It's pretty self-explanatory, what's your favourtie film adaptations?
Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane.
the road -- im sorry it was beautiful. the only flaw is that the man dies too close to being wounded by the arrow, and theater goers seemed to think this is why he died. say what you want about the flashbacks and whatever. but dont say it wasnt a great translation
Trainspotting. Fight Club. American Psycho.
Requiem for a Dream
Does Watchmen count?
Something Wicked This Way Comes...
Bladerunner
The Maltese Falcon
I also love Hitchhiker's Guide no matter how daft that makes me.
Watchmen definitely counts.
Oh I forgot, Naked Lunch.
For me Where The Wild Things Are and Stardust take the books in directions I had never considered. They treat their audience (particularly the first film) as people who have read the book, and want to remain faithful to its strengths while still surprising us. Great films.
Also Adaptation. Which is the same but even more so.
For me, a movie that was better than the book was Empire of the Sun.
Also, can't go wrong with The Shining.
As far as pure entertainment goes, Harry Potter better be a good adaptation because I won't be bothered to read the books!
Fear and Loathing is my favorite, and it has always seemed to me the gold standard in respecting the original work.
The problem with film versions of Alan Moore's comics is that they always cut or screw up what seems to me the single most important part, allow me to explain.
In V for Vendetta, say, that's a fine movie, I like the way the Portman is still bangin even bald and in many ways it is very true to the original. But the one scene that I remember them really cutting was when Finch goes to the camp and drops Acid. Which is fine, leave the Lysergic out of it if you are afraid of a little LSD, but in that scene it describes V's escape from the prison, and the line there about "Who has imprisoned me here? Who holds the key? Except for.... me..." after which V blows his way out of the camp and begins plotting his path of destruction, that line always seemed to me to convey the spiritual essence of the work, that seemed like it was the point of the whole damned thing and so why cut THAT PART out?
With Watchmen, again, Watchmen is a good movie and for the most part it is a shot for shot adaption (yes, it updates certain things, it might have been more fun to see a giant squid monster dropped on Manhattan, whatever, the way they did it works).
Except that it puts Dr. Manhattan off planet at the end and instead of this epic, tense scene where Ozy has been physically beaten despite having accomplished his goals and he asks Dr. Manhattan "In the end, though, this is for the best, right?" and Manhattan is like, "the end of what?"
In the movie, well, let me be honest, I think that the Silk Spectre character, I think the actress who plays her is terrible, every time she opened her mouth her delivery was one of "reading lines" not like she was actually the character and it kicked the crap out of my 4th wall the entire time I watched the movie and I was getting frustrated with her, and then at the end they take the BEST LINE IN THE GODDAMN SCRIPT and have her deliver it with a "I bet Jon would say..."
And also, any of Moore's comics that were made into movies involve the rights being more or less stolen from Moore. At least Fear and Loathing had Hunter's blessing.
(1925) Phantom of the Opera -- silent film
or, V for Vendetta
It's not film, but Walking Dead, which I think may be cooler since it's still an ongoing comic series and a TV series.
Nomination for worst adaptation--Wanted. I think the main character's name and the Title are the only things that stayed even remotely similar.
Perfume is absolutely insane. I love that movie.
Requiem for a Dream is probably the most depressing drug movie ever made lol
American Psycho for sure.
I agree the Shining movie was awesome. What's hilarious is that Stephen King thought it was terrible and preferred his lame-ass mini-series with Steven Weber as the Dad. Sometimes I think King has bad taste, whenever he is in control of a film, he makes it soooo cheesy. Example: Sleepwalkers.
Yes, Fight Club.
Little Children was also very well done. And Speak, probably the only movie where Kristin Stewert doesn't get annoying because she doesn't get the chance to talk enough, and thus can't stutter madly.
I have to say A Clockwork Orange. I know it's quite different from the book, but I believe it still gets the point across and it's filmed very well. I get the same sense of wanting to be on Alex's side, despite him being a complete dick, in both the book and the film.
Watchmen? Seriously? I can't believe anyone involved in the film even read Watchmen. They drained the characters of all substance, they give them ridiculous "super powers" (I mean, Rorschach doesn't need his grappling hook, he just jumps up a buillding, Ozymandias isn't the weak-but-clever one, he's an absolute powerhouse, clearly - the fight scenes are way over the top) and they totally screwed up the ending making it completely nonsensical.
Hollywood must hate Alan Moore, they pretty much butchered everything he's ever written by avoiding the entire point Moore was trying to convey.
I thought Let The Right One In was pretty well done. Of course, I mean to reference the Swedish version. The American one wasn't bad, but was not nearly as good.
The book was bloody fantastic.
Fight Club. I have a feeling Moneyball is better than the book (haven't seen it yet), but that's nonfiction so it doesn't really count.
I really love the soft, quiet world of Never Let Me Go adapted on film.
I also love:
Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Company of Wolves
Rashomon (adaptation of In A Grove)
Jan Svakmajer's version of Alice in Wonderland called Neko z Alenky or also known as Alice
Death in Venice
The Prestige
Room With A View
The Prestige was a book?
Yeah, Prestige was a book. I bought it after I watched the movie. The movie was better.
Wow. there are soo many!
- Requiem for dream
- Fight Club
- The Notebook ( as a girl I am obliged to mention this one!)
- Lord of the RINGS!!!!!! ( hopefuly the hobbit will be just as awesome an adaptation!)
- V for Vendetta
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the world
Uhhh I know there are A LOT more but can't think of them right now!
There are some books I love too much to see the film (Perfume for example).
I agree with many of those listed above, Trainspotting & Fight Club
also the Silence of the Lambs - which I think is the closest thing to a faithful adaptation as I've ever seen.
plus Jaws (despite the big rubber shark) and Sin City
After Dark, My Sweet. Jim Foley's adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel. All-time favorite.
Battle Royale
It's got that chick that played Gogo in Kill Bill.
EDIT: Oh, and how about those Christopher Nolan adaptations of Batman. Not bad, eh?
The Shawshank Redemption
My Girl
Clue
My vote is for Stardust.
Hey Joseph_Falcone, you got to see A Dangerous Method! I'm jealous. I always look forward to new Cronenberg.
The Call of Cthulhu done by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.
@EricWojo: if that's the same one I saw, that was an impressive low budget adaptation for sure. the making of was probably even more terrifying, considering how unsound some of the set pieces were.