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Movies that don't live up to the book

232 replies

Magicalmrmistofeles · 06/06/2015 21:31

Everyone thinks I'm weird, I don't do movies. The books are so much better...

I'm trying to watch Gone Girl now but god it's shit, the book wasn't great and now I'm bored.

OP posts:
logicalfallacy101 · 06/06/2015 21:38

Jack Reacher by Lee Child...come on. Tiny Tom Cruise playing a character who's 6'4". Theres loads of my fav books made into films, and every one falls short.(Pardon the pun). Grin

SolitudeSometimesIs · 06/06/2015 21:40

We need to talk about Kevin...Amazing book. Absolute shitefest of a movie. I judge everyone who likes the film!

TheOriginalWinkly · 06/06/2015 21:40

The Golden Compass was a travesty.

Tweezertastic · 06/06/2015 21:40

The children of men. There was humour in the book and a great story. The film was a major disappointment

igglu · 06/06/2015 21:41

Captain Correli's mandolin. My favourite book, but the film was abysmal.

Discworld101 · 06/06/2015 21:41

All the Harry Potters, tbh.

Maze Runner. And Blade Runner.

The Hobbit (all of them, especially any moment which contains Stephen Fry, or weird molten gold chase scenes)

Blanketsandpillows · 06/06/2015 21:41

Loads....but the golden compass stands out for me too

cardibach · 06/06/2015 21:42

All of them. Every film of the book ever. All a disappointment.

PeterParkerSays · 06/06/2015 21:42

Possession. AS Byatt's novel is wonderful, the film could be stuffed with paxo at Christmas.

Also the Da Vinci Code. I didn't much like the book but the main character in it certainly wasn't Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford maybe but definitely not Tom Hanks.

Gumnast2014 · 06/06/2015 21:43

Not a movie but TV programme

Casual vacancy by jk Rowling

I reAlly liked the book

Moln · 06/06/2015 21:50

Oh yes Solitude We Need to Talk About Kevin

Film was awful!

wigglesrock · 06/06/2015 21:50

Time Travellers Wife

runningvixen · 06/06/2015 21:53

The Plague Dogs.

WoonerismSpit · 06/06/2015 21:55

Perks of being a wallflower

YerTiz · 06/06/2015 21:58

Are there any films that do live up to the book? I can't think of any.

Fruityb · 06/06/2015 21:59

Another one for Corelli. Dear lord what were they thinking with that God awful movie.

I love the Harry Potter movies but feel they're a separate entity from the books. Just not the same at all.

BitterChocolate · 06/06/2015 22:04

There are films that live up to the book, not many though. I think High Fidelity is a better film than the book. I thought the first Hunger Games was really good too.

hedgehogsdontbite · 06/06/2015 22:06

Flowers in the Attic. Loved the books. Still trying to work out if the film was supposed to be a piss take.

PandaMummyofOne · 06/06/2015 22:07

All of them! I really hate it when they turn books into films. The lovely bones was a fucking awful film! Casual vacancy series film was crap. Gone girl was crap. GoT is the only real exception. But that may be because the author is part of the writing team.

YerTiz · 06/06/2015 22:10

Ah Bitter, I haven't read those.

Yes Panda, lovely bones was hideous.

Life of Pi was a bit meh.

meandjulio · 06/06/2015 22:10

OMG Fever Pitch. I HATED that film. Book is a format-defying episodic distillation of something that had never been written about like that before. Film is a plodding Brit-rom-com with a horrible Men Behaving Badly style po-faced female character who had all the life of a boiled sweet.

serialgrannie · 06/06/2015 22:15

Mostly, films of books are a terrible disappointment. There are exceptions however. To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful book and the film is fab (watch it every Christmas - Gregory Peck is amazing).

Also Gone With the Wind is OK, though admittedly not anything like as good as the book.

I agree about Captain Corelli's Mandolin which was a terrible film of a tremendous book. Nicholas Cage was appalling. I could not bear it when they completely screwed up the ending.

lisaloulou84 · 06/06/2015 22:17

The bad.... The Hobbit, Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Last Song (Miley Cyrus really??)
The good... The notebook, High Fidelity, Mockingjay pt 1 (not so much the first two)

TheAuthoress · 06/06/2015 22:21

IMO no films live up to the book. The only one I'd say did a decent job was The Green Mile. I never watch a film after I've read a book now. I did watch Gone Girl and enjoyed it, but I haven't read the book.

BalconyBill · 06/06/2015 22:22

The Golden Compass stands out for me too. The books are some of my favourites of all time (I read The Amber Spyglass in a day!) but the film was so awful and so untrue to the book that I actually walked out of the cinema!

I deliberately haven't watched Lovely Bones, Life of Pi, Gone Girl etc.

I vividly remember being so disappointed by The Silence of the Lambs and it has always put me off 'the film of the book'! I did enjoy the Harry Potter movies, however. I think I just appreciated them on their own, rather than thinking of them as the films of the books.

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