Horrible movies based on books?

[ElaineJ]

 

 

Second runner-up is Stuart Little.  Ugh.  We couldn't even finish watching that. But at least it wasn't traumatizing.

 

Actually, my adopted ds did find the Stuart Little movie traumatizing because of the portrayal of adoption related issues. I had to take him out toward the end of the film.

 

OP, I agree that A Wrinkle in Time was so badly, badly done as a film! Just awful. And I love the book.

 

Another terrible movie is The Westing Game. I think we watched it off of Netflix. I loved the book as a kid and was so disappointed by what they did with the film. It was strangely bad...like they were trying to destroy it or something. Odd.

 

Elaine

[Angie in VA]

The Firm. The only movie I have ever walked out of.

 

Dh and I both said you just have to view them as two different stories. It's been so long since I've read it, that I've forgotten the actual ending. If I find it on my shelf, I'll re-read it. 

[JumpyTheFrog]

"Congo" and "Sphere" by Michael Crichton were good books but bad movies. I learned long ago that the book is always better than the movie. I have yet to see one where the movie is as good or better than the book.

 

I'm really hoping they don't ruin "Ender's Game" by making Ender too old. I also really hope the next "Hunger Games" movie isn't so shaky as the last one. They already messed the ending up by making it look like Katniss was smitten with Peta, rather than very ambivalent about him.

[musicianmom]

I am torn about the 2002 version of Count of Monte Cristo. On one hand, they completely butchered my favorite novel. On the other hand, Jim Caviezel was so stunning as Edmond Dantes that I nearly forgive the butchering.

[TeachingTwins]

My Sister's Keeper.  I'm always annoyed when the ending is quite different from the book.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I am torn about the 2002 version of Count of Monte Cristo. On one hand, they completely butchered my favorite novel. On the other hand, Jim Caviezel was so stunning as Edmond Dantes that I nearly forgive the butchering.

 

:iagree: :001_wub:  That movie is on my "If you could only watch 5 movies for the rest of your life" list.

[AuntPol]

I like the Harry Potter movies -especially the first three. The last two for book seven I didn't like but I didn't like book seven either. LOL/

 

I like Golden Compass. Black Cauldron, Swiss Family Robinson, and Mary Poppins because I have never read the books they were based on.

 

I liked The Lightening Thief but I saw the movie first and then read the book. My kids hated it because they read the book first.

 

I liked Ender's Game but it had been several years since I read it. My son had just read it and was disappointed but agrees he would have liked the movie on it's own.

 

I love the Shirley Temple movies (Heidi and Little Princess) and Daddy Long Legs as a movie but the books are so much better. You have to look at them as separate entities that have the same name.

 

I love Wizard of Oz as a movie but the book is so much better. Ditto the LOTR books.

 

I saw Eragon first and hated it but I did like the book for what it was-an average book written by a youngster. I love using it and Star Wars when teaching the Hero's Journey.

 

Movies that I think are horrible regardless of whether you read the book:

Wrinkle in Time

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cat in the Hat

Starship Troopers (Never read the book but movie sucked)

League of Extraordinary Men (never read the book but the movie was bad)

Battlefield Earth (again, never read the book).

Queen of the Damned

[Pippen]

My Friend Flicka. The book was a childhood favorite and as a girl I was traumatized that the movie adaption with Roddy McDowall didn't match up to the pictures in my head. But that was nothing compared to the 2007 atrocity that changed the main character to a female and took great liberties with the story. 

 

<shudders>

[momma2three]

I've always been a little angry that all of the movie versions of A Little Princess change the story to make her father still alive.  I think it was the Shirley Temple version's fault, and the other versions followed suit.  (I think that there have been 2 other cinematic versions?  And a couple of TV ones, one of which keeps the book ending).  I always thought diamond mines were a much better ending.  And they all get rid of the family across the street, too.

 

I'm surprised so many people hate the Harry Potter movies.  I only saw the first 3, but they were all fine.  I thought #3 in particular was spectacular, and very true to the book.

[Susan in TN]

Heidi with Shirley Temple. The boys absolutely loved the novel when I read it to them a couple years ago. Usually after we read a book, we will often watch the movie adaptation. Heidi was horrible. We were all "yelling" at the screen; I wanted to turn it off but the boys wanted to see if there was any redemptive value in it. Nope. None. 

 

The one I remember is A Little Princess with Shirley Temple - I loved the book as a child and was so disappointed when I saw the movie - especially the ending at the hospital and the queen...so pathetic.

