movie adaptations by est120

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movie adaptations

POSTED BY: EST120
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 4, 2005 19:37
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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 5:24 AM

okay, this may have been done before, but i missed it. since firefly is gaining new life on the big screen, it seems logical to ask. what do you guys think are the best book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations (sci-fi or otherwise). conversely, what are the WORST book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations?

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 8:15 AM

BADGERSHAT

Quote:
Originally posted by est120:
okay, this may have been done before, but i missed it. since firefly is gaining new life on the big screen, it seems logical to ask. what do you guys think are the best book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations (sci-fi or otherwise). conversely, what are the WORST book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations?

The worst would be nearly everything written by Stephen King made into a movie (a few exceptions here and there, definitely, but for every "Shawshank Redemption" or "The Shining" you've got a huge steaming pile of "Maximum Overdrive" or "The Tommyknockers" or "The Night Flyer" or "Thinner" or some similar horrific waste of celluloid.

The best is hard to say, because it really depends on how you mean "adaptation"--there's the stuff that's LOTR or Harry potter, where they basically made the book into a movie, and there's the stuff that's sort of like I, Robot where they took literary works and based a new entity off the "feel" of the books. And then there's endless remakes, retellings, reimaginings, updates, etc.

One of my favorites is John Carpenter's "The Thing" which is a remake of the Howard Hawks flick "The Thing From Outer Space" (I think it's called) which itself is an adaptation of "Who Goes There?" which is a short story by a guy whose name escapes me at the moment (and I'm too friggin lazy to google it).

Another goodie is Assault on Precinct 13, a remake of, um, Rio Bravo? Not sure if the remake of the remake is going to be any good (Ethan Hawke and Larry Fishburne)...

--Jefé The Hat

***************************
--Don't bother trying to predict, figure out, second guess, criticize, or suggest anything that comes from the mind of Joss Whedon, for you shall usually be wrong, and shall find out the Truth and Purpose in due time.
(This is the Truth of Whedoning)

"I like smackin 'em"--Jayne

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 8:39 AM

BEATLE

I don't often see movies that I thought were better than the book, but 'Empire Of the Sun' is one of them.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 9:06 AM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by est120:
what do you guys think are the best book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations (sci-fi or otherwise). conversely, what are the WORST book to movie or tv show to movie adaptations?

the worst I've seen in decades were the ones done on Public TV by Robert Redford's production company of Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee mysteries...
they didn't make any attempt to be true to the novels
or to the underlying themes...
it was horrible.

And I hated Speilberg's 'Color of Purple' the movie version became totally an affirmation of the male dominated Christianity that the novel was dead set against.

LotR is both the best and the worst...it is a brilliant representation of the books, until the very end:
why oh why did Peter Jackson decide that JRRT's ending wasn't good enough? Personally I felt that the final battle in Hobbiton was one of the most important aspects of the trilogy and I was terribly disappointed that it was cut (particularly to make time for the incredibly long & boring good by at the ship)

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 9:11 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

The worst absolutely has to be "Starship Troopers". Only the thought that I might get caught before punishing them all kept me from hunting down everyone involved in that travesty.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 1:01 PM

EST120

Quote:
Originally posted by BadgersHat:
One of my favorites is John Carpenter's "The Thing" which is a remake of the Howard Hawks flick "The Thing From Outer Space" (I think it's called) which itself is an adaptation of "Who Goes There?" which is a short story by a guy whose name escapes me at the moment (and I'm too friggin lazy to google it).

i THINK the older movie was titled "the thing from another world".

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 1:35 PM

BADGERSHAT

I do believe you're correct sir... or madame, as the case may be... which is it?

--Jefé The Hat

***************************
--Don't bother trying to predict, figure out, second guess, criticize, or suggest anything that comes from the mind of Joss Whedon, for you shall usually be wrong, and shall find out the Truth and Purpose in due time.
(This is the Truth of Whedoning)

"I like smackin 'em"--Jayne

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 4:28 PM

EST120

Quote:
Originally posted by BadgersHat:
I do believe you're correct sir... or madame, as the case may be... which is it?

sir, if you please. despite my affection for cooking and cleaning.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 5:32 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Quote:
Originally posted by BadgersHat:
One of my favorites is John Carpenter's "The Thing" which is a remake of the Howard Hawks flick "The Thing From Outer Space" (I think it's called) which itself is an adaptation of "Who Goes There?" which is a short story by a guy whose name escapes me at the moment (and I'm too friggin lazy to google it).

