I love to read and I love to watch movies...so it sounds like it should be the perfect union, right? Usually not the case though. I am looking for movies that either surpassed the book or simply did the book justice. Go ahead and post horrible adaptions also if you'd like. I love to talk about a great fail. My choice for great film based off of a book would be: The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King based off the book "Rita Hayworth and Shawhank Redemption." iso more opinions |
01-14-2010, 10:25 PM | #2 |
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01-14-2010, 10:27 PM | #3 |
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It is considered a novella.
"A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette (short story) but shorter than a novel." edit: but this is the lounge...so short stories included then. |
01-15-2010, 12:11 AM | #4 |
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One of my favourite books is Peter Carey's Bliss. I actually think the movie adaptation is very good (it's well-cast). This sentiment is generally unanimous, as long as I'm the only one in the room.
Cheers, Marc |
01-15-2010, 01:00 AM | #5 |
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Some of the best book-to-movies that I can mention (where I'm familiar with both the movie and the novel):
- Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events: Although they made some changes, the film was very faithful to the look and feel of the first three books in the series and the casting was pretty much spot-on. - Watchmen: Very faithful to a majority of the comic, with some (in my opinion) justifiable changes from the original comic book. For me, its main drawback is that even though the movie is over 3 hours long, they still weren't able to fit everything from the original comic book series in the movie. - Scrooge (U. S. Title: A Christmas Carol), the 1951 version starring Alister Sim: For me, this is the best movie version of the story ever made and is the standard I compare other versions to. Also, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol is excellent, and Magoo is perfect cast in the role of Scrooge. - Hoodwinked: An excellent version of "Little Red Riding Hood" that takes the familiar fairy tale and tells it in a new way (and very funny way) that will keep you guessing until the end. - The Godfather and The Godfather Part II: Together, these two movies are an excellent adaption to the entire Puzo novel (Part II covers the parts of the book not covered in the first movie) and for me the first movie was one that I couldn't stop watching until the end. - Superman The Movie: An excellent version of the Superman story, and still one of the best comic book movies ever made. It distills everything that you need to know, presents it in an entertaining manner, and tells a great story. - The Adventures Of Pinocchio, the 1996 movie starring Martin Landau: Although they do make some changes from the original story, this version was true to the original story (unlike many versions, for me this version felt like it was taking place in Italy), and added some great enhancements not in the original story. That Pinocchio is played by a real puppet greatly adds to the movie. - Chobits: An excellent 27-episode anime adaptation of the manga and very faithful to the original story (although, as usual, they made some modifications). Although this is backwards, there is one movie-to-book adaptation I must strongly recommend: TRON. Although the movie was great, the novel version added so much detail to the original story and it is definitely worth reading. If you give any of the above a look, I'm sure that you'll enjoy them. |
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01-15-2010, 01:07 AM | #6 |
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I seen all of them except for chobits and the 1996 version of pinocchio. Very good choices by the way. A lot of fanboys were crushed with the whole lack of giant squid in the watchmen though...I was still impressed.
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01-15-2010, 01:17 AM | #7 | |
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Quote:
Although I'm a comic book reader, I don't consider myself a fanboy. When it comes to movie adaptions of comic books, I understand that there will be changes made to the original out of necessity (such as budget limitations, rating restrictions, and so on). With many comic books, it would impossible to include everything that was in the original story. What I do expect is that the movie/TV series will be true to the original comic book. |
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01-15-2010, 05:05 AM | #8 |
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"Enemy Mine". Novella by Barry B. Longyear. Made into an excellent film.
And, of course, the three "LOTR" films (specifically the "Extended Editions"); I really don't think that it could have been done better. |
01-15-2010, 07:14 AM | #9 |
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Some of the books to movies that I like:
2001 2010 the accidental tourist frankenstein (boris karloff version) into the wild i, robot k-pax LOTR trilogy the phantom of the opera (both 1925 & 1943 versions) rebecca (1940) |
01-15-2010, 07:17 AM | #10 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
The African Queen |
01-15-2010, 07:33 AM | #11 |
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David Lynch's DUNE. He took Frank Herbert's horribly boring and long-winded book and actually made something interesting (though often times still boring).
I also love Timur Bekmembetov's adaptation of Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series. He took the first two books, jumbled them up and turned out two movies that are very different than the books but still immediately recognizable with them. I still don't know if I prefer the plot of the books or the movies more. |
01-15-2010, 09:37 AM | #12 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
The Big Sleep Double Indemnity First Blood Rear Window (actually better than Cornel Woolrich story it was based upon) The Hustler The Long Weekend Treasure of the Sierra Madre Something Wicked This Way Comes Moby Dick Tbhe Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men Actually there are quite a lot more good book to movie translations than there are bad. |
01-15-2010, 04:09 PM | #13 |
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Bladerunner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
The Shining http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_%28film%29 I love the book. I can't stand the movie. I like other Lynch's movies though. |
01-15-2010, 06:52 PM | #14 | |
Samurai Lizard
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01-15-2010, 07:15 PM | #15 |
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This is an excellent adaptation of E.M. Forster's short story, The machine stops.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...0223855159236# This is the story that the Book Club just selected for their January discussion, which will probably start sometime in February. |
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