1 Alan Parker's "Birdy" was a rather good movie based on a very good book of the same name

2

so where is everyone..?

"Full Metal Jacket" was pretty good, although the book "The Short Timers" was better.

3

"Blade Runner" was far better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." Far, far, better.

4 Adaptation better than Orchid Thief, but that's not a fair comparison.

5 As soon as I saw the post topic, the first thing in my head was Jaws.

6 on the other hand, I thought King's "The Shining" was nothing to boast about, buyt the movie with Nicholson was terrible. You knew right away that Nicholson's character was crazy, and one look at Shelley Duvall and you're not surprised he flipped out.

7 Princess Bride: Written by William 'Lord of the Flies' Goldman, this nook is another one I just couldn't finish. I surprised to find that unlike the movie, it was mean-spirited and ugly.



I got it when it was .99 deal. It was not worth it.

8 any movie based on a Tom Clancy novel

9 Anybody know of any books made out of movies?

10 Dude! No! Princess Bride was written by William Goldman, true ... but Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. (Goldman also wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Marathon Man.)

11 "Silence of the Lambs". I read it after seeing the movie, and found it blandly written and neither exciting nor scary.

12 I remember the book Jaws in 75. I remember when Brodys wife gets a crush on Hooper and stops at a public bathroom to brush her teeth. I may have read another of his bools . they're even worse.

13 William Goldman wrote Princess Bride, and did the screenplay. William Golding did Lord of the Flies.

14 I thought the movie made Gump out to be too stupid.  Plenty of guys did just like he did and were not stupid acting at all.  Almost insulting to the good guys who fulfilled their obligations as men.

15 Movies better than books:

Mary Poppins--Disney was genius because the book was pretty crap

The Count of Monte Cristo--I loved the book through the prison bits but it lost me at the end when it becomes nihilistic--the movie moves well and has a much better moral and...Jim Caviezel

16 The best book to screen conversions I've seen are rarely big budget productions. More often they're made for TV and sneak through because there isn't enough prestige involved for someone like a Jon Peters to screw with it. A one hour anthology show like Outer Limits gave the best venue for adapting SF and fantasy short stories.

When it comes to novels they all too often make the mistake of trying to squeeze them down to a feature film. There was a time when US TV understood the concept of a min-series but even HBO doesn't appear to comprehend that anymore.

17 I have gone back to re-reading old stuff this past week. There is some new stuff out that I want but like always, the damn publishers have jacked up the price for the Kindle version and I refuse to pay more than $10 for an e-book.

18 also in general I think short stories and novelas make better movies.

19

who was kind of an unpleasant dickhole and at one point he actually slapped Buttercup and proceeded to insult and ridicule her.

 

Well I don't remember if he slapped her or not, but didn't he get a bit insulting with her as the Dread Pirate Roberts?  I mean you realize that he's actually doing that from the pain of his belief that she betrayed him, but is that what you are talking about in the book?   I can see it being easier to get across in he movie though if it were.

20 the Godfather movie was better than the book, by far.  The women's characters in the book were very poorly written, and Puzzo went on this long piece describing how the bridemaid who Sonny boned during the wedding had an unusually large punane blah blah blah.  Very very stupid.  And not in the movie

21 @: 2001 A Space Odyssey

22 Replying to comment nine

23 I thought 2001 was written simultaneously.

24 The Andromeda Strain is a lot more involving as a film than a book. I've tried to finish it several times but my interest peters out about half-way in.

25 20 the Godfather movie was better than the book, by far. The women's characters in the book were very poorly written, and Puzzo went on this long piece describing how the bridemaid who Sonny boned during the wedding had an unusually large punane blah blah blah. Very very stupid. And not in the movie Posted by: thunderb at August 26, 2012 11:11 AM (Dnbau) i had totally forgot that. UGH

26 Short novel "Goodbye to Berlin" gets adapted to a play "I Am A Camera" which then is adapted as movie "Cabaret" Each step was a big one, not so much an improvement, but a broader and richer story.

27 #9

Tons. They're called novelizations. They sometimes include things like scenes that were cut from the final edit but after the writer turned in his version. Or deeper detail or attempts to explain things the movie left hanging.

There is an old cartoon in which a studio exec is telling Frank Herbert, "But Frank, Alan Dean Foster does all of our novelizations!"

To Foster's credit, he liked to talk to the screen writer and directors (sometimes the same guy) to find more stuff to liven up a novelization. His version of Escape From New York, for example, gave a lot more background on how things got the way they were by the time of the movie and filled in a lot of background about Snake Plisskin.

28 You are confusing William Golding and William Goldman.

29 The novelization of Batman: The motion picture was really dull compared to the movie.

30 Das Boot was a little better as a movie. A great depiction of claustrophobia and fear on a U-Boat. I remember feeling very uneasy watching this in a dark theater

31 I thought Minority Report was better than Philip Dick's book.

I despised the movie version of Dune, however Frank Herbert always said the movie was very true to his vision of the story.

Reminds me of a discussion I had with a high school English teacher, which was "Can we derive meaning from a book that the author did not intend to put in the book".  If that movie was Herbert's intent, then he rose above himself to provide alternate visions in his writing that were far beyond his original intent.

One more set?  All of the Harry Potter films are vastly superior to the books.  JK Rowling is a terrible writer.

32 William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies, and is dead. William Goldman is a screenwriter and wrote the screenplay for The Princess Bride, as well as Misery and some other films.

33 I know a lot of folks will disagree with this ... but I think Kubrick's The Shining beats King's novel. I'm sure King would disagree. The mini-series was almost 100% faithful to the novel, but I think the mini-series drags in too many places.

34 Stand by me I thought was better than the body. I don't think the novella was bad necessarily but the movie was great.

35 I remember as a young adult being smitten with the US version of the Macross Saga, and voraciously consuming the first 12 volumes of the novelization. But once the books no longer followed the TV series, I lost interest. It seems that the writer was only "good" when I already had the TV visuals in my head before I read him. Which was a disappointment to me.

36 "Forrest Gump" and "The Princess Bride" are two of the funniest books I have ever read.  Perhaps I just like mean-spirited humor.  I also liked both movies.

37 refresh

38 33 - I agree with you, I found The Shining to not be King's best work.  Of course, then he wrote The Stand, and proved he could improve on his ability to suck.

39 The best book to movie things that I have seen have been made for TV mini-series like Shogun.  In those they have the time to be true to the book.

The absolute worse was Tom Clancy' Sum of All Fears. The only thing like the book was the title and the name of the lead character. They absolutely butchered that book trying to be PC on the terrorists after 9-11.


Of course that was a toss-up with Starship Troopers.  But it won out because at least parts of Starship Troopers movie were like the book.

40 38- Then he re-issued The Stand with (I'm going by memory here ...) 21,761, 411 additional pages. You know ... to liven things up.

41 BABETTE'S FEAST. Isak Dinesen's short story was a little snarky, especially at the very end. You finished it and felt like you'd just been tricked or even mocked. The movie, on the other hand, was rapturous, visionary. Afterwards you felt you'd been BLESSED. It is my #1 favorite movie of all time.

42 I despised the movie version of Dune, however Frank Herbert always said the movie was very true to his vision of the story.



The made for TV (SiFi Channel) was better than the original movie.

43 I'm reading a space yarn called Resurrection. It's okay. And a book about geology. Sexy stuff, Man. I thought The Godfather was a stinky book. It did not insist on itself at all though. Maybe a bad book can produce a good movie like a fragment of a bad song can be the nucleus of a good song in the right hands. (The first run-on sentence is free.)

44 Then he re-issued The Stand with (I'm going by memory here ...) 21,761, 411 additional pages.


I bought that new version because  didn't have a copy of the book and it was the only book by him that I actually liked.  I couldn't tell the difference.


That was another made for TV movie that followed the book pretty good. I have it on DVD (several disks).

45 The movie version of Hunt for Red October is as good as the book.

The other Clancy adaptations... not so much.  (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger are good movies, but neither are as good as the books..... DON'T get me started about Sum of All Fears.)

46 Color me simple, but I thought the Hunger Games movie did fine by the book.

47 #31

Unlike a lot of productions where the writer of the source material is kept far away, Frank Herbert had a lot of presence on the 'Dune' production. OTOH, what he saw and what theatrical audiences saw were two very different things. The original theatrical release was but a fraction of the material shot, most of which was later released into the home video market.

And because Herbert was on the set and talking to the director a lot, he had an image of the intent that the audience could never share, and in turn fed a lot of his take on the material into the production that a lot of readers were unlikely to perceive from the novel.

Far worse was 'Johnny Mnemonic.' William Gibson utterly crapped on his own short story with additional garbage of a sort he would never have done in print.

There is an old story about Isaac Asimov hearing about a university class being offered about his works. He went to the campus one day and hung around the back of the room anonymously. After a while he couldn't take any more and stood up to say that he'd had nothing so deep in mind when he wrote the story being discussed. The punch line is the lecturer replying, "What would you know? You're just the author."

48 I was thinking of reading the Godfather novel because I liked the movies so much.  Thank you for the warning. 

49 Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby is easy equal to Ira Levin's book. If you like Ira Levin's book ... (Wonder if Polanski was disappointed when he found the book wasn't a porno.)

50 BABETTE'S FEAST.
Isak Dinesen's short story was a little snarky, especially at the very end. You finished it and felt like you'd just been tricked or even mocked.

You know, I was going to use Babette's Feast one as one of my examples, but for a variety of reasons, decided not to at the last minute.

The movie, on the other hand, was rapturous, visionary. Afterwards you felt you'd been BLESSED.

I agree you with you 1000% It is an absolutely wonderful movie.

51 Two examples of films that were better than the books:

"Elmer Gantry". Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize, but in fact he was a spewer of liberal cant: small town bad, big city good; religion bad, atheism good; and so on. "Elmer Gantry" is a 300-page picket sign in which the title character is a monster with no redeeming qualities whatever.

The film, by contrast, stars Burt Lancaster as the preacher and Jean Simmons as the not-Amy-Semple-McPherson charismatic female; both do a fine job in bringing their characters to life. Richard Brooks directed his own script. Rather than being a liberal hatchet job, the cinematic "Elmer Gantry" is interesting and, at times, moving.

"The Devil in a Blue Dress": I find Walter Moseley's novels all but unreadable. It has nothing to do with the setting or the style; it has everything to do with the fact that he just doesn't write very well (IMHO). Denzel Washington is terrific, as always, as "Easy" Rawlins. Carl Franklin directed from his own script, and does a good job in straightening out Moseley's convoluted plot and murky characters.

"The Brothers Karamazov": Starring William Shatner as Alyosha, Richard Basehart as Ivan, Yul Brynner as Dmitri, and Lee J. Cobb chewing the scenery as Old Karamazov. OK, just kidding! However, if you like camp and have a bottle of Val-U-Rite that you just have to kill, this stinker's for you.

52 It is my #1 favorite movie of all time. Posted by: Kathy from Kansas at August 26, 2012 11:24 AM (F0o5k) A great movie, indeed.

53 Die Hard

Yes, it was actually based on a book, "Nothing Lasts Forever."  In the book, Gruber is trying to assist the peasants of Chile.  Turning him into an ex-radical turned a straight-up thief made it a lot more interesting.

54 Another pair of "equals" (IMHO): Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and Jack Clayton's 1983 film.

55 Heston version of Planet of the Apes
Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick


The Dune mini-series followed the the book more closely than the movie but i like the movie's production design (costumes, sets, make-up) better. Sian Phillips haunts my nightmares as Livia and Gaius Helen Mohiam.

56 The Grinch! (not the Jim Carrey one, the Boris Karloff one) Ok, so I'm not as literary as you guys...

57 One thing I hated about the movie of Forrest Gump is the director's slasher movie mentality when it came to Jenny. She had illicit sex and thus had to die, plus it was oh so topical to give her AIDS. Never mind that she is still around at the end of the book, Zemeckis needed a cheap ploy to get some more pathos jammed in there.

58 Storm'a comin' derp, derp, derp.

59 "The Brothers Karamazov": Starring William Shatner as Alyosha, Richard Basehart as Ivan, Yul Brynner as Dmitri, and Lee J. Cobb chewing the scenery as Old Karamazov. OK, just kidding! However, if you like camp and have a bottle of Val-U-Rite that you just have to kill, this stinker's for you. Posted by: Brown Line at August 26, 2012 11:29 AM (GnEjc) Noted. Will find it and wallow in Shat.

60 The absolute worse was Tom Clancy' Sum of All Fears. The only thing like the book was the title and the name of the lead character. They absolutely butchered that book trying to be PC on the terrorists after 9-11. I mention this every time, but Clancy's commentary on the DVD starts 'Hi, I'm Tom Clancy, and I wrote the book they ignored.'

61 I mention this every time, but Clancy's commentary on the DVD starts 'Hi, I'm Tom Clancy, and I wrote the book they ignored.'

Posted by: nickless at August 26, 2012 11:35 AM (MMC8r)

LOL, I never listen to those "commentary" tracks.  Perhaps I should try that one. I bought that DVD without renting it first and now I am stuck with the POS.

62 Oh come on, lets get started on Starship Troopers.

63 I never read The DaVinci Code book nor saw the movie, but heard both bit.

64 As I said, Starship troopers was not the worst. At least it has some good tit scenes, even if one of them was cut out you can still see it in the special features..

