So, am curious, what are your WORST film/book adaptations?

[steamedtreaclesponge]

Following on from the other thread, what are the most disappointing film adaptations you've seen?

Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones made me want to gouge my own eyes out with a fork. And it's not even one of my favourite books.

Cornish - apparently she is locked away writing the last one..

I truly love The English Patient and mainly for the Hana/Kip story line. I just didn't think the film showed the richness that the writing did so well.
The Handmaid's Tale is one that could have been done so well. Fab book, shame about the film.

Agree with some of these - The Beach, Twilight, Golden Compass.

Oh and yes Rene Z is not Bridget Jones.

Well Eragon isn't the most fantastically written book ever, but it's entertaining and fun enough (especially when you consider a 15 year old wrote it). The movie adaptation was absolutely shocking!! totally awful.
Adaptation of FH Burnett's The Little Princess! My God it didn't even resemble the book at all. Suddenly there's a rooftop chase It's set in New York instead of London Becky the scullery maid is suddenly a black slave girl and Daddy DIDN'T die he HAD AMNESIA
I heard The Dark is Rising was really badly done, so I didn't watch it.
Oh and I enjoyed the movie of The Bourne Identity until I read the book and realised they completely destroyed it in adaptation.

I quite liked LA Confidential
and A time to Kill was the best John Grisham adaptation, with Matthew McConaughey

Did not like any of the Nick hornby adaptations

Can I say Fantastic Mr Fox without even seeing it?

The Beach, the book is awsome, the film is pants.

Stephen King books translate to the screen so well because he tends to write the screenplay and keeps a tight reign on producers etc.

Have to agree re the Dark is rising. My cousin bought me the books for christmas the year he died and I lost my self in those books. My mum recorded it for me off sky and I watched a very small part before turning it off in disgust. Same with Earthsea, the books were brilliant, adaptation was crap.

Adored the Dark is Rising books as a child - film a horrible travesty. Aaaagh, where did that twin come from?

Deliberately did not watch the Borrowers, as I could tell from the film poster that the gentle melancholy of the books had not been respected.

Harry Potter - Harry and Hermione are all wrong, but otherwise I think Harry's world is well evoked.

Best adaptation ever for me is the Lord of the Rings films. Could never get through the books before seeing the films, but have raced through them a few times since. So many pretty boys.

Just had to bring this thread back to agree with Hitchhikers (I left the cinema sounding like Marvin)

And my absolute most hated (with a passion) abomination of a film, Clockwork Orange. What did they do with the plot??? Why did they decide to go without one??

is anyolne old and geeky enough to remember the v. first LOTR adaptation - in the 80;s

it was pathetic

A Clockwork Orange is fantastic. The book is excellent too. But I am a Kubrick fan, and it is an incredibly iconic film.

I don't tend to watch film adaptations of books I have really enjoyed, because disappointment is inevitable. I think the film that I really disliked the most was probably Madame Doubtfire, which became just revoltingly saccharine (and Anne Fine is a wickedly acerbic writer, so a particular travesty).

The film adaptations of HP and LOTR are better than the books IMO, but then I think neither are very well written - Tolkien creates a fantastic world, but his characters to me don't come alive, because they are too much "elf" or "dwarf" or "hobbit" and not enough unique person, and HP is very average, has poor character development and needed much better editing (oh and the end is just appalling)

The Clockwork Orange film drives me absolutely nuts. It finishes without the actual ending, which to me changes it from being a story with a point to gratuitous violence.

Every single adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo".

The modern writers cannot cope with the idea that Dante repudiates Mercedes. They always seem to have him getting back with her. No no no! His possible redemption is Hadee NOT Mercedes.

Fantastic Mr Fox looks awful.

Twilight was cringe worthy!

Another one for A Clockwork Orange. And the Shipping News - changing what had happened to Wavey's husband entirely changes her character. Makes her deceitful which is not her at all in the book.

I liked the Nick Hornby adaptations - Fever Pitch, About a Boy and the one in the record shop the name of which escapes me.

Another vote for Captain Corelli's Mandolin here. Such an amazing book. Such a mediocre film.

Things that wound me up about the film included:

Terrible casting.
Penelope Cruz as Pelagia - wrong!
Nicolas Cage as Corelli - wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

It more or less rubbed out my favourite character in the book (Carlo) and did nothing to explain his huge sacrifice (so incredibly moving in the book)

And the ending!! Honestly! WTF!!!

Ah well, at least they actually filmed it on Cephallonia and the scenery was beautiful...

Are you thinking of High Fidelity Cicatrice?

Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy is without a shadow of a doubt the biggest pile of utter steaming dung I have ever had the misfortune to be subjected to. FUCKING AWFUL. I haven't read the book but nothing can be as diabolical as it's big screen adaptation. Utter guff.

I agree with llaregub, back on page 1, about 'The Dark is Rising' - they spoilt that book completely, imo.

High fidelity is GREAT
but most good novels are ruined by screen adaptations
I liked that sea faring one tho - where they end up in the Galapagos

I remember the first Lord of the Rings film, unbelievable crap. And Hitchhikers Guide has actually put people off reading the book - a crime against humanity.

Infact whenever I read that a film is being made of one of my beloved books, my heart sinks. I knew they could never pull off Philip Pullman's books especially when I heard they may not bring in the elements about God for fear of offending America's Christian right.

The only films that were much better than the books were the E M Forster such as A Room With A View but that is because I find the novels so turgid and impossible to wade through. And I agree the Lord Of The Rings recent adaptations were very good, especially as they cut out all those interminable songs and verses sung by the dwarves etc.

They will butcher The Artemis Fowl books next.

The 1990s version of Little Women is a crime against all that is good in the world.