 

I liked the Harry Potter movies (I think I've only seen the first 3 or 4, though I was sad that so many of the great details had to be left out.

 

I hated the Lord of the Rings movies simply because they left out or changed the essential elements that really make it a great story.  They are mostly dramatic battle scenes with council meetings or a bit of hiking to break up the monotony.  Nice scenery, though.

[LMD]

My sons favorite book is the BFG Against my advice he order the movie(Netflix). He was so mad he was crying. He can't believe how bad it was.

you just reminded me of James & the giant peach. Oh that movie is painful! Very different to the book & just terrible/annoying.

[kwg]

Well. I have Rats of Nimh, Wrinkle in Time, James and the Giant Peach all in my queue.  LOL.  Guess I will take them out.

 

We read Trumpet of the Swan and then got the movie.    The Hobbit- Ds spent the whole time pointing out differences with such indignation that it kinda ruined it for us, lol. I watched it alone and enjoyed it much better :-)

[Dashka]

I wanted to reply when this thread first started, but couldn't find the time. Now someone resurrected it (yay!) so I get a chance :D

 

I'm in the camp of some movies being good if you think of them separately from the book.

 

Love comes softly series is HORRIBLE adaptations of the books. I mean terrible! I watched the movies first, and I loved a few of them. After awhile it got to be "okay, that husband is going to die.." though. I have no idea what caused me to want to read the books, but I did. The books are amazing!

Differences:

The daughter, Missy, is an infant in the books, not 9 years old and a little terror

In one of the movies (3rd?), Willie dies... In the books that man is alive through the whole series!! Which makes the 4th(?) movie really weird, since it has Missy marry another man....??? Sigh. There are so many more differences. It's hardly worth telling!

 

I highly, highly recommend the books! And a few of the movies were good on their own, but not as adaptations (some where just bad though). They should really just ask authors "Hey, can we borrow like, 5 things from your book and make a movie that's completely different? We'll have our own names, and such, but these 5 ideas really sparked our imagination...". And voila! A good movie is born that doesn't get people all grumpy that it isn't like the book that they took a few elements of!

 

Okay, I'm done :P

[Farrar]

you just reminded me of James & the giant peach. Oh that movie is painful! Very different to the book & just terrible/annoying.

 

Oh, I adore that movie!  Well, maybe not the musical numbers, but I love that Joanna Lumley is one of the aunts.  She's perfect.  And the animation style is just right for a creepy Dahl story.

 

I still maintain, guys, that "different from the book"  â‰  "bad movie."

[Wheres Toto]

My Sister's Keeper.  I'm always annoyed when the ending is quite different from the book.

 

Awful!  The worst.  They changed the ending into a completely different story, with a completely different meaning.

 

 

you just reminded me of James & the giant peach. Oh that movie is painful! Very different to the book & just terrible/annoying.

 

My son watched the James & The Giant Peach movie first and that got him excited enough to read the book.   Same with the Secret of NIMH/Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.  It doesn't seem to bother him when the stories don't match up.  I was just glad he was reading something besides Magic Treehouse and Pokemon cards.

[LMD]

Oh, I adore that movie!  Well, maybe not the musical numbers, but I love that Joanna Lumley is one of the aunts.  She's perfect.  And the animation style is just right for a creepy Dahl story.

 

I still maintain, guys, that "different from the book"  â‰  "bad movie."

I'll give you Lumley & the animation.  But seriously, that speech impediment with that song? *shudder* "vewy vewy faw away fwom hewe"   :ack2:   And what was with that incredibly lame pirate part?

 

 

 

anyway...

 

Also the Atlas Shrugged movie was pretty awful - very disappointing.  I know the book is very divisive but I love it, and the movie did it an injustice.

[Ellie]

I hated the Lord of the Rings movies simply because they left out or changed the essential elements that really make it a great story.  They are mostly dramatic battle scenes with council meetings or a bit of hiking to break up the monotony.  Nice scenery, though.

 

I think I love you!! So few people get it!

[poppy]

I think the 3rd Harry Potter movie is magical. The rest I could take or leave.

 

My nominee for worst is the movie version of "A Prayer for Owen Meany" which was called Simon Birch.   Stripped it of everything except the treacle, and it only had .00001 oz. of treacle in it. Ugh.