65 Ralph never was a good chess player.

66 I never read The DaVinci Code book nor saw the movie, but heard both bit.

---

If by "bit" you mean "sucked donkey balls," then you heard correctly.

67 I mention this every time, but Clancy's commentary on the DVD starts 'Hi, I'm Tom Clancy, and I wrote the book they ignored.' Posted by: nickless

Made the movie worth renting.

Almost.

68 The Natural--for the sole reason that Barry Levinson changed the ending.

In the book, Hobbs strikes out.  I don't care how good the first 90% of it was; I don't care how good a job Levinson did in conveying the atmosphere; the movie would have sucked if he kept it as is.

69 I never read The DaVinci Code book nor saw the movie, but heard both bit.

Posted by: eman at August 26, 2012 11:38 AM (Wp4rQ)

The movie follows the book fairly well.  They had to cut some stuff and make a few alterations to save time because the book was fairly long.  However, not so with Angels and Demons.  They deviated greatly from the book there.

70 'Planet of the Apes' is miles better than the Boulle book 'Monkey Planet.' One is a notion, the other is a full-fledged concept.

71 The Shipping News was a good book. I skipped the movie after seeing the reviews. We read Cloud Atlas in my impromptu book club and are going to see the film this Fall. The trailer hints they got it right, mostly. The book was good, btw, but I can't decide if it was sincere or satirical in it's pronounced message.

72 #61

One of the best commentary tracks ever is for Ghostbusters. They did it MST3K style with Harold Ramis, the director, and another guy in silhouette in front of the screen.

Another I liked is the 1998 Godzilla. They understood who the audience was for this disc and had the SFX leads do the commentary. So it became a technical exposition on a movie whose primary virtues were visual effects.

73 Shawshank Redemption. In the book, Andy's basically a guy who happens to get lucky enough to be thrown into a cell with crumbling walls. In the movie, he's the John Galt of anal-rape victims.

74 The thing with Starship Troopers is if you look into it you find that the movie was not actually based on Heinlein's novel.  It was its own screenplay and the studio stuck in the connections to the novel after acquiring the rights.  So its not that they butchered the novel to get the screenplay/movie.  But they went cut and paste after the screenplay was written.

75 I liked the movie version of Wonder Boys better than Michael Chabon's novel. As written in the book, the characters came across much colder and more unlikeable. Some scenes that were shorter in the movie were dragged out in the book.

76 Bloody apostrophe.

77 Oh, and when is William Goldman going to get off his tail and write the Princess Bride sequel he teased us with?

78 #70

They had completely different intents. The movie was action-adventure. The book was social satire about late 1950s US.

The movie was so wildly different that they probably would have tried to avoid crediting Boulle at all if his name wasn't considered a prestige addition at the time. At best it was vaguely inspired by the book.

79 Oh, and when is William Goldman going to get off his tail and write the Princess Bride sequel he teased us with?

Isn't it a little too late?  Andre the Giant is dead and none of the cast members look anything like they used to.  You can try new people, but it just wouldn't be the same.

80 I am reading Hilary Mantel's 'Bring up the Bodies'. It is about how Thomas Cromwell brought down Anne Boleyn. Very awesome. Apparently ruthless politicians have been around for awhile! I hope a movie is made on it.

81 I've always preferred the book Princess Bride to the movie. The book is an ironic take down of the whole fairy-tale motif (with some huge swipes at the book and movie industries, academia, and liberal/progressive family). In the book the story isn't the story, it's the story around the story. The movie is just the story with a tiny bit of the framing left around it.

82 LA Confidential was a much better movie than the book. The screenwriter did an excellent job and received a well deserved Oscar for it.

83

Paths of Glory.  Arguably Kubrick's best.  The book was good too if you can find it.  Long out of print. 

A Place in the Sun.  Three star movie, but An American Tragedy was a really tough slog.  Sister Carrie was good though.

84 "Planet of the Apes" movie is far, far, far better than and nothing like the book. The book is some french guy's satire of french society done in that boring, pointless style french writers have mastered thru the years. The only thing the book lacks is some french guy sitting alone in a white room smoking cigarettes and looking bored. Hey! Why all the hate for Lynch's "Dune"? Not perfect but it contains all of the major arcs of the novel and brings them to a satisfying end with some neat set pieces along the way. Also, it does something I love in SF stories which is throw you in the middle of an ongoing universe and story. and let's you catch up as it goes along.

85 High Sierra - A pretty good but rambling crime novel by W.R. Burnett converted into an excellent, taut screenplay by John Huston & Burnett. The Maltese Falcon - Although I would give the edge to the movie - because of the brilliant cast and direction - it's a very good book, which the script hews closely to. Screenwriter/director Huston wisely deleted a long, rather pointless monologue by Spade on the subject of chance, much to the irritation of Dashiell Hammett. The Asphalt Jungle - Good book, good movie. The African Queen - Good book, great movie. In particular, the film improves on the ending of the book. Touch of Evil - Mediocre crime novel, great script. Psycho - An okay book, a masterful screenplay. Fat City - Meh book, excellent script. The Last Detail - Decent book with a weak ending. Screenwriter Robert Towne turned it into a great script with a perfect ending. 30 Days of Night - The script is a tremendous improvement on the very short graphic novel it's based on.

86 Gone With the Wind was a better movie than book.

87

Dreams of My Father.  A romantic political autobiography written by Bill Ayres.  It's being made into a movie.  Filming will start next week in Tampa, FL.

88 77 Oh, and when is William Goldman going to get off his tail and write the Princess Bride sequel he teased us with? ---------- I'm still eagerly awaiting "Buckaroo Banzai vs The World Crime League"

89

The Exorcist  was one scary book made into a really scary movie, IMO.

 

And Dune   was a book that should never have been made into the first movie. It had many of the concepts of the   book, but lost a lot in the compression into a three-hour movie.  I thought the made-for-TV  mini-series a few years ago was a bit better, but that left out a ton of stuff from the book.

 

Also, King's [i/ The Stand[/i]  was a great adaptation. I'd read the unabridged version originally, which was a hefty tome.

90 Oh dear. Now I wonder about my tastes. I *really*  liked the Princess Bride book  and read Mary Poppins multiple times.  That was as a kid/teenager though, so I don't know if I'd still like them.  I have a strong suspicion that the Count of Monte Cristo I read  a  couple of times in  5th grade must have been a kids version since I don't remember the nihilism that was apparently a huge part of it.  Of course, I might just have not really "caught" that part either. 

91 82 LA Confidential was a much better movie than the book. The screenwriter did an excellent job and received a well deserved Oscar for it. Posted by: Hurricane Isaac at August 26, 2012 11:49 AM (w062R) 15 years later, does anyone think that titanic deserved Best Picture over LA Con? Of even 15 minutes later ?

92 @79 Oh, and when is William Goldman going to get off his tail and write the Princess Bride sequel he teased us with? Isn't it a little too late? Andre the Giant is dead and none of the cast members look anything like they used to. You can try new people, but it just wouldn't be the same. Posted by: AD at August 26, 2012 11:47 AM (wMUiZ) Sequel title to fit the age of the actors: The Dowager Queen Bride's Funeral

93

Watchmen (the Director's Cut), Disclosure

94 Agreed #86. Scarlett had three children in the book. They just disappeared in the movie! Apparently Rhett was the only husband manly enough to get her pregnant..

95 Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff"--great as a book and wonderful as a movie.  If you haven't read it, do so.  Wolfe is probably the best descriptive writer around.

96 The Fountainhead.

Discuss amongst your various selves. See you later.

97 How about a book of a book? P.J. O'Rourke's 'On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed The World' is a very good substitute for the Adam Smith bank vault doorstop original.

It conveys the important points, examines some areas that haven't stood up to the test of time, and is far more readable in general. Honest people can openly admit they are never going to read the massive work, originally 900+ pages in two volumes, and instead learn something of value from someone who has slogged through it and is better equipped to conveying the import to modern audiences.

98 I'm still eagerly awaiting "Buckaroo Banzai vs The World Crime League" Posted by: Anachronda at August 26, 2012 11:54 AM (1c58W) Seriously? I hated Buckaroo Banzai.

99 92 @79 Oh, and when is William Goldman going to get off his tail and write the Princess Bride sequel he teased us with?

Isn't it a little too late? Andre the Giant is dead and none of the cast members look anything like they used to. You can try new people, but it just wouldn't be the same.

Posted by: AD at August 26, 2012 11:47 AM (wMUiZ)

Sequel title to fit the age of the actors:

The Dowager Queen Bride's Funeral

Posted by: naturalfake at August 26, 2012 11:56 AM (G9qZk)


Here, I've got it--focus the sequel entirely around Christopher Guest (Count Roogan)...  maaaybe Inigo Montaya also.

Now tell me you wouldn't see that.

100 Jaws always tops my list of movies that were better than the book. I read the Readers Digest Condensed Book version and it still bored the hell out of me.  The most surprising read for me was Centennial. I loved that miniseries. The characters were so well cast, so well written, and so well acted that I just loved every one of them and all their stories. I read the book because I figured it would flesh out the characters' later years better than the series did. But the book was very strange. Over a thousand pages yet none of the characters really came to life like they did on the screen. And they were all told separately, in their own chapters, so there was almost no interaction between the characters.  It was just a weird book.

101 15 years later, does anyone think that titanic deserved Best Picture over LA Con?

Heavens no. Titanic is the Barak Obama of movies: gets rave reviews and much adulation, so much so that it takes everyone a while to notice just how mediocre it really is.

102 I would like to see Hollywood tackle Mailer's Ancient Evenings. I dare them to put Tom Cruise in it.

103 15 years later, does anyone think that titanic deserved Best Picture over LA Con?
Of even 15 minutes later ?
Posted by: Akin at August 26, 2012 11:55 AM (E0PaU)

LA Confindential is one of those movies you can watch, with full attention, at least once-a-year...

104 The problem with Clancy is that while the story outline is often quite good, he is a terrible writer. I remember him once described as the James Fennimore Cooper of our generation- the most famous bad writer. That being said I have read almost all of his books, and unlike DeMille or Silva where I am hooked by page 3 , Clancy often takes 150 pages.i remember in clear and present, he spends several pages boringly describing the bio of the coast guard captain who discovers the boat of murdered passengers , only to then drop him from the book.waste of time and paper.

105 Well, the morning open thread is dead now, so I will have to leave this here. Comment seen at NSF.com: The Cleveland Indians will be honoring Neil Armstrong before today's game and the first pitch will be thrown out by John Glenn.

106 Damn sock with static cling.

107 LA Confindential is one of those movies you can watch, with full attention, at least once-a-year... Posted by: Bill from Chappaqua at August 26, 2012 12:02 PM (8BaAK) Any movie that beats the shit out of Danny DeVito is okay in my book. Titanic got the Oscar for "Most Money Made by a Crappy Movie". They just shortened that to "Best Picture".

108 And check this out, from a Russian commenter: It only one death for the person, but giant loss for all mankind

109

The Cleveland Indians will be honoring Neil Armstrong before today's game  against the Yankees and the first pitch will be thrown out by John Glenn.

Go Yankees.

110 This is O/T but I just looked at the ONT from last night.  I don't know if anyone mentioned this but the blond in that Carl Jr's commercial is named Sara Underwood and she's a former playmate.



 Google is your friend.  Your welcome morons.

111 #91

James Cameron is a living tribute to the Peter Principle. He is a really good Second Unit Director that should never have been promoted to running the show.

And a more honorable man would have dug under the couch cushions and found a spare $Million to give to Poul Anderson's widow when he set out to blatantly steal the story of Anderson's 'Call Me Joe' for Avatar.

112 >>>Heavens no. Titanic is the Barak Obama of movies: gets rave reviews and much adulation, so much so that it takes everyone a while to notice just how mediocre it really is. At least everyone learned their lesson in time for Avatar. By the way, can anyone enlighten me how to search hashtags via google?

113 I can't wait for LA Noir and the return of Zombie Shane! http://goo.gl/aZUEL

114 Hey! Why all the hate for Lynch's "Dune"?Posted by: naturalfake

It was a decent flick, good for sci-fi which is treated like a red-headed stepchild in H-wood. The visuals were an order above what we're normally given.

I imagine a reason why it receives so much hate is that many people read the books in high school and feel that any interpretation is an attack on their angsty high-school self.

115 I liked the Thin Man movie better than the book.

116 >>>James Cameron is a living tribute to the Peter Principle. He is a really good Second Unit Director that should never have been promoted to running the show. I don't know what a Second Unit Director is, but was he in that position when he made T2 and Aliens? Because those are possibly the two greatest movies of the 80s. Certainly better than any Rambo.

117 112 >>>Heavens no. Titanic is the Barak Obama of movies: gets rave reviews and much adulation, so much so that it takes everyone a while to notice just how mediocre it really is. At least everyone learned their lesson in time for Avatar. By the way, can anyone enlighten me how to search hashtags via google? Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at August 26, 2012 12:07 PM (csi6Y) I think Disney is making a new Avatar section in Animalmkingdom

118 Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 12:07 PM (kcfmt) Heh. Ask his string of ex-wives what they think of Ol' Jimmy.

