The latest in a long line of dreadful movies made from great books

Timeline.

Oh Dear, what a dog.

 

Feel free to add your favourites.

As for mine, I think the biggest gap between a book and a movie as far as quality goes was probably "Starship Trooper".

 

Timeline was a great book, and the movie was seriously lacking Another one in that vein was I, Robot

 

I, Robot was pretty cool, then again I've not read the book.

 

yes, i've never read the book either, but the movie was great... as a movie.

the one that bugged me was jurassic park. It was seriously without merit compaired to the book. And the sequal was a waiste.

 

The Time machine (the new one?) .... that wandered a lot from the book, and I didn't think it was that good a movie either. The original, well, thats another matter entirley.

 

Pretty much any Stephen King movie made prior to around 1995 (and a couple after then). For instance...Cujo. The kid LIVES? WTF? Or Christine...how the heck did his DAD get in the car when he and his parents were killed several hundred miles away? Or The Shining...what's up with the hedge maze? Then there's always 'Salem's Lot...so very many things stupid with that one I don't know where to begin.

Oh...Along Came a Spider. On merit, I have no idea, I couldn't make myself watch it once I saw that Morgan Freeman was starring. Not that he's a bad actor, that's not it. The character of Alex Cross, however, is about 25 years YOUNGER than Morgan Freeman.

The Bourne Identity, Supremacy. Two more I can't force myself to watch. The first one has been updated to modern times...which makes it an invalid story line. The second one...Matt Damon (? I think that's who's in it) was quoted in an interview as saying how lucky he was that they wrote such a good script for a sequel, because usually the second movie isn't that good. He has NO IDEA there actually is a second book (and a third, for that matter).

Conversely...the best, closest movies I have ever seen for keeping with the book is Neverending Story I and II. The first one is the first half of the book, the second one is the second half.

 

The 3rd one was worse yet!

 

The Firm-Great book-so so movie

The Hobbit-Great book-great movie

Jaws-Great book-so so movie

Harry Potter-Great books-good movies

Bourne Identity-Great book-so so movie

Loved the Neverending Story

Don't like Stephen King novels

****Looking forward to Battlefield Earth**** We'll see

 

That's a joke right?

 

everyone who read the book version of a movie says that the book is better. That's why i don't intend to read the LOTR books... i don't wanna end up saying that the book is better...

 

Don't you see how illogical that is? Your enjoyment of the movies won't change, but if the books are better, wow, what an experience. Why would you want to miss it?

I never read them myself, but it wasn't for a lack of trying

 

Dune. Read the trilogyand liked it. Books and movies after bearly ok.
The lord of the ring. Read the trilogy liked it have not seen the movie.
Flight of the Phoenix. The first movie I liked. The trailers of the new movie,,,
don't look good. I don't know if there's a book. Have not come across a
movie I feel is worth my money in three years. I canceled my HBO and Show-time about three years ago.

 

hands down, Congo. WTF were they thinking?

 

Any movie based on anything written by H.P. Lovecraft~

 

But then again, I don't know how many people like Lovecraft......
By the way, M.P.- why do 7/11's have locks on the doors when they're open 24/7 ??

 

Battlefield Earth iv read the book 3 times now and the movie just blows thay left out so mutch and scrued up what thay dident ........

 

there's a movie? i'm reading the book currently. i'm only in the first few pages...

 

I'm with you. Heinlein let Hollywood use one of his stories personally, and they butchered it. He refused all offers for the rest of his life. His "estate" let them have Starship Troopers long after he died, and of course, they botched it. I'm sure he was rolling in his grave.

 

Spinning like a top, I should think. What an awful film that was.

 

Another film version I wasn't too keen on was Cross of Iron. The book is hard to follow, I'll give them that.

 

It's debatable if it's a movie or not. I'm sure it's fine if you think it doesn't have anything to do with the book.

 

Minority Report (the original short story by Phillip K. Dick) has a much better ending than the movie.

 

I liked Jurrassic Park the movie better than the book.

 

Coming soon to a theatre near you (May 6 2005)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I mean really, what chance does that have of living up to the book?

 

Movie-Mission Impossible-Impossible to follow-Was there a book?-Wondering if it was equally as bad.

 

Not a book. A TV show.

Although someone may have adapted the screenplay into a pulp novel by now.

 

I read the book years ago, and don't remember all the details, but I thought they kept to the spirit of the story, but with lots more action thrown in, of course. I liked it, too.

 

Oh Oh, I know the answer! It's so they can lock the doors after a robbery. Standard procedure: Lock the doors, call the police.

I'm hoping the Narnia tales remotely compare to the books. Lord of the Rings was pretty well done, extremely hard material to tackle. I'm hoping Narnia can do as well.

My favorite book of all time is Les Miserables. Very hard to encapsulate a book like Les Miserables into movie fashion, and I liked each movie for different strengths each portrayed, but of the four movie versions I've seen, the latest Liam Neeson/Geoffrey Rush version was my favorite. To me it captured the essence of the story the best, and portrayed each character true to the story. The French version set in modern times was a very interesting, gutsy, and I'm sure challenging approach, and I enjoyed it as well. My least favorite was the 1978 version. I didn't like how weak the priest was, and nobody grabbed my attention. The priest in the 1935 version was the best priest of them all however.