Good Movies Based on Books

S

slayerpower

battlestar/veronica lover
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This thread is inspired by the Bad Movies/Tv Shows Inspired by Books thread.

My list

Bridget Jones's Diary
Silence of the Lambs
Carrie
The Green Mile
Harry Potter
About a Boy
Fight Club
Brokeback Mountain
Children of Men
Election
The Shawshank Redemption
Girl, Interrupted
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Forrest Gump
The Princess Bride
Minority Report
Jurassic Park
 
Washburne
Washburne
The green mile and The Shawshank Redemption is defintely on my top list of films. Shawshank´s even nr.1.
Maltese Falcon
I, Robot (I know a lot of people hated this one, but I thought it kept the soul of the book alive even if the plot didn't have anything to do with the book.)
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Starship Troopers (Yes, I know this movie kinda sucked, but it sucked in a cheesibly enjoyable (good?) way. Plus, it got me interested in reading Heinlein, so it's got that going for it.)
 
white avenger
white avenger
If you like Heinlein, try Poul Anderson and Fred Saberhagen. Anderson's "Operation Chaos," especially and Saberhagen's Dracula series.
Most of these will be unfamiliar to most of you, but they are some of my favorite books-to-movies titles:

"The Quiet Man"
"The Iron Mistress"
"Jaws"
"Stagecoach"
"Hondo"
"The Quick And The Dead"--(The one with Sam Elliot, not the one with Sharon Stone)
"Lonesome Dove"
"The Vikings"
"Yankee Pasha"
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"
"They Came To Cordura"
"To Hell and Back"
 
palabravampiress
palabravampiress
Western Karma, man -- especially Lonesome Dove.
I love The Princess Bride! So much! Haven't read the book, though it's on my list. (When I started watching Dead Like Me, whenever Rube spoke, I couldn't stop hearing "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya..." 😀)

Otherwise,
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather
Memento (short story, not book)
No Country for Old Men
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Wizard of Oz
 
B
Blondie Bear
I have that same issue with DLM! Only I spent about half a season going "OMG, where have I seen that guy before" before realizing he was Inigo!
Interview with the vampire

That's the only one I can think of, normally I hate movies based on books because they are nothing like what I had in mind.
 
^ Yeah, Interview was pretty good. It was a good adaptation.


What about Battle Royale? I loved both the book and the movie.

I've also seen good film adaptations of Tom Jones and The Tin Drum.

And now everyone thinks I'm depraved, I'm sure. lol.
 
I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies because they stayed true to the spirit (if not the exact storyline) of the books, and because they could build the sets so you could just look at them instead of having to slog through pages and pages of description.

I like the new Chronicles of Narnia movies, and I'm really excited about Prince Caspian. I've loved those books since I was a kid and hated the other attempts at adapting them to film, so I was relieved when the new The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was as good as it was. I REALLY can't wait for The Last Battle, The Magician's Nephew, and The Horse and His Boy--my personal favorites, in that order.

I liked A Walk to Remember better than the book for reasons I've already stated in that other thread.

I also love Sense and Sensibility because it has Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Hugh Laurie, and what can beat that?

I can't think of anything else that y'all haven't said yet. I liked Carrie and The Princess Bride and Jurassic Park, as well.
 
A
Aethra
I had to check imdb before I knew where I'd seen him before! When I saw he was Inigo I thought, "Duh!" Major kick in the face.
Washburne
Washburne
I must admit I struggled with the LOTR-books but I really love the movies. The Narniafilms is childhood all over again. Can´t wait ´til Caspian comes to town.
^ Loved S&S.

So, while I'm on a Jane Austen kick... dude! What about the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice? It was a mini-series, which was awesome. It pretty much adapted the book word for word. It was wonderful!

Edit:

*Gasps.* You haven't seen P&P2? It is the best Jane Austen adaptation around. It caused quite a sensation when it came out. '95, I think it was. It stars Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. You should definitely see it. It's a real treat.

When I was in college, we had a day called "reading Day" right between the end of classes and the beginning of exams. My friends and I started a tradition -- one that we had successfully passed down to future generations of Jane Austen fans, last I heard -- of watching P&P2 every reading day (while eating cupcakes with do-it-yourself icing). It was a real treat!
 
B
Blondie Bear
I didn't see that! I'll have to find it and watch it obsessively.
The Color Purple - One of my all time favourite book to movies. 🙂

Slayerpower already listed all the others I would've mentioned. 😉
 
While they left a lot out of the movie, I still love the adaptation of Little Women. Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, and little Kirsten Dunst were really great, and Christian Bale was very spiffy in his 1800's clothes, lol.
 
Besides the ones I named in the other thread, I forgot about "A Little Princess". One of my fave all time movies ever since I was a kid. I love it.
 
A
Aethra
I watched A Little Princess constantly when I was young! I used to have the book, though I haven't read it and now I can't seem to find it. But excellent movie!
^ Definitely agree on "The Little Princess", I always loved that movie.

"21": Just saw this in theatres last night. Kevin Spacey I thought did an amazing job with the role (as did the other actors), and the storyline was one that always kept you guessing. You're never quite sure what you think of the characters. I haven't read the book yet ("Bringing Down the House"), but I'm hoping to one of these days.

"Bicentiennal Man": Robin Williams again, did an awesome job with his role. I think it was a difficult role to pull off (and a difficult movie to make appealing to the general public, I thought), but I was crying like a baby by the end.

"Freedom Writers": Okay, so it's a true story but technically it was based on the kid's diaries, and I loved the movie. A bit cheesey, mind you, but it was still really cute.

"Jumanji": Another Robin Williams movie! Saw this last month for the first time, the special effects for their time was awesome! And there was such a great story to it. Very original, I love it.

"K-PAX": Starting to see a pattern here me thinks! But anyway, this movie was really touching. So many ways that you could interpret the movie and what happens to the main character. It's a sad display of what can happen to people, and what kind of an impact it can really have on their mind (but again, it could be taken a lot of different ways).

"The Notebook": I don't think that I have to explain this one. I'm female, a hopeless romantic, cry during movies and thought both lead actors were smokin'. No further comment 🙂

"The Polar Express": A cute movie, great for around Christmas time. Something adults and kids can appreciate.

"The Pursuit of Happyness": Saw this in theatres, a bit boring here and there but it was excellently done. Will Smith really looked connected to that kid and the movie was so REAL. They didn't cut any corners, I thought (didn't over-glamourize it for entertainment's sake). Really respect that.


There's a lot of movies I really like that are based on books, if they're done right anyway.

(and found this, thought it was handy: Based on the Book: Movie Titles (0-9) - MCPL)
 
white avenger
white avenger
And right at the top of "Based On Books" is "Taming of the Shrew." Burton and Taylor were FANTASTIC in that movie.
Some of my favourites:

The Birds.
The Shining. (Kubricks version)
Stand By Me.
High Fidelity.
Fever Pitch.
Misery.
Watership Down.
 
Room with a View is one of the most faithful book-to-movie adaptations i've ever seen. I don't think anything was changed. Excellent book, excellent film. I highly reccomend it, particularly for those who like costumey-Merchant/Ivory-historical type stories.
 
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