119 Mark Rydell and Steve McQueen make "The Reivers" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064886/ into a much better story than William Faulkner makes of his own original novel. http://www.amazon.com/The-Reivers-William-Faulkner/dp/0679741925

120 >>>By the way, can anyone enlighten me how to search hashtags via google? Just copy and paste the hashtag and add a minx.

121 Hey Forrest, I know what you're gonna get next in that box of chocolates.   It's chocolate!  Saw this movie again recently and it has not aged well at all.  The scenes with Lt. Dan in them were the only good parts.

122 The only William Goldman novel I've read is The Color of Light. One of the bleakest, most depressing books I've ever read. And not in the good way.

123

Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 11:58 AM (kcfmt)

 

Sold! I've been putting off getting any of O'Rourke's stuff because it's still pretty expensive on Kindle, but I just bought and downloaded On The Wealth of Nations.  Either it'll be a great "Cliffnotes" version or ,even better, give me the courage to try the real thing.

124

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was a good movie but the book stank. The Swedish guy couldn't write his way out of a tissue-thin bag. The book was a real slog with endless pointless details about drinking coffee and directions to various streets. The American movie version was tighter than the Swedish movie version though the Swedish version was grittier and the actors more natural looking, less Hollywood glam.

I tried really hard to get through the 1st book and the rest of the trilogy but gave up. The movies were quite good in a fun-trashy action-packed way.

125

I don't know what a Second Unit Director is, but was he in that position when he made T2 and Aliens?

 

Nope. Cameron was CLIC   (Chief   Liberal in Charge) of both those flicks. IRRC, a Second Unit  director usually does the scenes that  don't include the   stars, or does some  FX scenes. They're usually a little further down on the totem  pole  of importance.

126 Godfather is the classic movie is 5x better than the book. Book is thoroughly mediocre.

127 Depending on what you find entertaining, the movies of Powell and Loy loosely based on Dash Hammet's "The Thin Man" are arguably more entertaining than the novels. Seeing a high-functional alchoholic struggle with suddenly having more money and social position than he ever anticipated is highly entertaining to me, anyway.

128

The main problem with the vile Dan Brown books is the constant refrain of Asyouknow...i.e., "As you know, Frank, nobody in Roman Judea was ever unmarried..." - long expository conversations like this are coma-inducing.

Otherwise, while it may be beyond the scope of this discussion, sometimes TV mini-series can be quite faithful to books. My all-time favorite is Brideshead Revisited with Jeremy Irons,  televised  in about 1983. It is quite faithful to Evelyn Waugh's astonishing and wonderful novel. Wonderful story, beautifully told.

129 Have any of the Morons read Lonesome Dove the boo?  If so, how does it compare to the min-series which was great.

130

"Who Frame Roger Rabbit" was based on a book called "Who Murdered Roger Rabbit", which told an entirely different story, and wasn't as good.

131 The Outlaw Josey Wales is a far superior rendering of the book Gone To Texas. The book ain't bad, mind you, and the author Forrest Carter has quite a checkered past. I've plowed through quite a few oaters so I am entitled to an opinion here.
 
I've read the book once and seen the movie, er, more than once.

132 "Silence of the Lambs". I read it after seeing the movie, and found it blandly written and neither exciting nor scary.

Posted by: Waterhouse at August 26, 2012 11:06 AM (8NimM)

Funny, that's how I felt about "Silence of the Lambs" after seeing "Manhunter".  Every character in Manhunter did a better job than in Silence.  By miles.

133 IRRC? Shit, should be IIRC. Moar  coffee, stat!

134 My Fair Lady was based off George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, but I find the musical to be infinitely superior. It's funnier, sweeter, and the ending is 100x more satisfying. I always felt like Shaw ended Pygmalion the way he did to make a point, make it an anti fairy tale or whatever, at the sacrifice of his characters and what the story actually needed. (Eliza just leaves and doesn't some back, marries Freddy, etc.) One of hte few times I have disagreed about the vision of the original story vs the adaptation's vision. Emma Thompson has been working to get a "real" version of Pygmalion made; she hates the movie/musical version, called Audrey Hepburn too twee and mumsy and said she couldn't act. Has the strong whiff of jealousy to me. Thompson's gone moonbatty in her later years but I do still think she's a fine writer; we'll see how her version winds up, if it ever gets made. (Incidentally, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the first to try a musical adaptation of Pygmalion, and after much frustration over it quit, and declared it couldn't be done. Thankfully Lerner and Lowe didn't listen and took a stab at it, and the rest is history.)

135 Vic, Lonesome Dove is a WONDERFUL book and the TV series is faithful to it.

136 but I just bought and downloaded On The Wealth of Nations.


You paid for it?  It is free at Guttenberg.

http://is.gd/LvitlP

137 Lord of the Rings was an excellent movie based on a killer book...

138 Three Days of the Condor. The book's title is "Six Days of the Condor," which tells you one of its problems up front. As I recall, the hero spends those extra days in bed with a cold. The heroine is a gum-clicking honey, while in the movie she's a photographer and ... Faye Dunaway.

139 #116

A second unit is the group that often does the most technical shots and complex action for a movie that would cause the production time to go way too long if the lead director was there for all of it. In some cases they are the unsung heroes of Hollywood in that they often create the footage that sticks in the audience's memory, even if none of the main cast is prominently shown. Second Unit work rarely gets the credit it deserves outside the industry, partly because if it is well done you cannot tell where the lead director hands off to somebody else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_unit

Cameron is very good with the technical, coming from an engineering background and working his way up as a SFX guy, and action scenes. Two important qualities in a SUD. But he falls down badly when he tries to pretend he can write believable human beings. Aliens and T2 were good action movies but they could have been better movies overall with some better inputs on the scripts.

140 Have any of the Morons read Lonesome Dove the boo? If so, how does it compare to the min-series which was great. Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:14 PM (YdQQY) The book is quite good. Iy has the same pace and feel of the miniseries and helps you know the characters better.

141 The mainproblem with thevile Dan Brown books is the constant refrain of Asyouknow...i.e., "As you know, Frank, nobody in Roman Judea was ever unmarried..." - long expository conversations like this are coma-inducing.


The biggest problem with Dan Brown books is he insists on putting that blurb on the front page saying the stuff in the book is based on facts.  I have found very few things in his books that are "facts". 


However, they are good reads if you can get past the bull shit.

142 "Dr. Zhivago" was both an excellent book and an outstanding movie.  The tv miniseries, not so much.

143 I have 2 cold war thrillers that were both better than their books, largely because of excellent scripts, casts and direction. Both are black and white and both were made in the 60's.

First is seven Days in May, whose Ray Bradbury screenplay was much more taut and coherent than the book. The cast is spectacular, including Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frederic March, Ada Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Martin Balsam and introducing John Houseman!! Goofy politics, but great lines, terrific pace and effective score. I watch if whenever it's on.

Second is The Bedford Incident. This was a labor of love for the star Richard Widmark. It also has Martin Balsam as a ship's doctor who doesn't know what he's getting into. Sidney Poitier is only so so, but Eric Portman steals the show as a former U-boat commander. Watch for a cameo by a very young Donald Sutherland performing laboratory tests on garbage fished from the sea. Hydrogenated oil! Definitely Russian submarine fare!

And following along the thread of nightmares caused by Sian Phillips, I can add that she also played Anne Smiley in the Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People mini series. Fantastic, with the great Obi-wan Kenobi starring.

144 #135

And an excellent example of when US TV understood how to do a mini-series instead of requiring everything to be open ended in hopes of making more.

145

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:17 PM (YdQQY)

 

The O'Rourke version. Have a dead-tree copy of the original.  That was what got me to start using a Kindle actually. Even when the Dead-tree versions are only a dollar there's still shipping, whereas so many of tehm are free digitally.

146 Could not disagree more regarding Forrest Gump.  I found that book to be laugh-out-loud funny.....

I was really disappointed in the movie.

BTW, Winston Groom is a really good writer....His book Better Times Than These was a very good Viet Nam fiction.....

147 "Who Frame Roger Rabbit" was based on a book called "Who Murdered Roger Rabbit", which told an entirely different story, and wasn't as good.

---

IIRC the book's actually called "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" but you're absolutely right about the rest.

148

Someone mentioned "Bring Up the Bodies." It's the second in a trilogy. The first was "Wolf Hall" which is being made into a movie by the BBC and Showtime. The third book is being written as we speak.

 

Fantabulous writing which of course cannot be reproduced in a movie. I'm also afraid that they'll turn the film version of Wolf Hall into a cheesy sexualized imitation of The Tudors (The Nuders.)

149 Have any of the Morons read Lonesome Dove the boo? If so, how does it compare to the min-series which was great.
Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:14 PM

"Lonesome Dove" is one of the best books I have ever read and I have read it several times.  Well worth reading and you can usually find a copy at a used bookstore.  I would also recommend "The Searchers" by Alan LeMay, if you have not read that one.  It's another great western.

150 Damn, Amazon wants $13 for the Kindle version of Lonesome Dove.  I guess I'll write that one off and they can kiss my ass. I'll check the library.

151 "Dreams of My Father. A romantic political autobiography written by Bill Ayres. It's being made into a movie. Filming will start next week in Tampa, FL"

Ding.Ding.Ding.
We have a winner

152 #118

Marrying James Cameron is the alternative to becoming a Scientologist for getting a break in Hollywood.

T-shirt worn by veterans of the production of 'Titanic': You can't scare me. I work for James Cameron.

153 Damn, Amazon wants $13 for the Kindle version of Lonesome Dove. I guess I'll write that one off and they can kiss my ass. I'll check the library. Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:24 PM (YdQQY) Yeah, sometimes Kindle prices make no sense.

154 By the way, can anyone enlighten me how to search hashtags via google

Enter the following into the google search bar:

xxxxx site:http://minx.cc

where xxxxx = whatever hash value you're looking for.

155 Bleargh. The back of this week is looking to be a blasted mess. I just wish Isaac would make up its mind where to hit...

156 Not *totally* off topic, the tv show "Bones"  is from a series of books by Cathy Reichs. The main characters are extremely different though. Both are female forensic anthropologists but that's about the only similarity. I think I like the tv show better, but that might just be because David Boreanz (sp?) is the male lead.

157 >>>Thompson's gone moonbatty in her later years but I do still think she's a fine writer; we'll see how her version winds up, if it ever gets made. As long as she continues to advocate a boycott against Israel/Israelis, i will boycott her.

158 The problem with "Da Vinci Code" was that I could read page 24 and tell you word for word what was going to be on page 25.

159 #148

Due to the success of 'The Tudors,' they are now in pre-production on a sequel series, 'The Fordor Hatchbacks.'

I denounce myself.

160

Starship Troopers the movie had better action.  Starship Troopers the book is better as an exploration of ideas. 

 

"Hannibal" was better as a movie, and I can sum it up in three words:  David F'in' Mamet.  What a talent....  (Did you know he wrote Ronin under a pseudonym?)

161 Why hasn't Hollywood taken a shot at fucking up Lord Foul's Bane? The CGI is mature enough by now.

162 >>> I think I like the tv show better, but that might just be because David Boreanz (sp?) is the male lead. We need an intervention here!

163 Yeah, after watching Open Range and remarking how much I liked it, the Morons recommended Lonesome Dove. Both are great movies.


I'll mosey on down to the library this afternoon and get the book.

164 #156

Have you ever noticed that the title character on Bones writes a series of novels about a character named Cathy Reichs?

165 I'm glad the comments mention The Silence of the Lambs - definitely a movie that surpassed the book. I thought Presumed Innocent was a fine book - liked it, didn't love it - and a better movie. Axel, 11:27 - there's a story, possibly apocryphal, that when Tom Clancy was asked about the movie Patriot Games, he replied, "It kept me in suspense - I had no idea how it was going to end!"

166  What was wrong with Starship Trooopers?

167 Charlie Crist the most despised transparently self-serving egotistical politically expediante two-faced piece of shit governor florida has had in recent memory just Endorsed Obama.  What a surprise.

Birds of a feather...


CRIST / AKIN 2016

 - You Know they are thinking about it.
 - someone lock down the domain name now!

168 Henry Higgins: "Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?" Eliza Dolittle: Fook ya! Ya fookin cunt! I'm stayin true to me fookin socialist roots, ya fook! (shoots Henry Higgins in the head, licks the blood splatter off her fingers) Long live the Revolution! And the All Mighty Vagina! The All Mighty Vagina!!!!!! -FIN-

169 "3 "Blade Runner" wasfar better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." Far, far, better." Beat me to it. ++

170 Waiting patiently for Dragonriders of Pern to hit the big screen.

171 The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks?  Atom Egoyan's film kicks that book's ass.

172 Westley, who was kind of an unpleasant dickhole and at one point he actually slapped Buttercup and proceeded to insult and ridicule her. Hawt

173 Last of the Mohicans was one of those books that I could never make myself finish but the movie..yikes..loved it, even if the director turned the plot sideways and upside down .Daniel Day-Lewis(hubba-hubba) and Madeleine Stowe had great on screen chemistry. The score ain't too shabby either.

174 I denounce myself. Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 12:28 PM (kcfmt) You are begging for a Hellfire missile, dude.

175 Waiting patiently for Dragonriders of Pern to hit the big screen.

Posted by: FUBAR at August 26, 2012 12:31 PM (mdhVr)

I would love that but you know they would screw it up.

176 #161

Because the author already did it for them?