The short story was published under the byline of Don A. Stuart, which was a pen name used by John W. Campbell, Jr, the legendary editor of Astounding/Analog SF magazines.

One of my favorite books was adapted exceptionally well, in my opinion at least. Stanley Kubrick rarely stuck very close to the original source material, but he did in the case of adapting Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Outside of the genre, another one of my favorites, in fact it currently resides at #5 on my all-time favorite films list, is Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on the novel by Milan Kundera.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 6:45 PM

SGTGUMP

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
The worst absolutely has to be "Starship Troopers". Only the thought that I might get caught before punishing them all kept me from hunting down everyone involved in that travesty.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

Absolutely. That movie was made by the same guy who did such a good job on Robocop. You would think that after making Robocop, the guy would have loved to use powered suits. Of all the things that were terrible in that movie, I think I missed not seeing the powered suits the most.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 6:57 PM

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Hmmm...

The original version of "The Lathe of Heaven" was quite good, and very faithful to the book (I never saw the recent remake, so I can't judge that).

The Princess Bride, one of my favorite movies, has to be mentioned.

1984 (the 1984 one) was good except for the ending.

There are so many adaptations that aren't so much bad as they want to make me cry because it could have been so _good_ if they'd done it right. Sometimes I swear if I had one wish, I'd use it to wish that I'd have a job in Hollywood making sure people don't take something good and SCREW IT UP like always seems to happen (not just in adaptations, but sometimes there's a good series in the first year and then it just goes to crap in the later seasons).

Hmmm..

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6
http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions

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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 7:37 PM

Quote:
Personally I felt that the final battle in Hobbiton was one of the most important aspects of the trilogy and I was terribly disappointed that it was cut (particularly to make time for the incredibly long & boring good by at the ship)

I've got to disagree with you here. Now--in the books--I love the battle at Hobbiton. It perfectly captures the idea that really there is nothing that is safe from evil, and that suffering never really stops--not even with the defeat of Sauron. It also touches on the evil of industry.

But that doesn't change the fact that it is a very unweildly ending. I remember very well the first time I read the books. It was very hard to get used to a new conflict, once the conflict of the ring was over. I had a hard time with it. It's easier now that I expect it--but the first time was nothing short of jarring. It pulled me straight out of the book. The only reason it works at all is that it is a book--allowing the reader a reasonable amount of time to absorb the change. The movie could never have pulled that off.

Trust me. People were already complaining about 'too many endings'(which I think is bunk, but whatever). If they'd added the Hobbiton battle people would have walked out of the theater. Even taking out the Havens scene would only have bought them ten minutes(I'm estimating the length of this scene)--and I don't think the battle could be finished in any less than half an hour, and even that would be rushing it I think.

I'd also disagree that the battle at Hobbiton is more important than the scene at the Grey Havens. The Grey Havens is the embodiement of the passing of the age. It is a corner stone to Tolkien's universe, and the elves that he created that universe for. It deals with a number of major themes in the story. The first is the fact that by allowing the ring of power to be destroyed the elves have given up thier right to stay in middle earth. The second is the idea that Frodo, and to a lesser extent Bilbo, can never be healed. Besides that, it makes me almost cry every time--I adore how bittersweet it is. In your defense though I'm not sure how well the scene actually worked for anyone not familiar with the Simarilion(sorry if I spelled that wrong). Even people who have read just the LotR books don't seem certain what exactly is going on. By the way, I'm not saying you're one of these people--just that you might have a point about the scene not working as well as it could.

Lol, anyway...I've been jabbering on. Matter of taste I imagine, but just thought I'd throw in my defense of Jackson (although I do have beef with him having Frodo push Gollum over the edge).

As for the actual topic at hand, my fav. adaptation is--yup you guessed it--LotR. My least fav at the moment would have to be Battlefield Earth.

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