Fromeo and Juliet?
I’m seeing Pam Grier and Richard Roundtree in the title roles…
Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkeban and Goblet of Fire really cut out the extemporaneous storylines nicely without destroying the integrity of the book. the stuff that was cut out,really, was filler, until He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named comes around again in the spring to try to off Harry before the end of term.
I like all the different versions of MAS*H and watched them all completely out of order of release. ( TV, book then movie. )
Can I mention that I’ve never completely made it through reading the Three Musketeers but adore the movie version and its sequel.
Treasure Island: Good.
Muppet Treasure Island:Excellent!
A Christmas Carol: Good.
A Muppet Christmas Carol: Superb.
Everything is made better with Muppets!
Hamlet: Good.
A Muppet Hamlet: Better.
The Wizard of Oz: Also good.
A Muppet Wizard of Oz: Way better.
Lord of the Rings: Quite good.
A Muppet Lord of the Rings: Wicked.
Hey, you’re right! Muppets really do make everything better!
The Shining
Although I am a fan of King’s early work, I like how Kubrick
scrapped the more supernatural element of the book and had Jack Torrance more or less just going freakin’ batshit crazy. It made it a helluva lot more frightening.
My suggestion, for Plague Dogs,
[spoiler]is just the opposite. The novel has the dogs swimming out to sea, in what is clearly a tragic, hopeless death for them that mirrors the cruel experiment performed on one of the dogs at the beginning of the book. Then, however, there’s another chapter or two, in which the author is out in his pleasure-yacht, sees the dogs, rescues them, and saves the day in one big happy family ending. It’s total cheeseball, tacked on happy ending.
The movie ends with the dogs swimming out to sea. They changed the ending to the tragedy that it needed to be.[/spoiler]
Daniel
The ending of the movie version of Stephen King’s Thinner is superior to the one in the book. Though neither is what you would call a happy ending, the movie ends with the main character doing the mean-spirited thing.
Scumpup: Yeah, but they had to tweak the plot to give Billy his motivation for that. In the book, Billy was holding a grudge against that other guy simply because he groped Billy’s wife Heidi at a drunken NYE party, and he ended up passing the curse to Heidi because she was a typical non-understanding SK wife. THEN, his beloved daughter also had a slice of pie, not knowing it was cursed, so Billy gave up and re-absorbed the curse. Definitely depressing! In the movie, Heidi and whatsisname were straightup having an affair, so he passed the curse to whatsisname the same way a jilted husband might say “Enjoy the herpes!” and that was that.
There were several changes to The Secret Garden that I did not like, but I was blindsided (in a good way, not to mention physically, since I cried so hard) to the change in the ending.
The book and movie both end with Colin’s dad returning from his gloomy wanderings to find his son out of bed and walking around healthy as a horse. But in the book, we only see this from the point of view of the gardener and the housekeeper, through the kitchen window, no less! No dialogue between father and son, and no acknowledgement of Mary and Dickon’s contribution to his recovery. Whereas in the movie, the father/son reunion takes place up close and personal, then, seeing this, Mary bursts into tears and runs off. Sure, it’s great for Colin, but she still has no parents, and has now been sent back to the trash heap. Craven goes after her, and the film ends with all four of them rejoicing. And the funny thing is, I hadn’t even realized until I saw this how lame the book ending was.
Brief plot explaination of GOF for your benefit:
Harry and his friends travel to see the Quiddich world cup. When they touch an old boot in the middle of a field they are transported to another place. The boot is a wizard transportation device called a portkey. This tells the audience what a portkey is, which will be important later.
Harry returns to school where he meets the new Dark Arts master, Moody. Moody keeps a spirits flask in his pocket, and is often seen taking sips.
Actually Moody is really one of Voldemort’s supporters in disguise. The flask actually contains polyjuice potion, which as you’ll remember from the previous movie, transforms a wizard’s appearence into someone else. The real Moody is held prisoner in his trunk (bigger on the inside) and kept alive to supply hair for the potion.
The fake Moody rigs the Goblet Of Fire to enter Harry into the tournament. Then he rigs things so that Harry will be the first to touch the goblet in the final. The Goblet is actually a portkey that transports Harry to Voldemort.
Voldemort needs Harry for a spell. A drop of Harry’s blood, plus a few other things will restore Voldemort to power. Hogwarts has many charms to protect the students and a portkey was the ONLY way to kidnap him.
All clear?