Hated those books. Only thing worse is the endless Shannara books that made a bunch of money when doing a Tolkien knock-offs was still considered a fresh idea.

177 True Grit. Great novel.

178 I think the Emma Thompson version of Sense & Sensibility is considerably better than the book. Not strictly movies (although some are), the David Suchet tv/movie versions of Agatha Christie's Poirot and the Miss Marple series are both better than the books, imho. I found both the book and movie versions of the Hunt for Red October to be equally fun, just in different ways. Same is true of the Jeeve & Wooster tv series and books.

179

Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 12:30 PM (kcfmt)

 

Yes. Figured it was smart marketing  on Reich's part, although she'd also mentioned in the credits which is how I came to look for her books.

180 Posted by: jeremiah Gosh Darn Amerikkka Wright at August 26, 2012 12:31 PM (ovpNn) Threadjacking is illegal in this town.

181 #163...I agree. Open Range is a wonderful movie. Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall were great. Well Mr. Duvall makes just about everything he's in better.

182 #166

I have to assume you aren't familiar with the book.

Audiences are used to having a movie only vaguely resemble a book but it is another thing entirely for a movie to be outright hostile to the source material. Paul Verhoeven is not high on the list of established directors I'd pick for adaptation of a Heinlein novel.

183 began "moby dick" how far are we supposed to be for tomorrows discussion....i think i'm only on chapter 3....starting extremely slow....fell asleep reading it....

184

Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 12:33 PM (kcfmt)

 

I think I only made it about 2 chapters into the first Shannara book, just seemed to drag horribly.  Isn't the author of those the one who wrote thr Magik Kingdom: For Sale/Sold books? I really liked those.

185 Yes, I can hardly wait for the next series/trilogy from Terry Brooks, Elf DooDoo Balls of Shannara.



Coming to a bookstore near you soon! $19.95 at a discount and $18.99 for the Kindle.

186

Rochelle, Rochelle.

The film was so bad that I actually preferred the Musical!

187 Just copy and paste the hashtag and add a minx. Posted by: Hurricane Isaac at August 26, 2012 12:10 PM (w062R) Forgive my ignorance, but what is a minx?

188 Isn't the author of those the one who wrote thr Magik Kingdom: For Sale/Sold books? I really liked those.

Posted by: Polliwogette, teahada hobbit who wants some R & R at August 26, 2012 12:38 PM (8sEhR)

Yes, and he has ran those into the ground as well.

189 Posted by: Emma Thompson's Pygmalion at August 26, 2012 12:31 PM (G9qZk)

I'd actually go to see that version.

190 Forgive my ignorance, but what is a minx? Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at August 26, 2012 12:39 PM (csi6Y) You're riding one right now.

191 Forgive my ignorance, but what is a minx?

Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at August 26, 2012 12:39 PM (csi6Y)

Look in your address bar.

192 Look how the zombie people are always freaking out over the series TWD. They're nuts.

193 xxxxx site:http://minx.cc

where xxxxx = whatever hash value you're looking for.Posted by: OregonMuse

The 'http:// ' is superfluous.

194 I love Starship Troopers the book and movie, when judged individually.

Once they changed Rico's ethnicity and all but removed Shujimi, it was no longer the book.

Also, it's been a while since I cracked it but I believe in the forward of On The Wealth of Nations, P.J. O'roarke talks about how much he hated grinding through the source material.

195 The Emma Thompson version of Mary Poppins is a spoon full of meth, bitches.

196 Oh let's start a religious war.  Lord of the Rings was a better movie than a book.

*ducks*

197 I liked the original movie version of Lolita better than the book. The first movie version was written by Nabokov and has that dark humor thing going for it. Sellers as Quilty and Winters as the mother were hilarious.

198

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:39 PM (YdQQY)

 

Ah, hadn't realized there were more. Probably won't bother to look for them. 

 

It's terrible but,  other than here, I'm just not doing much reading at all lately. Having Netflix streaming on my Kindle has turned my reading nook into a tv watching nook. Although I'm able to get a lot more needlework done with streaming than I am with reading.

199 #179

Even without the marketing aspect, it's great that they've created a fiction-reality loop.

It serves to buttress the existence of both entities if there is a sudden power shift in the Dimensional Wars.

200 If I were looking you up, I would type: (csi6Y) minx

201 I would love that but you know they would screw it up.

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:33 PM (YdQQY)

I think it'd have to be a cartoon, but CGI would be awesome if they got it right.  If they got the look right, the quality of the screen play wouldn't matter as much.

I want to see a Hatching.  Or dragons fighting Thread.  Or a mating flight.

Sigh.

202 112 >>>Heavens no. Titanic is the Barak Obama of movies: gets rave reviews and much adulation, so much so that it takes everyone a while to notice just how mediocre it really is. At least everyone learned their lesson in time for Avatar. By the way, can anyone enlighten me how to search hashtags via google? Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at August 26, 2012 12:07 PM (csi6Y) His last book was the biggest pos I have ever read. It was so obvious early on that the bad guy was the long lost son of the kidnap victim. Another wired thing he gives the protagonists Jewishbsurname, mentions once their Semitic looks and then makes them Christian. Good research.

203 >>>Aliens and T2 were good action movies but they could have been better movies overall with some better inputs on the scripts. Okay, thanks for the explanation. As for Cameron, he doesn't write the deepest human beings ever, but I'm not sure what your issue was with the scripting in T2/Aliens. Nothing really came off as egregiously bad. Sarah Connor was a pretty decent picture of obsession, and John did a pretty good job of playing a punk. As for Aliens, I'm not sure if you are referring to Vasquez or something else. The theatrical cut does not make sense in terms of Ripley's emotional state, but the extended has a touching scene where she expresses the horror at being gone for eighty years. Overall Ripley comes off as more or less real. Avatar was phoning it in, of course. Nobody can pretend otherwise.

204 I was re-re-reading Stephen Gould's "Helm" this week, and I kept thinking to myself that it would make a great mini-series. Sort of like Game of Thrones, but with a SciFi element. But then Hollywood took his "Jumper" and just trashed it, so I don't know if Gould would want to try again.

205 Landover Books

Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold!The Black UnicornWizard At LargeThe Tangle BoxWitches’ BrewA Princess of Landover

206

Octopussy is a better book than the movie, but I've never read it.

Still, Maud Adams.

207 Look how the zombie people are always freaking out over the series TWD. They're nuts. Posted by: Hurricane Isaac at August 26, 2012 12:40 PM (w062R) I'm Team Shane. The dude needed to shoot Lori and bang the blonde.

208 Personally, I thought the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was a lot better than the book. The book, written by James Bond author Ian Fleming, was a short children's book without much story; "Ooh, a flying car!" The movie was much better (of course, I've always loved Dick Van Dyke as an actor).

And I will never, ever watch Starship Troopers or Titanic.

209

Posted by: Dave in Fla at August 26, 2012 12:42 PM (dX4hn)

 

I hadn't read any Tolkein other than The Hobbit until watching the first LoTR movie. I like both even though there's a lot of differences. Back to wondering about my tastes because I *like* Tom Bombadill even though it seems like no one else does. Quite understand why he wouldn't have woorked in the movie though.

210 200 thanks

211 @187 Yoshi- To seach Google for a hashtag (or anything else) the format is: site:url text So for example to search the AoS comment section for your hash of csi6Y you'd type site:minx.cc csi6Y

212 dave i totally agree...i couldn't read the book...all the made up language and putting a tune to made up language songs was ridiculous....plus....it was wonderful to watch the hot guy viggo in the movie.......

213 Bonfire of the Vanities: great book, shit movie

214 We need Joel and the MST3K robots narrating the DNC convention. Someone clever should do a knock-off of their schtick and post it on utube. Or would that violate copyright laws? The robots would have a lot of fun with Biden. (Will he be speaking at the DNC convention?)

215 As for Cameron, he doesn't write the deepest human beings ever, but I'm not sure what your issue was with the scripting in T2/Aliens. Nothing really came off as egregiously bad.

I'll commit another bit of heresy.  Watch the director's cut of T2.  It gets rid of the plot holes and makes the movie much better (and I thought the original version was very good).  I won't defend his later stuff or his politics, but at least for a decade Cameron made very good movies.

216

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:45 PM (YdQQY)

 

Wow, there are *a lot* more in the series than I'd realized.

217 Back to wondering about my tastes because I *like* Tom Bombadill even though it seems like no one else does. ------ Raises hand. IMHO Bombadil's character is important in establishing the nature of "magic" in Middle Earth. I think ditching that section, as well as how both Treebeard and Galadriel were portrayed in the movies, really changes the tone of LotR. There's very little natural magic in the movies, just sorcery magic. The fact that they've decided to make the Hobbit into a three movie series (when it's very inferior to LotR) shows that they know they goofed in many of the cuts they made in LotR imho.

218 Now, I'd think Scalzi's Old Man's War would translate pretty well to the screen, though time dilation may be too big a thing for Hollywood to deal with as a concept.

219 Cryptonomicon ?

220 I liked T2 better than the original. One of those rare times when the sequel was better than the original. Haven't seen T3.

221

Posted by: phoenixgirl, team dagny & team armstrong at August 26, 2012 12:48 PM (Ho2rs)

 

The irony is that apparently Tolkeins whole point in writing was th emade-up language, although the "elvish" alphabet is the actual old Norse runic alphabet (or at least the one they showed in  The Hobbit  is).

222 The Sun Also Rises is a great book, and how George Lucas turned it into Star Wars was just a feat of magic.

223 Personally, I thought the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was a lot better than the book.



I call that movie "Shitty Shitty bang Off".  I thought it sucked. There is a reason it is relegated to the $5 stack at WalMart and the Blue-Ray is only $10.

224 6 on the other hand, I thought King's "The Shining" was nothing to boast about, buyt the movie with Nicholson was terrible. You knew right away that Nicholson's character was crazy, and one look at Shelley Duvall and you're not surprised he flipped out. Posted by: mallfly at August 26, 2012 11:03 AM (NI3M5) Three things that I never understood in life. The allure of Steven King books, Jack Nicholson at all and Shelley Duvall.

225 Did anyone ever make a movie of Cardinal of the Kremlin (Clancy)? I liked that book when I read it.

226 Haven't seen T3. Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:50 PM (YdQQY) It's basically a hamburger from a vending machine in comparison.

227 "Lord of the Rings was a better movie than a book." This is true. If you're illiterate.

228 got the look right, the quality of the screen play wouldn't matter as much.I want to see a Hatching. Or dragons fighting Thread. Or a mating flight.
Sigh.

Posted by: FUBAR at August 26, 2012 12:43 PM (mdhVr)

 

 

............................................That'd be awesome. Might be easier to start off with Dragon Singer first.

229

I loved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as a book, but it should not have been a feature film. I don't hate the movie but it's just not a book that can be easily translated into a feature film. It would probably work better as a two-night miniseries on A&E or HBO. I do really like the movie soundtrack album though.

230 124: could it be that the translation is bad with "the girl with the dragon tattoo"? How else could that stinker be so popular?

231 #203

Please. The characters never rose above comic book level. And not Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman comic book. I'm talking Todd McFarlane level at best.

Which is alright for action movies. So long as you don't have overly high expectations of the characters when there isn't bullets and/or gravity to contend with, it will be OK.

But Cameron thought that the success of his action movies meant that his little talky bits in between the slam-bang were as good as the slam-bang. Thus Titanic and the Peter Principle. Unfortunately, Titanic found a big audience with money to spend: as noted by Tom Kenney, Titanic is Star Wars for teenage girls.

http://tinyurl.com/d24o4h9

232

Posted by: Y-not at August 26, 2012 12:49 PM (5H6zj)

 

I  liked The Hobbit *a lot* and can't for the life of me see how they're going to squeeze three movies out of it.  Given that  the *animation* managed to do a pretty good job in only one movie (although they felt the need to kill almost everyone off at the end to show how bad war is), it makes the whole thing look like a cash grab.

233 vic i love you....but to not like chitty chitty bang bang.....oh dear....

234 >>>I'll commit another bit of heresy. Watch the director's cut of T2. It gets rid of the plot holes and makes the movie much better (and I thought the original version was very good). Yep. I'm with you there. Above all, Cameron's action scenes were fantastic. I recently had the opportunity to see the first Terminator again, and was struck at how well the shootouts were choreographed. Perfect clarity of action and suspense. Cameron is a fantastic technical director, as epobirs said.

235

Posted by: Invictos at August 26, 2012 12:54 PM (OQpzc)

 

Not a bad idea. That was my introduction to Pern as an elementary schooler and I *loved* that book.

236 OregonMuse, I TOTALLY agree on the "Gump" opinion.  I made it through the whole book but when I was done I announced, "I finally found a book that's worse than the movie."

It didn't happen again until I read "The Social Network."

237 I liked The Hobbit *a lot* and can't for the life of me see how they're going to squeeze three movies out of it. ----- I gather they're going to do the side-stories about what else is happening in Middle Earth at the time. I would rather someone write up a fun story about the Wizards, their history and what the other (5? 6?) were doing. We hear a little about Radaghast the Brown but always wished there was more. I don't know if Tolkien's son or heirs have been carrying on his work, but it seems to me with their help and a good story writer, there's be something there.

