I am a fan of Preston & Childs Pendergast series, and I happened across an adaptation of the first book-“Relic”. Imagine my surprise when I discover that, of all the characters in the book Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is the one they drop. It’s like doing a version of “The Wizard Of Oz” sans Dorothy, in my opinion.
What movie from a book have you seen where your basic reaction is “What the hell did they do??”
I win. What’s the next thread?
Certainly the list of contenders for the top spot should include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. It’s amazing to look at, but the shoehorning-in of dreary ‘heroic fantasy’ tropes completely obliterates the quirky charm of the Lewis Carroll classic.
Not so fast, buckaroo-Your link says that the movie stunk like skunkweed, and that the book was horribly dated, but not that the former deviated much from the latter.
You can pick almost anything written by Stephen King but, “Graveyard Shift,” is a standout.
The Bonfire of the Vanities. 4.5* for the book,
1* for the film.
It’s not even the same story. All the acerbic commmentary that made the book great was left out or changed in the film.
The Sum of All Fears. Changes almost everything including the villain, I assume due to post 9/11 fears of stereotypes.
Every version of “The Call Of The Wild” where Thornton lives and reunites with Buck.
“Trucks” to “Maximum Overdrive” is another stinker.
However, there’s been some great films in there too, like “Green Mile” and “Shawshank Redemption”.
Two words: Frank Darabont. Also, “The Mist.”
If you haven’t seen, “1922,” yet, I highly recommend it.
I have to say that I actually LIKE the movie (I know, I know), but Logan’s Run (both the movie and the subsequent tv show) uh… i’m gonna go with ‘miss the point’ of the book(s) by a significant and almost charming degree.
Starship Troopers, of course.
Off the top of my head…
Moby Dick (1930) – Opens with page one from the novel… but “Call me Ishmael” is not the first line! Ishmael isn’t even in the film! WTF?!
The Fountainhead (1949) – Book unreadable. Movie so bad it’s good. Does it matter if it wasn’t intentional?
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – An uncommon case of taking shit writing, violating its integrity and turning it into something great.
The Quiet American (1958) – Graham Greene’s indictment of U.S. policy in Indochina (published in 1955!) turned into a distasteful whitewash of same.
Casino Royale (1967) – Bearing only superficial resemblance to the novel, the film is an extravagant scattershot farce; so overdone, it’s grotesque…and yet there is a certain beauty in the grotesque. More prime ‘60s babeage than any other flick also helps.
Of course.
Not as really horrible as the Dark Tower series.
The Lawnmower Man. As noted in the Wikipedia article: “the movie is supposedly an adaptation of Stephen King short story of the same name, but aside from a single scene, the two are completely different.” The Lawnmower Man (film) - Wikipedia
My immediate thoughts were Starship Troopers and Logan’s Run, but those were called out above in consecutive posts. Offered for your consideration: John Irving’s brilliant and heartbreaking A Prayer for Owen Meaney adapted into the execrable Simon Birch.
Is there any chance Colin Wilson’s, “Space Vampires,” is as dreadful as Lifeforce?
I’ve seen a lot of versions of, “Dracula,” but the only one that comes close to the novel is the Louis Jordan take. Langella’s movie is yuck! And Coppola’s, though very well done, might as well be a Twilight flick. Pile on.
So is the OP looking for movies that wildly deviate from the books, or just movies that suck by comparison to their source material?
The first thing I thought of was Burton’s Alice. I’m not one of those people who insists the movie must be exactly like the book, but I’d prefer it to at least capture the spirit. The moment where the Mad Hatter breakdanced (?) is quite possibly one of the worst things to ever happen on film.
Any movie with Mathilda May walking around naked can’t be all bad…