# Crap book, decent movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643 "2004-07-12T01:48:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/41 "2004-07-12T18:00:20Z")
> [@astro](#): > > But oddly he keeps selling the movie rights to them. Oh the humanity! Probably has something to do with having to pay alimony to his ex-wife. ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/42 "2004-07-12T18:36:30Z")
I mentioned **The Bourne Identity** in another thread, but it works here too. I really like the movie and I have watched it lots and lots of times. I got the book at Half Price Books for a dollar, and I think I was over charged. What crap. I really want to finish it so that I can kinda compare it to the movie, but I don’t think I ever will. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/43 "2004-07-12T19:07:58Z")
I agree with **OtakuLoki** about the Princess Bride. Movie is much better than the book. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/44 "2004-07-12T19:13:48Z")
My main one was already mentioned: _The Princess Bride_. So, I’ll bring up another one: _Mary Poppins_. The book, while not crap, is pretty darn dull. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/45 "2004-07-12T19:18:50Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > Although to be fair, I guess the Fight Club book wasn’t crap, it just was no where near as good as the movie. I disagree. The book and movie are equal in my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/46 "2004-07-12T19:30:50Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > I mentioned **The Bourne Identity** in another thread, but it works here too. I really like the movie and I have watched it lots and lots of times. I got the book at Half Price Books for a dollar, and I think I was over charged. What crap. I really want to finish it so that I can kinda compare it to the movie, but I don’t think I ever will. Blech. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. If you saw the movie first, you were set up to fail with the book because THE MOVIE WAS NOTHING LIKE THE BOOK. A few similarities at the start, and a few characters had the same names, but beyond that it’s just a stupid, 1990s-style “government is gonna kill you!” action flick with more testosterone than class. The book is about Carlos the Jackal, who is hardly a compelling villain nowadays, since he was caught a decade ago. The book is set in the early 1980s, so none of the stupid whiz-bang spy tech of the movie was possible. The book was also excellent. The second film looks to be EVEN FARTHER out from the book than the first. The Bourne Supremacy is supposed to be set in China – and once again, Bourne is not fighting the US government! Gah. That movie pissed me off. Absolutely no respect for the source material. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/47 "2004-07-12T19:57:20Z")
Timeline, though it wouldn’t be hard to surpass the book, considering what utter crap it was. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/48 "2004-07-12T20:46:45Z")
I agree with **The Man With The Golden Gun** about Timeline. No explaination worked better than ones that made no sense whatsoever, and they cut out a lot of the senseless mendering through the old world crap. \ I fail to understand why people object to the our-world characters understanding them/the old-world characters not having proper accents- the main characters have ear piece translators, remember? \ **Practical Magic** is a fairly stupid book that was turned into a watchable movie. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/49 "2004-07-12T22:05:40Z")
Although certainly not based on a “crap” book, the movie **Road to Perdition** is better than the graphic novel. To anyone who hasn’t read “The Horse Whisperer”: the OP is in fact being unnecessarily _kind_ to that awful, awful book. ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/50 "2004-07-12T22:06:17Z")
**Adaptation** , while loosely based on **The Orchid Thief** , was at least some messed up fun. I sorta liked **The Orchid Thief** , but could have done without the seemingly endless history lessons on orchids. I never knew people could get so freaked out over a flower… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/51 "2004-07-12T22:11:47Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’m just curious. Could you give some examples of SOAF being racist and facist? Well, it _does_ portray Arabs as terrorists… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/52 "2004-07-12T22:15:18Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > All of John Grisham’s books are inferior to their movies. That’s not saying much!! 😃 I loved The Princess Bride (both book and movie). ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/53 "2004-07-12T22:17:03Z")
> [@Selkie](#): > > To anyone who hasn’t read “The Horse Whisperer”: the OP is in fact being unnecessarily _kind_ to that awful, awful book. Thanks for the warning. I’ll admit that if I find a book is on the NY Times bestseller list, and I hadn’t wanted to read it before I’d heard that I avoid it. So far, so good. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/54 "2004-07-12T22:24:32Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > I loved The Princess Bride (both book and movie). I meant to make it clear I did like the book. However, the tone in the book is very different from that in the movie. I mean, the end of the book, has Wesley et al riding off into the sunset, just like the movie. But Goldman then goes on about how there’s no guarantee that Inigo’s wound wouldn’t open up, that Fezzick would likely get lost, and Wesley, himself, may be susceptible to relaspses of being dead. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/55 "2004-07-13T07:53:58Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > I meant to make it clear I did like the book. However, the tone in the book is very different from that in the movie. > > I mean, the end of the book, has Wesley et al riding off into the sunset, just like the movie. But Goldman then goes on about how there’s no guarantee that Inigo’s wound wouldn’t open up, that Fezzick would likely get lost, and Wesley, himself, may be susceptible to relaspses of being dead. I think it’s worth pointing out that everything in that spoiler box actually happened; it wasn’t a maybe. ---
**Author:** ![smam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/56 "2004-07-13T12:12:46Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I read the book version of _Jaws_. > Also, the book ends differently. Brody doesn’t kill the shark. It just kinda stops killing and leaves after eating Hooper, sparing Brody for no apparent reason. It’s a really lame ending. I am pretty sure the shark does die at the end of the book. I read it about a year ago and I remember the shark going for Brody at the end but dying due to injury and fatigue before reaching him. Still pretty lame though and yeah, the movie is far superior to the book. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/57 "2004-07-13T13:07:32Z")
Years before the movie **Mrs. Doubtfire** came out, my sister and I read Anne Fine’s YA novel **Alias Madame Doubtfire**. I remember it as being much better and funnier than the eventual screen adaptation, but my sister always mentions it as an example of a decent movie made from a lousy book. But it’s been so long now that I don’t think either one of us could swear that our memory of the book is accurate. I do recall that the kids in the book were in on the whole dad-in-drag thing pretty much from the beginning, which is far more plausible (and less insulting to the intelligence of children) than having them fail to recognize their own father. The mother in the book, however, was an unsympathetic shrew. There was a subplot in the book about how the dad was picking up some extra cash on the side by working as a nude model for an art class. I remember this as being pretty funny, although it’s probably for the best it wasn’t included in the movie. Naked Robin Williams really isn’t suitable family fare. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/58 "2004-07-13T13:36:15Z")
> [@Darwin's Finch](#): > > I’m not sure that this technically qualifies, but I thought the movie for _Jurassic Park: The Lost World_ was waaaay better than the book. Of course, the descriptor of “decent” for the movie is itself questionable… And what’s funny is Crichton wrote the book because Spielberg was going to make a sequel. But Spielberg basically disregarded the entire book (I don’t blame him). I second _Hannibal_. I’m glad they changed the ending for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/59 "2004-07-13T14:49:55Z")
> [@Rabid Child](#): > > I second _Hannibal_. I’m glad they changed the ending for the movie. I think they did write a more palatable ending for the movie, but I do hope that hidden somewhere is a reel on which they also filmed the book’s ending & that it’ll come out of some special edition DVD in 10 years. _S_ ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643/60 "2004-07-13T15:00:30Z")
> [@Cicada2003](#): > > _Midnight Cowboy._ The book by James Leo Herlihy was good, so I can’t really say it was a “crap book,” and the movie was way more than “decent.” I think it is a commonly held belief that had _Midnight Cowbaoy_ not been made into a movie the book would have received the praise it was due. Some critics rate it one of the best American post war novels. It certainly joins _Miss Lonelyhearts_, _On The Road_, _Ask The Dust_, and _Junky_ as a literate portrait of a marginalised group. Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo are afforded more humanity and dignity in the book which doesn’t wallow in the “look how daring I am” decadence of the film. Other great adaptions are: _Shrek_ from a terrifically funny childrens book. Since it is written for real children it is in worse taste than the movie and all the better for it. Less of the redeeming virtues and more of the horrific behaviour. A great effort to make a movie largely true to the spirit of the original. _The Day of the Jackal_, of course the original. The book is very good but the movie is close to perfect. Hard enough to write a thriller about a crime that failed (and we know it) but then to make a movie of that book and be thrilling. Wow. _Fever Pitch_ is another Nick Hornby (_About a Boy_) book about the relationship between a male teacher obsessed with Arsenal FC and a female teacher with no interest in sport. The book however has no story like this at all - it is a series of essays about “things”, all revolving around Arsenal’s fortunes and Hornby’s life. A kind of intertwined autobiography/sport book. The movie which stars Colin Firth is very very funny and never had the success it deserved. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-book-decent-movie/254643.md?page=4)