238 O/T. Now two of my more liberal FB friends have posted that they "like" Mitt Romney. Hmm.

239 >>>Please. The characters never rose above comic book level. And not Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman comic book. I'm talking Todd McFarlane level at best. I've read Watchmen, haven't touched Sandman or any other Gaiman works. Leaving aside that I believe the former to be overrated, it seems like you pine for some kind of deconstruction when you watch T2 as I believe both Moore and Gaiman are a fan of that genre. Correct me if I'm wrong.

240 @238 maybe they're just doing that so they can write obnoxious posts on his page

241 The Pern books have been in development hell for at least twenty years. I've long since lost track of how many times the rights have changed hands and not someone who reads the trades outside of waiting rooms when I'm called over to fix a computer. (This means figuring out a way to explain to the prickly client that it doesn't work that way because /REALITY.)

242 I hope we can all agree that Elrond was a dick, both in the movies and in the books.

243 romney was awesome on wallace's show this morning.....i don't like romney...i love him..he wasn't my first choice but damn he has grown on me......

244 9 "Anybody know of any books made out of movies?"

The book adaptation of "Return of the Jedi" is actually quite good.

Guess who didn't write it.

245 One of the very few movies that was as good as the book was "One flew over the cuckoos nest".

246 Did anybody read the book "LA Confidential" was based on? The author was quite complimentary of the screenplay, but I don't know if the book was better or not. The gun play in the movie was some of the best, IMHO. And I usually like just about anything Spacey is in. (Except American Beauty, that sucked.)

247 Alan Dean Foster's "Taken" trilogy would great fun in the right hands.

248 Apocalypse now is possibly better than heart of darkness. I really liked the Starship Troopers movie if only for the boobs. The book was 10x better but so unrelated that they don't really conflict in my mind.

249 83 Paths of Glory. Arguably Kubrick's best. I, would arguably agree.

250

Posted by: Y-not at August 26, 2012 12:58 PM (5H6zj)

 

Ah, now I remember the discussion. They're making The Simarillion and just called it  The Hobbit so people would come see it. 

251 Whats with all those racist pink people in their suits and dresses? No doubt, wearing republi-goggles to shade their eyes from viewing brown people.

252 >>>IMHO Bombadil's character is important in establishing the nature of "magic" in Middle Earth. I think ditching that section, as well as how both Treebeard and Galadriel were portrayed in the movies, really changes the tone of LotR. There's very little natural magic in the movies, just sorcery magic. Without getting into the other two characters, I don't really see how adding Bombadil is a great thing for either the movie or the book. Bombadil is a giant red herring that doesn't really make sense in the context of the two-sided war that is being forced on Middle Earth. He doesn't provide any kind of help or resolution to the question of how to get the Ring to Mordor. In any movie, a detour that massive is usually fatal. For a movie that's already three hours, even more so.

253 Perhaps it is the Christopher Walken factor, but I thought The Dead Zone was as good as, if not better than, the book.

254 M Snograss' Circuit series needs to go on screen, ESP when we have a Mormon President.

255

Posted by: Tuna at August 26, 2012 01:02 PM (M/TDA)

 

Haven't read or seen those. I'm most familiar with Foster's Flinx series, which has never been adapted to the best of my knowledge.

256

Lost Horizons, the decent movie, beats Lost Horizons, John Hilton's simple book. 

The Illustrated Man, the intricate movie, beats The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury's pretty good book. There are wheels within wheels in the movie that aren't in the book.  

@41. BABETTE'S FEAST.
"Isak Dinesen's short story was a little snarky, especially at the very end. You finished it and felt like you'd just been tricked or even mocked."

"Tricked". That was my impression of Dinesen's Out of Africa.  I remarked to an English prof that Dinesen tricks the reader into thinking she's a better writer than she really is. Dinesen uses words like "stark" and "ghastly" that aren't descriptions of scenes but descriptions of descriptions. She tells, rather than shows. The prof said a colleague had said the same thing.   

"The movie, on the other hand, was rapturous, visionary. Afterwards you felt you'd been BLESSED."

Thanks for  the recommendaation.

257 238 O/T. Now two of my more liberal FB friends have posted that they "like" Mitt Romney. Hmm. Posted by: Book Geek at August 26, 2012 12:59 PM (ny/5i) Hmmmm...

258 Lonesome Dove was an epic book. I actually cried when the young Indian brave killed Deets. Bright Lights, Big City was a great book, crappy movie.

259 Y-not @ 225, I don't think so. That's one of the few Clancy books I haven't read. As an aside, there was talk that "Without Remorse" was going to be made into a movie and Clancy actually replied to an e-mail query I sent asking if he would have input on who would play the characters and he responded that he would. I guess it never got that far.

260 Get Shorty: loved both and anything else written by Elmore Leonard.

261

I like Billy Wilder's movie Double Indemnity better than James M. Cain's original novella, which isn't really bad.  In the original, Walter is so greedy that he doesn't realize Phyllis is an insane killer.  When he first figures out she's trying to kill her husband, Walter is actually sexually turned on by that!  In the movie, Walter is hot for Phyllis first and foremost, and is temporarily repulsed when he figures out Phyllis wants to kill her husband.  The latter seems more plausible.

 

In the book, the boyfriend of Phyllis's stepdaughter seems like a jerk, but it turns out he's really trying to prove that Phyllis framed his father for murders she had committed.  In the movie, the boyfriend acts like a jerk because he is a jerk!

 

Finally, in the book, Walter does get on a boat out of the country, only to find out that Phyllis is on the same boat.  They can't trust each other, but can't live without each other, so they decide to jump overboard, into the shark infested ocean.  In fact, the novella turns out to be one long suicide note.  Pretty contrived, I think.  The movie ending is better.

262

Anyone who says "Gone With the Wind" was a better movie than book is wrong, just so very wrong, wrongety, wrongety, wrong.  The problem with the movie is it simply could not convey the depths of character in the book in any way.  I could write a book on the subject, but that would be wrong.

 

"A Place In The Sun" was definitely better than An American Tragedy, but then most things are.  I've never read "Sister Carrie" because AAT was such a slog.

 

I loved the movie "Dune", absolutely gorgeous to look at, but I know it wasn't a ery good rendition of the book and it drove me nuts that Kyle McLachlan managed to keep his perfect hair perfectly coiffed at all times on a planet where water certainly would not have been wasted on hair care.

 

I would totally pay to see Emma Thompson's Pygmalion as outlined above.  I always thought HH was a shit.

 

Finally, Poliwogette is absolutely right about "Bones."  The books are too long by half, and David Boreanaz is yummy.

263 Get Shorty. The movie is much better than the book. Much tighter and direct.

264 I concur on Forrest Gump: The Movie being better than the book. I also think that Blade Runner was superior to When Robots Sleep. Heresy, I know.

265 enjoyed both "Summer of 42's" as a teen. Book was funny as hell. God, I'm old.

266

"I *like* Tom Bombadill even though it seems like no one else does."

 

I like him too.  Lets you know there's a power greater than Sauron's which is only ever hinted at in the book and movies.  Only the evil of the elder days is mentioned, however, Tom is one of the few mentions of the good. 

 

His enigmatic nature that's expounded upon in Rivendell makes him that much more interesting.  It really gets you asking a lot of questions and when you do, you find out that of all Tolkien's mythology and cosmology, Bombadil is the least explained making it all the more enticing being so unanswerable (in reality he was just sort of haphazardly thrown in to appease Tolkien's granddaughter or something).  Sort of like the ending of Gone With The Wind - it's left to the reader to wonder.

 

I read an essay that hypothesized that he is actually Aule and that Goldberry is Yavanna (from The Silmarillion) and it made quite a good case for it.  Someone else debunked it, but it wasn't easy.  He really did a masterful job of creating a lot of mystery and depth that few other writers have in epic fantasy.

 

tolkiennerdmode=off

267 "Bombadil is a giant red herring ..." Agree. However, I really think they should have included The Scouring of the Shire. I miss it every time I have to watch that awkward ending.

268

I'm re-reading "Atlas Shrugged" as I'm a bit afraid to see the movie.  I have to say, Ayn Rand understood nothing, absolutely NOTHING about showing versus telling.  She refused to let the reader think about anything for himself so I'd guess at least 1/3 of the book is a waste of electrons.  I'm hoping the movie will be better just because you can't drone on and on and on and on about the character's feelings when looking at a train or a mountain or a man. 

 

Contrast any 10 pages of "Atlas" with the scene in GWTW, the book of course, where Scarlett is trying to get ready for the barbecue at Twelve Oaks.  She looks at or tries on dress after dress after dress thereby revealing her anxiety over Melanie Hamilton.

269

Posted by: Socratease at August 26, 2012 01:11 PM (XbHIn)

 

I was surprised at that omission as well. Maybe they just plain ran out of time?

270

"Hey! Why all the hate for Lynch's "Dune"?"

I liked it and I actually made it through all of Herbert's Dune Chronicles.  That mini-series was so dreadful I couldn't make it mast 30 minutes of it.  I'm not much for critiquing costume design, but WTF was that??

271 225 Did anyone ever make a movie of Cardinal of the Kremlin (Clancy)? I liked that book when I read it. Posted by: Y-not at August 26, 2012 12:54 PM (5H6zj) No. The character made it into Sum of All Fears, but that book hasn't been filmed, that I am aware of anyway. I liked the book.

272 enjoyed the book/TV mini-series based on "Winds of War" by Herman Wouk. It's my last memory of Robert Mitchum.

273 Despite his going all Truther, why haven't Vachss' Burke novels gone to the screen? Hollywood is hurting for content.

274 "I was surprised at that omission as well. Maybe they just plain ran out of time?

 

Posted by: Polliwogette, teahada hobbit who wants some R & R at August 26, 2012 01:14 PM (8sEhR)"

 

Peter J. said he never really liked that part of the book.  Which is really unfortunate.  As if that painfully stupid slowmo reunion of the fellowship in Frodo's bedroom with the diffused lighting and hobbits jumping around on the bed is even fucking watchable.

275 " could it be that the translation is bad with "the girl with the dragon tattoo"? How else could that stinker be so popular?

Posted by: AgMike at August 26, 2012 12:55 PM (iEFSi)"

 

///////-----Bad writing doesn't prevent bestsellerdom. Think of the DaVinci Code. That sold like choom at an OWS hoedown.

276 I'm re-reading "Atlas Shrugged" as I'm a bit afraid to see the movie.


The first movie was pretty good. And yes, they got rid of a lot of Ayn Rand's written diarrhea.

277 "Anyone who says "Gone With the Wind" was a better movie than book is wrong, just so very wrong, wrongety, wrongety, wrong."

Right

278

Posted by: Burn the Witch at August 26, 2012 01:11 PM (eoedh)

 

That's a lot of what drew me into  Jordans'  Wheel of Time series.  It was an old world with a lot of fascinating hints at what had once been.  It seems like Eddings was one of the few with long series at that time and he even admitted *in book* that his world was fairly static. The difference was enormous, particularly since my main interest in sci-fi and fantasy series is how the author builds the world.

279 Goldfinger. The classic bond movie . The classic bad bond novel . Word.

280 For me the flaws of the LotR movies are that it's too dark and too battle-oriented at the expense of painting a picture of what old Middle Earth was... and therefore of what was at stake. Much of LotR is about the coming age of men and the passing of the old age, but very little of that is portrayed in the movies. I can watch the movies, but mostly as a stand-alone exercise. I certainly think they are the best effort to date, but they don't ring true in their depiction of Middle Earth for me.

281 #269 Maybe they just plain ran out of time? Or budget? The pace of the ending after the ring is destroyed just feels rushed compared to the rest, like they were running out of something.

282 One book that I really liked was Anton Myrer's "Once An Eagle. That was one case where the TV mini-series did not live up to the book.

283

M*A*S*H*

The movie was great, the book and the TV series sucked ass.

284 I loved the Princess Bride book.  It can't be compared to the movie at all.  Like Eaters of the Dead and the Thirteenth Warrior film.  Completely different, but separately really good.

Funny enough, both of the books for those movies were more talky, pseudo-scholarly than the movies, which had more action.

I actually carry The Princess Bride in my car for tradition.

285 279 Goldfinger. The classic bond movie . The classic bad bond novel . Word. Posted by: DrDrill at August 26, 2012 01:19 PM (ncg63) Yes, they plugged the plot hole of the impossibility of transferring the gold.

286 Wonderful story, beautifully told. Posted by: Bingo at August 26, 2012 12:14 PM (YrSL3) Totally agree about Brideshead Revisited. By the way, no one should even contemplate seeing the crap movie remake they did a couple of years ago without reading Barbara Nicolosi's review of it. Opening line: "How dare they."

287

To Tonestaple: Atlas Shrugged Part Two is being released in October. I can't figure out why they didn't just make a miniseries out of it to be shown on HBO or Showtime. Theatrical releases of a book in dribs and drabs is self-defeating imho. It wasn't written as a trilogy.

I thought the actor who played Reardon in Part I was hot in a Gary Sinise kind of way.

288 I was left with impression that Bombadil was there to remind us that there were older things in the world unconcerned with whatever Elves and Men were up to. Has anyone expounded on the other Istari who went East?

