The Ten Commandments. The first part of the silent film is excellent, the second half is blah. The remake is a perfect film from beginning to end.
Ben Hur. This is a tough one, this silent film is excellent but the color talking version is just mind blowing.
I think the Harve Bennett/Nicholas Meyer reimagining of Star Trek for STII-TWOK drastically improved the direction of the overall film-franchise/series, even if certain follow-on movies and TV shows couldn’t live up to it.
I also think Deep Space 9 was far superior to TNG and Voyager, due to the dark, twisty, sometimes morally compromised storylines.
Normally you can’t go wrong with early-period Joni Mitchell, but her original version of Both Sides Now is surprisingly flat compared to the cover version by Judy Collins (or Anne Murray)
I’m probably get creamed for this, but I think the 2016 version of The Magnificent Seven" better than the original 1960 version.
(I haven’t seen The Seven Samurai.)
The 1990 version by They Might Be Giants is far, far better than the 1953 original*.
Victor/Victoria - I haven’t read the book or seen the German original but I have seen the 1935 English language remake First A Girl. It’s better than you might think, given the topic and the time, but the Julie Andrews version is much better.
I know others here disagree, but I thought the film The Razor’s Edge was better than the book despite Bill Murray’s dreadful star turn, in that the film cut out Maugham’s tediously pretentious narrator.
*Fun fact: 1953 was the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople.
Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita was a live-action dirty joke, with a full-fledged teenager cast as Dolores, no acknowledgement of Humbert’s backstory, and generally rushed through. Adrian Lyne’s Lolita had a gawky tween accurately portraying Dolores, included a flashback explaining Humbert’s arrested development, and was much better paced than SK’s version.
I’ve seen the Tyrone Power version, but not the Bill Murray version. Anyone have an opinion as to which film is better?
The Creedence Clearwater Revival version of I Heard It Through the Grapevine is superior to Marvin Gayes’ version (which may be superior to the Glady Knight and the Pips version – I’m not very familiar with that one).
OTOH the Ike and Tina Turner version of Proud Mary is superior to the CCR version.
Stephen King published a book called Different Seasons that was a compilation of four novellas.
I’ve seen only 2 of the movies, but they both (The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me) were better than the novellas.
Apt Pupil was a bit uneven but the acting from the two leads was excellent. Call it a draw between the film and the book.
The Breathing Method hasn’t had a film yet but apparently there’s one due for nexts year. IMHO it was the weakest story of the four and I’m not sure how they’re going to make a feature-length film out of it.
I shudder to say this, but I enjoy Nirvana’s version of The Man Who Sold the World more than David Bowie’s (at least the MTV concert version). And I’m sorry, Kate Bush, but Pat Benatar did Wuthering Heights much better.It’s just a touch out of your vocal range :o.
The 1940 film version of Gaslight is good, but the 1944 version with Ingrid Bergman is great. Both are based on a stage play Gas Light that I’ve never seen or read.
I could barely finish the English translation of Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. It was confusing and not very interesting. Maybe the original Russian is better, but I don’t read Russian. The David Lean movie, however, is great.
The films Planet of the Apes (already mentioned) and Bridge on the River Kwai are improvements over the novels by Pierre Boule. I’ve read both novels both in translation and part of Bridge in the original French. They’re not bad but the movies are better.
Nobody has put on a good stage show of Jesus Christ Superstar. I’m beginning to think that’s not even possible.
But Norman Jewison’s movie is amazing.
The TV-movie made from Mark Twain’s Puddin’head Wilson was, I think , better than the novel. And I’m a big fan of Twain.
Frank Darabont’s version of, “The Blob,” is light-years more fun than the Jello-poured-across-a-picture-of-a-diner version.
I would agree. In a similar vein, Wild Is The Wind was written for Johnny Mathis who had a huge hit with it, and then recorded (twice) by Nina Simone, but it’s Bowie’s version (inspired by Simone’s) that absolutely tops them all.
In a “cover by the same band” example, I much prefer the acoustic version of Creep to Radiohead’s original.
Agree with Coens’ True Grit.
Joe Cocker’s version of With a Little Help From My Friends > The Beatles’ original.
Consider yourself creamed.
Heretic.
Yes. My mind was blown, upon seeing ST2 - TWOK back when it came out (1982?). I even bought the vinyl record album of the soundtrack. I had long been a fan of ST-TOS and had seen “The Motion Picture.” But ST2 was something else entirely.
Later on, I read something that rung true: ST2, with its heavy emphasis on emotion, style, color, battles etc. was Star Trek as space opera* rather than science fiction. The TV versions continued being more like SF but the movies were henceforth more operatic.
*Space Opera…you know, like Star Wars in style (big, over the top events, heroic story lines, Wagnerian orchestral music…)