[Aurelia]

They did a lot of adaptations for Shirley Temple movies, Heaven's Gate (Our Little Girl), Daddy Long Legs (Curly Top), Heidi, A Little Princess, The Blue Bird, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, etc. Almost all of them have so little to do with the story they're allegedly based on, I wonder if the screenwriters didn't go "Oh look, this story has a little girl in it. Can we make her an orphan? You know what, let's take the names of the characters and make a COMPLETELY different story! And add dancing!" Someone probably suggested they should make Mytyl a radio star. I'm glad someone else shot them down. It was a travesty to make Rebecca one.

 

Other movies I can't stand: The Last Unicorn (yes, it's a book, too), The Golden Compass, A Wrinkle in Time, The Little White Horse. 

 

Nanny McPhee isn't nearly as good as Nurse Matilda, but it's entertaining, nonetheless. I wouldn't put it in my top 10 best movies list, though.

 

Has anyone seen Return to Oz? It was based on Ozma of Oz, but stars Fairuza Balk and Dorothy is put in a mental institution for electroshock therapy to convince her Oz isn't real. The first time I saw it I was like "What? What the WHAT?" Apparently I'm still not over it.

[Farrar]

I'll give you Lumley & the animation.  But seriously, that speech impediment with that song? *shudder* "vewy vewy faw away fwom hewe"   :ack2:   And what was with that incredibly lame pirate part?

 

 

 

anyway...

 

Also the Atlas Shrugged movie was pretty awful - very disappointing.  I know the book is very divisive but I love it, and the movie did it an injustice.

 

Why keep it about trains if you're going to set it in the present/future.  That makes zero sense.  I mean, this is a perfect example of how a book needs to be changed to become a better movie sometimes.  The train industry made sense when Rand chose it, but it made dh and I cracked up when we saw the previews for the movie.

[momma2three]

This thread has made me watch Curly Locks on YouTube.  LOL.  I don't think I've ever seen it.

[Paige]

All of the Dr Seuss movies were awful- The Cat in the Hat; the live action Grinch, and the Lorax. The Lorax was the least painful. I liked the old 1970s version of The Lorax.

[WishboneDawn]

Oh, I adore that movie! Well, maybe not the musical numbers, but I love that Joanna Lumley is one of the aunts. She's perfect. And the animation style is just right for a creepy Dahl story.

 

I still maintain, guys, that "different from the book" ≠ "bad movie."

That's exactly why I don't much care for most of the Harry Potter or Narnia movies. They were soooo bhai hitting all the important bits of the books, being faithful to them, that they had no soul of their own. They were empty.

[Ellie]

They did a lot of adaptations for Shirley Temple movies, Heaven's Gate (Our Little Girl), Daddy Long Legs (Curly Top), Heidi, A Little Princess, The Blue Bird, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, etc. Almost all of them have so little to do with the story they're allegedly based on, I wonder if the screenwriters didn't go "Oh look, this story has a little girl in it. Can we make her an orphan? You know what, let's take the names of the characters and make a COMPLETELY different story! And add dancing!" Someone probably suggested they should make Mytyl a radio star. I'm glad someone else shot them down. It was a travesty to make Rebecca one.

 

Other movies I can't stand: The Last Unicorn (yes, it's a book, too), The Golden Compass, A Wrinkle in Time, The Little White Horse. 

 

Nanny McPhee isn't nearly as good as Nurse Matilda, but it's entertaining, nonetheless. I wouldn't put it in my top 10 best movies list, though.

 

Has anyone seen Return to Oz? It was based on Ozma of Oz, but stars Fairuza Balk and Dorothy is put in a mental institution for electroshock therapy to convince her Oz isn't real. The first time I saw it I was like "What? What the WHAT?" Apparently I'm still not over it.

 

Curly Top was an adaptation of Daddy Long-Legs?? Ok, then. I'll stay away from it. :-p The movie with Leslie Caron and Fred Astaire was one of the worst adaptations I have ever, ever seen.

 

Yes, I have Return to Oz. I've watched it many times. I have not, however, read Ozma of Oz, so there you go. I have to say, though, that my dds and I like both the Wizard of Oz book and Judy Garland adaptations, even though the movie made some pretty major changes. Maybe it's because I remember my mother saying how she saw the movie (first-run, in the theater), saw that it was an adaptation, went to the library and got the book, and hated the book. :-)

 

Curiously, I didn't hate the Little White Horse movie. I was disappointed (what on earth were they thinking when they cast Miss Heliotrope? And wrote her lines? Did they not see her gentle dignity? And Cousin Benjamin...WTH?) but I didn't hate it. Won't see it again, though. I did have to read the book again just to clear my mind. :-)