289 As if that painfully stupid slowmo reunion of the fellowship in Frodo's bedroom with the diffused lighting and hobbits jumping around on the bed is even fucking watchable.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at August 26, 2012 01:17 PM (eoedh)

 

Lol.  Yeah, it's a shame that he let his personal preference get in the way of the story. I'd guess it happens a lot though. Maybe why so often the  movies  *aren't* as good as the  books? 

290 259 Y-not @ 225, I don't think so. That's one of the few Clancy books I haven't read. --- It's been a lot of years since i read it, but that was my second favorite Clancy book. I hated the one about the drug running (was that Sum of All Fears)? Not a huge fan of Patriot Games, but I found the movie version to be a little more tolerable than the book.

291

"It seems like Eddings was one of the few with long series at that time and he even admitted *in book* that his world was fairly static."

 

I read Edding's Belgariad and Malloreon and enjoyed it enough, but it really lacked depth even though it took him 10 books.  Then he did that Sparhawk series (whatever it's called) and it was like he just rehashed that previous 10 book series down into fewer books.  Hell, even the maps were the damn same, not to mention major plot devices.

292 No way I'm reading the whole thread. Gotta go with epobirs. The mini series is the way to go on the novels. Shogun a perfect example. They've screwed up every Clancy movie and the Bourne series, puhlease. Got to a friends house towards the end of Identity. Book, puts on a disguise and slips into Treadstone. Movie, chase scene, car crashes etc. Refused to watch any Bourne movie after that.

293

Two cheers, at least, for the David Lynch version of "Dune".  The Dino de Laurentis version was a turgid mess.  There were some great visual effects that were better than the miniseries, but they really butchered the story.

 

Dino version:

Guild navigators "folding space", it was just a big cosmic shit.

Dino version:

Personal body shields were really cool

Dino version:

When Paul met Shadout Mapes in the fortress on Arrakis when the Atreides arrived,  we all about busted out laughing at the theater.

Dino version:

Joe Ferrer as the Emperor was just about unbelievable.  They were playing a video game at the end fighting the forces of M'uad Dib.

294 On the Hobbit. Do I need to do a spoiler alert? I'm thinking that part of the Hobbit the movie will create a backstory or otherwise alter the character/plot line of the guy who kills Smaug. In a movie, you absolutely can't have the main villain killed by a walk - on. It would be completely unsatisfying. That's my thought.

295 >>>Did anybody read the book "LA Confidential" was based on? The author was quite complimentary of the screenplay, but I don't know if the book was better or not. Yes. The book is unnecessarily long and confusing, with numerous uninteresting subplots. The screenwriters did an excellent job whittling it down. Again, I can't wait until LA Noir airs with Zombie Shane, which is also based on a book. Simon Pegg is in it, too, which seems strange.

296 "Contact" was at least as good a movie as the book. There were a number of changes made, but they were appropriate to keep the story moving in the screen format, and the heart of the book was well-represented.

297 Nerd post up.

298 "Last of the Mohicans." Movie: brilliant. Book, not so much. Cooper is sort of our Scott, wildly popular in his own time and almost unreadable now.

299 The mjor problem with WOT was Jordon got sidetracked with far too many correctors and sub-plots.


And I positively hated the repeated Nynaeve hair pulling.  It really started slowing down after the 3rd book and did not pick back up until near the end. I regretted starting the series after about the 6th book. 

300 So excited to know Wolf Hall is going to be made into a movie! I love Cromwell...he is awesomely ruthless. I hope it does well enough so that Bring up the Bodies is made too.

301 Damn auto correct "characters" dammit.

302

Posted by: Burn the Witch at August 26, 2012 01:22 PM (eoedh)

 

Exactly. They only wrote one series but somehow managed to get paid four times for doing so.  Mind you, I liked and re-read the non-Sparhawk series (and I liked the Sparhawk one well enough, just didn't reread it), but there's no question they were repetative.  That's what made the richness of Jordan's world so compelling for me.

303 Finally, I'm in total agreement with Dave in Fla. I've reading LoTR three times and each time found it unreadable (if that makes sense) with th exception of the big spider part. Movies are better. I don't mind the changes they made, I thought they made sense for the genre switch. OSC thinks that removing the scouring of the shire destroys the whole moral lesson of the books, but I really can't see how you could end the series with that in a movie.

304 #134 -Emma Thompson is a little. A quite fine version of Pygmallion with a lovely and talented Wendy Hiller as Eliza and Leslie Howard as Doolittle was made in the 40's. I much prefer it to the musical "My Fair Lady"

305

"Posted by: Y-not at August 26, 2012 01:19 PM (5H6zj)"

 

Agreed, but I don't even know if that's possible to do in the medium of film, for today's audiences, or in under 6 films.

 

I'd love to see Luthien and Beren's story from The Silmarillion done.  Oh, and the story of Turin.  Talk about an epic story with a really tragic ending.

306 Despite his going all Truther, why haven't Vachss' Burke novels gone to the screen?

---

Excellent question.  I love the Burke series.  (Even though I didn't realize the last book was in fact THE LAST book.)

307 Book, not so much. I like the Natty Bumppo books, even the one where he dies. One of best lines in a movie review that I have read was "Most running and shooting since Last of the Mohicans."

308

# 134

The usual gripes about the movie My Fair Lady is that Audrey Hepburn was too ladylike and Continental to play a Cockney flower girl.  Also, she didn't do her own singing.  I have to agree, even though I like Audrey.

 

The movie musical's ending is actually the same as then one in the first movie version of Pygmalion, starring Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard.  You might want to check that out.  On the downside, it's in black and white, and there are no great songs.

309 #300 Now who will be cast as Cromwell? That is the big question.

310 Matilda.  A so-so Roald Dahl children's book was made into a darkly humorous movie, directed by and starring Danny Devito.  The wicked teacher is truly frightening.  The film got many poor reviews, but I think it is truly brilliant.
Bridges of Madison County.  A horribly written book was enhanced by Clint Eastwood's artistry.
Doctor Strangelove.  Was based on a totally serious thriller called Red Alert, which was published at the same time as another thriller on the same subject called Fail Safe, which was also made into a movie, now largely forgotten.

311 bump

312 Clancy drug running book was Clear and Present Danger. They screwed that one up too. I don't understand why they change things in the movies like bombs going off in the wrong towns, subs sunk by different methods and worse.

313

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 01:26 PM (YdQQY)

 

Totally agree. I'll read them *one time* once Sanderson's finished the series. Speaking of Sanderson, Has anyone else read his new seies? There was only one book a year or so ago and I don't know if he's gotten any farther.

314 My Fair Lady. I'm not a big fan of Lerner and Lowe. If anyone hasn't seen it, you should look up the SNL skit with Howard Cosell where they do a send up of My Fair Lady, only Cosell is trying to make a newscaster. Fricken' hysterical. The entire Cosell SNL is just about the best entire episode. It's got the "Run, Walk, and Throw like a Girl Olympics." too.

315 Kathy, I love Babette's Feast too. The snark in the story somehow disappears in the movie. Same thing happens in Houston's "The Dead." Joyce's original story was pure snark--he hated the people his fellow Dubliners. Somehow putting them on screen turned the whole thing on its head. They actually become sympathetic, and the story becomes poignant.

316 #307 But did you ever see such awesome running and shooting?

317 Y-not, you're thinking of Clear and Present Danger. Sum of All Fears was about terrorists trying to blow up the Super Bowl with a nuclear weapon. I liked that one.

318 The Shawshank Redemption.  The film makes a few changes to the novella by Stephen King; for example, in the book there is one warden after another, and in the film only one.  And the film has wonderful use of an aria by Mozart.

319 Then he did that Sparhawk series (whatever it's called) and it was like he just rehashed that previous 10 book series down into fewer books. Hell, even the maps were the damn same, not to mention major plot devices.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at August 26, 2012 01:22 PM (eoedh)

LOL, I read the Sparhawk series first (Elenium series) and thought it was better than Belgariad and Malloreon.  It had a lot of humor in it.

But Eddings openly admits that all of his plots are the same.  He tells his critics that once he found a good plot he kept it.  He only has one book that deviates from his plot line, The Redemption of Althalus. 

320 Fail Safe, which was also made into a movie, now largely forgotten. Unfortunate. A very good movie.

321 Good question 309! No idea. The actor who played him in the Tudors wasn't charismatic or threatening enough, imo.

322 #239

Watchmen is merely the most widely read of Moore's work. He has done a vast amount in addition. Yes, Watchmen was an examination of the genre as well as other things. A big part of it was Moore presented with a bunch of characters DC's then Editor in Chief had convinced the parent company to acquired from the remnants of a publisher he'd worked at in the 60s. His idea was to create a separate universe under Moore's creative direction to let him do stuff he couldn't with the main DC universe.

Moore came back with a proposal and synopsis Giordano loved but would never be able to sell to his bosses since it killed a lot of the characters and didn't lend itself to a long term future. So Moore create new analogues to the characters. Blue Beetle became Nite Owl, Capt. Atom became Dr. Manhatten, The Question became Rorschach, Nightshade became Silk Spectre, and so on.

This wasn't Moore's first go around with deconstruction. Marvel Man (Miracle Man in the US.) was the UK version of Capt. Marvel (as in Shazam) created after DC comics sued Fawcett, the publisher of Capt. Marvel into dissolution on the claim the Capt. Marvel was a ripoff of Superman. This was blatantly untrue and the real complaint was that the Shazam comics were outselling the Superman books. Anyway, Moore read a lot of Marvel Man as a child and had long dreamed of doing stories of his own when a publisher he worked with one day announced he'd acquired the rights. Moore had long had a idea of a middle-age man wandering London, trying to remember his magic word.

The new Marvel Man picked up on that. Decades after believing his adventures as MM were just childhood dreams, Michael Moran says "Kimota" (Atomic as viewed through the back of a glass door panel) and Marvel Man is back. But nobody remembers there ever having been a Marvel Man and Moran soon realizes his remembered origins and adventures are completely ridiculous. Something only a small child could believe. Yet Marvel Man exists and some people in the government are very displeased about it.

So the lead character soon has to confront the fact that not only are his memories manufactured but by a very bad writer as well.

It was a great series that stood head and shoulders above anything else in the superhero genre back then. Much of it may seem familiar today but only because it has been ripped off so much by lesser writers.

There is plenty else to look at. The series that introduced Moore to American readers was Swamp Thing. This was a character that had been around since the early 70s that could never quite find a reason to exist. He was a man who'd become a monster and sought to regain his humanity. Moore saw this as the essential defect, if the character's quest was fulfilled the story was over, which wasn't a good thing for a monthly series. So you knew the character could never succeed and would simply limp along "as a Hamlet covered in snot."

When Moore was offered the book it also had the problem of the last issue ending with the Swamp Thing taking a shotgun blast to the head and being apparently dead. Moore wrote a story called 'The Anatomy Lesson' that completely redefined the character and gave him and the series a reason to exist, making it one of the stars of the DC lineup. DC's expansion into more adult oriented stories and eventually creating the Vertigo imprint can primarily traced back to Moore's Swamp Thing showing what could be done.

Moore has his problems. He remains a commie at heart, for one. But James Cameron on the best day of his life could not write a convincing human being at anything like Moore's level.

323

OT re Isaac: AP, still in denial, says it's heading for "South Florida", while NPR has gone to the next stage of grieving and says "Mobile".

Unless they mave moved Mobile Bay to the mouth of the Mississippi, the computer models I see are saying "New Orleans"!  Isaac is going to go from being the "Wrath of God against the H8ters" to what...  Karl Rove's one last joyride at the controls of the Hurricane Machine?

Dick Cheney: "BUWAHAHAHAAA!!"

324 #292 They've screwed up every Clancy movie and the Bourne series... I like the first Bourne, but could see where the rest were headed: Evil CIA, evil corporations, blah blah blah. Same with Jumper, original book had him fighting Islamist terrorists. Can't have that, let's make them Christian fundamentalist extremists instead. Liberals ruin everything.

325 283 M*A*S*H* The movie was great, the book and the TV series sucked ass. Posted by: Dogbert at August 26, 2012 01:20 PM (g7vVd) That, could be it's own very, very long thread.

326 Totally agree. I'll read them *one time* once Sanderson's finished the series. Speaking of Sanderson, Has anyone else read his new seies? There was only one book a year or so ago and I don't know if he's gotten any farther.

Posted by: Polliwogette, teahada hobbit who wants some R & R at August 26, 2012 01:31 PM (8sEhR)

He has 3 series going now

327 309', M Ironsides

328 252

Bombadil isn't a red herring in the book. He's important to understanding Tolkien's view of magic in Middle-Earth, and to establish age, history, and myth in the world. That's all important as a part of world-building. It also makes the Hobbits rescue from the Barrows something other than an ass-pull.

That said, I can understand why the scene was cut from the movies, and agree. Unlike Two Towers, which I thought was an egregious bunch of change-for-the-sake-of-change. Elves at Helm's Deep? Gandalf telling them Helm's Deep was BAD? The Hobbits at Osbiliath? Turning Faramir into a Boromir clone, so all the humans could look just as evil? *facepalms*

Never liked Princess Bride the book, and I do enjoy the movie. Also thought Forrest Gump the book was simply dreadful. And I agree that the Godfathers were all better movies than the book. But the book was good.

I don't hate Lloyd's Dune stylistically. But too much is cut for it to be a good adaptation. I'd want something with the mini-series' depth, with the movie's visuals.

329 Over the years I've come to realize that Jaws the movie is really very bad. Totally unrealistic shark and shark behavior, the locals are portrayed as idiots. Other than the score I think it blows big time.

330

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 01:37 PM (YdQQY)

 

It doesn't help much then that I can't remember the name of the series then. Maybe I'll check Amazon and see what they say about his recent stuff since I haven't been to the library in a year.

331 #310

To understand how Red Alert became Dr. Strangelove you have to learn about the legendary Terry Southern. The man was the funhouse mirror of screenwriters. Anything he did would be bizarre and twisted compared to the source material but amusing.

A guy I knew long ago, Earl Dowd, was a comedy writer who had a lot of Terry Southern stories. Try to imagine someone like the Joker who manages to avoid crime and stay out of jail. Mostly.

332 I liked the Sum/Fears book Erik. Refused to watch the movie when I saw the trailer had the bomb going off back east. Just said to myself "They did it again". Red October was pretty decent till the alpha got sunk by its own torpedo. And they sure did the series a favor getting rid of Baldwin and bringing in Ford. They screwed up the whole Clear/Present movie with wrong helicopter "rescue" towards the end. Wrong place. No Buck Zimmer getting killed. Noe they can't tie that into Ex. Orders. Arrrrgh

333 Last of the Mohicans. I really enjoyed that movie. I love the old Arthurian romances, so after seeing the movie I thought "hey, Cooper was doing heroic romance set in colonial America, I should really read his books." Ugh. If you ever made the same mistake, you really owe it to yourself to find Mark Twain's takedown of Cooper. Each successive sentence in that essay is the meanest thing you've ever read from one writer about another writer, until you get to the next sentence. It is the most brutally hilarious thing ever.

334 The best aspects of M.A.S.H. the book didn't make it into either the movie or the TV series. Technically, if you really pay attention, some bits are in the movie but Altman's everybody chattering away simultaneously style made it very easy to miss.

The critical difference is that the book was about Hooker's experience in Korea, and the movie and TV series were only using Korea as a disguise for Vietnam.

335

If the author of a sreenplay has his work effed up by the producer/director,  they have a right to change the name on the credits. One Sci-fi author wrote a script for a "generation ship" story, ala Heinlein, and the idiots screwed it up so badly that he insisted that credit for writing the mess went to "Cordwainer Bird".

 

If I remember correctly the characters found the control room of the space ship in the first episode. Which sort of messes up the plotline, I would think.

336 #329

It was a monster movie, like Godzilla or King Kong. That great white sharks actually exist was purely coincidental.

337 Totally agree, teej. I can't improve on what you said. Sometimes I wonder if Rainbow Six would have made a decent flick.

338 I joined a classic book group at Goodreads and we're spending August-September reading Anna Karenina. After that I'll spend a couple of hours watching it on film. The book better be superior to the movie. I read Benchley's Jaws as a kid and liked it, but it probably wouldn't hold up now.

339 I guess what happens with me is I hate it when they change important stuff in books I love. Bombadil is one more example. They only change that didn't bother me in LOTR was more of Lady Arsenic Evenstar. Liv Tyler. Yum!

340 Damn phone. Arwen you pos. And 6 could be a good flick IF they do it right.

341 Going to the library folks to get Lonesome Dove. bbl.

342 Tom Bombadill...

To come to Peter Jackson's defense, he was forced to leave out a lot of the LOTR books that he really wanted to keep in the movie. But the problem was that a movie that was true to the book would be about 56 hours long (not counting bathroom breaks). He was forced to cut out everything that was not directly related to getting the ring to its final destination.

As for the movie version of Starship Troopers, if they had called it "Babes in Space" or something else, and changed the names of the main characters, I'd probably watch it. But I will never watch a movie made by someone trying to take advantage of a great book's name just to make a buck (and that goes for Clear and Present Danger, too).

343 William Golding's "Princess Bride" would be one *strange* book:

Kill the princess!
Cut her throat!
Spill her blood!

344 Any bets on whether or not they'd make the group that wants to kill off most of the population out to be the good guys?

345

@336 it stunk, simple cartoonish characters combined with an implausible storyline. way over-rated, and I used to be one who rated it highly. it doesn't hold up.

346 #335

That would be Harlan Ellison.  The TV series you're thinking of was 'The Starlost.' The first time the Bird name appeared was an episode of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.' He also wrote an episode of 'Burke's Law' in which a character had the name.

Ben Bova, who'd been science consultant on the series, wrote a nasty book about the experience of working on 'The Starlost' and TV in general, entitled 'The Starcrossed.' I recall another pardoy somewhere called 'The Plotlost.'

347 Be glad you didn't roadrunner. On top of everything else wrong in that movie, take Clancy's physical description of John Kelly, now have him played by DeFoe.

348

I couldn't disagree more with the choice of "Forrest Gump" in this list.  I believe it to be perhaps the funniest book written in English.  If I had not seen the film first, I would have thought it was a piece of crap compared to the book.  As OregonMuse points out, the book comes from an entirely different point of view than the film.  In the book Forrest Gump is a 6'5" wrecking ball of a man, but more than a bit slow upstairs.  Tom Hanks would not be a mental image of the character I would have had.  But the fact is that the book is written from the point of view of an 'idiot', so there are several idiotic things in there (to wit the BS chess moves).  Gump is an idiot savant, so he has never studied chess, he just goes out there and plays, but he supposes he has to have names for his moves so he just makes shit up. The whole story is about a guy who has one incredible gift (the ability to just 'get' incredibly complex mathmatical formulas) but otherwise is an actual moron.  He manages to screw up everything in his life through this simple fact. 

On the other hand, the film managed to turn all this around and make it into some sort of baby-boomer happy fest.  Not to put out too many spoilers for those who might want to read the book (although after the trashing it has recieved in this article one wouldn't want to) but basically the only things that the book and the film share in common are the names of some of the principle characters, and there is some stuff about football and Vietnam in the book as well.  I would recommend the book without reservation, and I will gladly debate the specifics if anyone thinks the film was better than the book. 

349 347
I'd heard that they turned John Kelly (ex-Navy SEAL, man of honor, etc.) into a murderous mercenary. That was enough to keep me away from  the movie.

I'd truly love it if Tom Clancy produced/directed Without Remorse, telling the back story of John Kelly. I'm pretty sure he would stay faithful to the book.

350 Barack is selling mugs.... with a photo of his birth cert on it. Take another victory lap Prez! Link in nick.

351 Be glad you didn't roadrunner. On top of everything else wrong in that movie, take Clancy's physical description of John Kelly, now have him played by DeFoe.

 

Posted by: teej at August 26, 2012 02:04 PM (QbKVX)

 

 

Roadrunner?

352 Doctor Strangelove. Was based on a totally serious thriller called Red Alert, which was published at the same time as another thriller on the same subject called Fail Safe, which was also made into a movie, now largely forgotten.

I remember "Fail Safe" well. Mike Royko once called it his favorite movie, because New York gets nuked in the final scene.

353 351
He was answering one of my posts.

354 The funny thing about Forrest Gump the book is that it was given to me along with several others by a friend who was reducing his possessions in preparation for moving to a new home. I read Gump and thought it so-so. Then a couple years later there is this huge movie.

One of the other books in that pile was Mott the Hoople. This was easily as good of a humorous novel but is now mostly remembered only for inspiring the name of a band that is itself barely remembered.

355 Unlike Two Towers, which I thought was an egregious bunch of change-for-the-sake-of-change. --- Yeah, I agree with that. Thx for clearing me up on the Clancy drug runner book. 'Not sure if I've read Sum of All Fears.

356 Did I get that wrong Erik? Thought he said he refused to watch Clear & Present at the end of a post.

357 Have any of the Morons read Lonesome Dove the boo? If so, how does it compare to the min-series which was great.

Posted by: Vic at August 26, 2012 12:14 PM (YdQQY)

The only thing that I can add to what the other morons have said is that McMurtry was involved in the screenplay for the mini-series which, along with the superb cast. helped make it such an outstanding experience.

I'll never forget my experience of watching it for the first time.  A friend of mine asked me if I was gonna watch it and I said "Why should I do that?"  He told me that Robert Duval was in it and I was like "so fucking what" (yes, I was really fucking stupid about some things then).  But he convinced me to program my video recorder to catch it while I watched stuff like Married With Children.  I remember switching over to it at one point and what I saw looked pretty fucking violent so I thought it was pretty cool that I was recording it.  Anyway I got 'em all (including changing the tape for the last episode) but then let it just sit unwatched for months.  Finally on a Saturday night in February I started watching at 10 o'clock in the evening.  I got so hooked that I stayed up until 2 watching the first 3 episodes and then woke up before 7 to come down and watch the last one; after which I started watching it again.  I still watch the DVD of it every now and then even though I know just about the whole thing by heart.

358 Oh, my bad. I thought some stealth movie was made about Without Remorse that I didn't know about.

359 "Sometimes I wonder if Rainbow Six would have made a decent flick." Environmentalist extremists trying to exterminate humanity? Hollywood would never allow it to be made. (Unless they changed the antagonists to Christians.)

360 #359

They did make that movie. It was called 'Moonraker.' Also wildly different than the source material.

361 342 To come to Peter Jackson's defense, he was forced to leave out a lot of the LOTR books that he really wanted to keep in the movie. But the problem was that a movie that was true to the book would be about 56 hours long (not counting bathroom breaks).

--------

You say that as if it were a bad thing.

362 All of Clancy's books are good Y-not. Please read the Jack Ryan series in order if you can. Where do you guys think would be the best place to slip in Without Remorse?

363 Dr. Strangelove was based on the eponymous comic novel by Terry Southern.

Film better than book: BBC miniseries called "Piece of Cake" (about RAF in WWII) much better than source material.  Ditto for a BBC series called "House of Cards" (about skullduggery among MPs).

364 I'd truly love it if Tom Clancy produced/directed Without Remorse, telling the back story of John Kelly.

I think Without Remorse would make a great movie too.

365

One of the things I most lament in my life is that the Sunday Book Thread always gets posted while I am at church, and I always end up getting in on it at the very tail end; however, I am most appreciative for the many recommendations put forth in this thread, as it has expanded my library and literary world tremendously.

 

One book that I found that actually complemented the movie (and vice versa) was Father Sky, the book the movie "Taps" was based on. I saw the movie first, then read the book, and found that after the 2 a whole story emerged, and was actually pretty good.

 

As far as the Lord of the Rings movies go, I thought that the movies were visual representations of the book. Sure, there were parts of the book left out of the movies, but overall the movies were what, in my mind, the books represented. I cannot wait for "The Hobbit" to come out. 

366 @331 #310 To understand how Red Alert became Dr. Strangelove you have to learn about the legendary Terry Southern. The man was the funhouse mirror of screenwriters. Anything he did would be bizarre and twisted compared to the source material but amusing. A guy I knew long ago, Earl Dowd, was a comedy writer who had a lot of Terry Southern stories. Try to imagine someone like the Joker who manages to avoid crime and stay out of jail. Mostly. Posted by: epobirs at August 26, 2012 01:41 PM (kcfmt) Terry Southern wrote a couple of books that became movies- "Candy"- a picaresque comedy about an incredibly beautiful/incredibly stupid girl getting serially porked. The book holds up reasonably well, but the movie is just awful. Probably to work it would just about have to be hardcore porn. "The Magic Christian"- rich guy, Guy Grand, uses his vast fortune to play practical jokes on the American public. Despite some outdated references, still holds up well. The movie is...okay. Some parts work well. And peter Sellers is great as Guy Grand. In the right hands, (i.e.. not a committed libtard), this would be a fantastic remake. "Blue Movie"- rather dark comedy about the making a porno with a well known star. Never been made as a movie, but it's time is now if again not made by a committed libtard. Also, for a brave enough (fading star) actress, this is pretty much a guarranteed Oscar winning part. Pretty dark though.

367 I just can't think of an actor today that could pull of Kelly. Have to find a real seal, a big one, with some acting ability.

368 I don't know if any of you morons remember it but in the mini-series of Lonesome Dove there was a scene that was included in the trailer that was left out of the final cut.  It was when Gus was chasing after Blue Duck and Loreena Woods; he came upon somebody who was butchering buffalo in the middle of nowhere.  It's in the book and in the trailer you can see this giant pile of bloody bones at the bottom of which is some guy that Gus is saying to "I'm looking for an Indian and a white woman".  The scene itself is visually compelling, which is probably why it's in the trailer and I have no idea why it didn't make the cut but I haven't found it on any DVDs.  And yes, it's a scene from the book.

369 Clint Walker in his prime might have been able to pull it off. Would have to learn how to play a smart guy though.

370 Great just had a power pause. Now I gotta reset everything. If it was raining I'd accuse Cheney of sending Isaac up here.

371 Epobirs, the Kathy Reichs reference in Bones did crack me up.

372 283

M*A*S*H the book is far and away the more satirical, darker and true depiction of the black humor of war than Altman's anti-Vietnam war comedy.

373 I recall being much taken with the book "The Bedford Incident." The movie was also pretty good. Best scene: Captain, speaking to reporter "...but if he fires one I'll fire one." Over-trained ensign in the background: "Fire one!" and launches a torpedo at the Russian sub.

But Poitier was an irritant. There was nothing about the reporter's race in the book, and just throwing him into the role was both too much and too little in 1965: you kept expecting something racial to happen and it never did.

374 Alan Parker's 1987 Angel Heart (Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet ...) is better than the novel. The book was called Falling Angel and was written by William Hjortsberg, who also did the screenplay. I highly recommend both book and film.

375 And here's a no brainer: The 1974 Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 smokes John Godey's novel And the 2009 remake with John Travolta sucked like a vacuum cleaner that can't hit a curveball.

376

Cut the author of  Forrest Gump some slack.  Winston Groom, although born in Washington D.C., was raised in Alabama, and went to the University of Alabama.  Went through ROTC and graduated in 1965, just in time for a "senior class" trip to the Nam.  Served from 1965 to 1969.

 

His first novel "Better Times Than These" was a very good one, and well worth reading.

 

For you rammer jammer yellowhammer type morons, well he's written two historys of University of Alabama football.

377 Thanks to whoever suggested P.J. O'Rourkes' version of Wealthof Nations. I've been sent to bed with a cold (by my ten year old) and am laughing my self silly. It's subtitled something about books thst changed the world. Does this mean there's a chance O'Rourke will do more?

378 I'm sure others have pointed it out, but Peter Benchley was Robert's grandson. He was Nathaniel Benchley 's son.

379

#368  I was going to write about Lonesome Dove when I saw this topic.  There were many scenes in the book that weren't in the TV series, and they especially changed the ending pretty dramatically.  Hated the TV ending, but other than that the TV series was actually better than the book, and I never thought that would be possible after I read the book 3 times.  I never get tired of either.

 

Last night Mr. Rockmom and I watched "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and it was terrific.  Read the book 25 years ago so I can't really compare the two today, but I really liked the movie a lot. 

 

Two years ago my son had to read "Rebecca" for English class.  He loved the book so I bought the DVD of the movie, which I have seen many times.  He loved the movie too. 

380 #377

IIRC, O'Rourke did this for a conservative think tank (AEI?) and the series is intended to have various contributors making major works more accessible. So there may be other but not necessarily by O'Rourke.

381 #374

William Hjortsberg also did an SF novel called 'Gray Matters' that I have absolutely no doubt was read by the Wachowski Brothers before they came up with The Matrix.

In the future the majority of the world's population exists as immortal brains in nutrient tanks living in computer generated fantasy worlds. This was published in 1979 and way ahead of the curve in a lot of ways.

http://tinyurl.com/93np3mk

382 Back folks

383 On top of everything else wrong in that movie, take Clancy's physical description of John Kelly, now have him played by DeFoe.

Posted by: teej at August 26, 2012 02:04 PM (QbKVX)

I agree. I always thought that was the worst case of miscasting I had ever seen.

384 Clancy......ugh. First few books are great, he literally created the technothriller. Some of the individual scenes are frickin' awesome (Ding's squad fighting the night battle against the cartel gunmen, the Russkies defending their ABM research facility against the muj, the school shootout between the Secret Service and the jihadis trying to kidnap Ryan's kids), but for at least 20 years the man has SERIOUSLY needed a good editor with the balls to tell Clancy what parts of his books suck, and which parts painfully contradict his earlier writing. The last one I read was "Teeth of the Tiger" which was an epic ball of suck, wrapped in a jacket of fail, and covered in steaming monkey crap.

385 OpenBlogger, you're suffering from "First interaction" syndrome. Studies show (really) that the way you first encounter a work of fiction/drama is the one you will prefer almost always. Princess Bride, the book, is so superior to the movie it isn't funny. Actually, it is funny. The book is way funnier than the movie. The interruptions by Goldman were a part of a brilliant layered narration device that was so effective Orson Scott Card used that book as his primary work in a writing class he taught at Notre Dame. Of course, I read the book before I saw the movie so, hence, my comments. But I can tell you this: after having taught it to high school freshmen for years before the movie came out, and then taking 125 of them to watch it when it did come out (on a field trip), they actually booed at certain parts of the movie, especially the line about the kiss. To each his own, I suppose. But really, Princess Bride the book runs rings around Princess Bride the movie.

386 I couldn't read Princess Bride it was so bad.


BTW Morons, I can see where  Amazon thinks it is justified in charging $13 for the Lonesome Dove e-book, that is a thick book. 


However, it doesn't cost any more for those electrons.  The only publisher who is pricing their stuff fair is Baen.

387 BTW, I have never watched the movie Princess Pride so it isn't a case of first "watch". .

388 Joy Luck Club was a better movie than book. Of course, Amy Tan wrote both the book and the screenplay. It remains my favorite movie, and I weep through the entire film, from the very opening credits when she tells the story of the woman who bought a swan for a foolish price, a goose that stretched its neck too far in hope and became something too beautiful to eat. I can't even tell someone about it without choking up. The book is just not as impactful as the movie in terms of plot line and continuity. Telling eight women's stories, the four mothers and then their daughters and how the former informed the latter's experience, moved much smoother and was more direct in the movie. The movie so perfectly encapsulates the mother-daughter relationship fraught with perils: the mother's hopes for her child, and the daughters desire to please her mother and yet be independent of her.

389 Y-Not, agree about Sense and Sensibility. Thompson added the youngest sister, which actually helps enormously in helping us see the inner workings of chars and adds humorous bits. And Alan Rickman is a smouldering hunk of wonderful that the Brandon of the books never had. Mmmmmm. Pete in TX, I had no idea that even existed! I'll have to check it out. My biggest worry with a 3 part Hobbit movie is they will ruin the fantastic pacing of the novel. But, considering it is Peter Jackson, I'm trusting (or trying to) that he knows what he's doing and it will be fantiastic. Fingers crossed.

390

The Princess Bride was a book? Who knew? I  Guess I fit right in with the rest of the morons here.

Hey I just saw a movie titled "the Bible". Did ya ' all know it's  a book too? And the book is much better (riveting) and I'm only up to the 5th chapter!

Just kidding Ace, I love your blog.

Although I hate 'Ritchie Rich" Romney I will vote for him beacause Obama is a SCOAMF!

I hope "Ritchie Rich"  creates some jobs. Obama has not been able to do so (in fact its negative jobs under Commie boy). I'm doing OK (small biz owner) but the people who don't own companies need Jobs!

Any Chance "Ritchie Rich" can give a seminar on that Cayman Island offshore banking thingee?

I could use me some of that! I'd even skip the Obummer's seminar on the Acorn rebranding for that..

 

391

"The Godfather": Both the screenplay and the book were written by Mario Puzo, whose chief motivation for each was "I needed the money".

The book is actually a novelization of the screen play. Puzo needed a lot of filler for the book, thence the funky "big pudey" schtick for Sonny's paramour and a ton of Johnny Fontane's friend, Nino, who never even shows up in the movie versions, I or II. But there is some good stuff in the book that never made to the movies: the background on the "negotiators", Rocco Lampone, the police Capt. McCluskey and others, as well as stuff about the Sicilian mafia.

As LOTR< the movie and book are equally spectacular, though I, too miss Bombadill and the Scouring of the Shire. Bombadill would have lost half theLOTR  movie only crowd (What? he could have kept the Ring since it had no power over him?)  And "Scouring" was too non-PC! (Bad, bad socialists, sharing the wealth and polluting the hell out the Shire!!!)

392 A better book than a movie is Horatio Hornblower, with Gregory Peck.  The books  by Forester are great, a wonderful seafaring military saga.  Gregory Peck is his usual wooden self  in the flick.  The AandE Hornblower made for tv movies, with Ioan Gruffudd, are well done, though.

393 Polliwogette, don't know if you are still reading, but if you haven't, check out Sanderson's blog. He does a good job keeping people up to date on what he's writing on and where he is on projects and when he hopes they will come out. brandonsanderson.com

394 This has probably been stated, but william GOLDING wrote Lord of the Flies, not the great screenwriter William Goldman, who also wrote the fantastic book about the movie industry "adventures in the screen trade".

395 Posted by: rockmom at August 26, 2012 03:07 PM (qe2/V)


I always enjoy your takes on things and it's no surprise that you're a Lonesome Dove fan.  I'm also not surprised that you reread books, which Nabokov told his students was the only way to truly experience a work of literature.

396 For my $0.02, the movie version of the "The Firm" was more satisfying than the book. Mostly because the lead character's decision not to take the money and to allow his brother sail the ship. "Hellraiser" as a book was very bland and not scary at all. The movie is still ionteresting.

397 I liked the book better on The Firm. Most of his early works were better as the book than the movie.  However, his latest stuff sucks.

398 393 Thanks, I'll have to look it up.

399

"The Man Who Would Be King" - great film, based on a very short story.

Also, there was a film with Anthony Hopkins playing a ventriloquist whose dummy caused him to kill people. The film was pretty scary; the book not so much. I think the title was "Magic". Something like that.

400 The Last of the Mohicans

401 @31,

The SciFi mini-series of Dune was far better than the earlier movie version.

And of course Dune was the only book of the whole series which was worth a damn.

402 MaxMBJ @ 385,

Right in both the specific and general cases.

403 And of course Dune was the only book of the whole series which was worth a damn.

Posted by: Rodney Graves at August 26, 2012 05:28 PM (mKMj1)

Totally agree with both of those.

404 And of course Dune was the only book of the whole series which was worth a damn.

Posted by: Rodney Graves at August 26, 2012 05:28 PM (mKMj1)

The sequels were embarrassingly bad; whoever Herbert's editor was didn't do him any favors by greenlighting that swill.

405 I have to agree about Dune's sequels. About 2/3rds of the way through Dune Messiah, I realized Herbert was too busy philosophizing to construct a workable plot.

406 Fight Club, duh.

407

Ordinary People was an ordinary book but an excellent movie, even though Robert Redford was involved in it.

 

As to Atlas Shrugged, the whole point has nothing to do with how good the book was or wasn't.  This woman saw, more than a half-century ago, exactly where the liberal tide that would sweep this country was headed.

 

For that she deserves immense credit.  And if you can't give credit where it is due, you are either stupid or dishonest.

408 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

409 Thanks for all the material, morons and moronettes!!!

410

Lonesome Dove was incredible...the book took about 100 pages kind of setting up everything but after that was outstanding. The mini-series was teh same way. Duval and Jones were perfect....an outstanding production...

411 Yes, I had a very similar opinion of the Princess Bride, but if I'm not mistaken Goldman wrote the screenplay first, and didn't finish the book until after the film. I think he was just trolling. Although, I did like the extra detail that was added to Inigo and Fezzik's side of the story.

412 Ok - too late to get into the discussion of 'better movie than book sourced from'? Hands down, my personal pick - Exodus. Book; long, draggy, went down a lot of side-bar issues. Movie - crisp, shaved off the extraneous, followed the main story and the main personal stories straight up. Plus, Paul Newman at his nearly most movie-star spectacularly attractive. What's not to like? Seriously, I think Leon Uris needed a ruthless editor in most of his novels, anyway.

413 I have a monogrammed hanky (itnitials W.C.S) that I've been shopping around tinsel town for over a decade now. Philistines!

414 Brian De Palma did a bang-up job with Carrie! Much better than the book, King is wildly over-rated.

415 I hope we can all agree that Elrond was a dick, both in the movies and in the books. Posted by: Y-not at August 26, 2012 01:00 PM (5H6zj) He's just pissed that his twin brother decided to be human and died a few thousand years ago.

416

Interview with the Vampire.

I liked the movie.

Never been able to read the book. Too boring.

417 "The World According to Garp" is a much better movie than the book, despite having Robin Williams as a star. The movie was made before he became absolutely unwatchable. Funny how the same thing happened to Jim Carey. John Irving wrote the same book over and over again and for some reason was regarded as a Great Author back in the 1980s. If you have nothing else to do read "The World According to Garp" and "The Water Method Man" and try to remember which is which. I am going to also vote that the Lord of the Rings movies are better than the books but only because I could not make it all the way through the books due to the frequent and boring digressions. The movies let me see that there was actually a great story hidden in between all the pages full of boring sludge.

418 How about a book of a book? P.J. O'Rourke's 'On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed The World' is a very good substitute for the Adam Smith bank vault doorstop original.

Pfft.  O'Rourke's book is easily the weakest book-length thing he's written since Republican Party Animal, and if you aren't able to appreciate Smith's dry wit and relentless, exhaustive logic, then I can only pity your incapacity.

As for the actual topic, I'm going to go with the Witches of Eastwick.  The movie's a minor masterpiece of scenery-chewing and modern fantasy - the Updike novel is a squalid boomer wallow in perversity and irredeemable alt-lifestyle idiocy.

I agree with the contempt for the Winston Groom novel Forrest Gump.  His Gump is contemptible, and the book is marred by a long segue through Papua New Guinea which I can only describe as straight-up racist.

Apocalypse now is possibly better than heart of darkness.

Blasphemy!  Conrad usually writes about a third too much for his material - Nostromo in particular overstayed its welcome - but "Heart of Darkness" is a gemwork marvel, exactly the right length, the right tone, the right words.

419 2 goats find a film can (pick your movie here), nuzzle it open and proceed to eat it. 1st goat says 'whaadaaayaaa thiiiiiink'? 2nd goat says 'I liiiiiiiked the booook better'. Bottom line, opinion is all that really matters as to whether the book or the movie is 'better'. (and don't even start regarding "Starship Troopers" ;-)