# Movies you liked better than the book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127 "2009-06-18T00:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/21 "2009-06-18T03:06:40Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Be more specific. Particularly as all of the movie versions are different. The adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, released in 2007 (or was it 2008)? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/22 "2009-06-18T03:20:46Z")
Fight Club (book was alright, movie was great) Minority Report (not a book, but a short story; but not an any good one, I felt). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/23 "2009-06-18T03:22:57Z")
I think **Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix** is better as a movie. It’s the worst book, in my opinion, and the movie eliminated the excess and focused on the core. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/24 "2009-06-18T03:24:13Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > The adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, released in 2007 (or was it 2008)? Do you mean 2004? [Phantom of the Opera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_of_the_Opera_(2004_film)) I thought you meant the classic with the cool makeup in Black and White. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/25 "2009-06-18T03:24:51Z")
**Goldfinger** **Pudd’n’head Wilson** , done for public TV. I prefer it to the Twain original (!) **The Day the Earth Stood Still** (the original) easily trumps Bates’ _Farewell to the Master_ **They Live** is better than Ray Nelson’s _Eight o’Clock in the Morning_ and Howard Fast is a helluva writer, but I’ll take the movie **Spartacus** over his book. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/26 "2009-06-18T03:30:14Z")
**Starship Troopers** :ducks and runs: ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/27 "2009-06-18T03:30:53Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > OK, I’ll jump on the bandwagon: **Clear and Present Danger** was a wayyyy better movie than a book. God no. For one they had to change a lot so they could keep military cooperation. So instead of a military rescue mission, Jack Ryan hires an alcoholic pilot and does it himself. Total crap. And they killed off a character that continued to be in every other book in the series. pretty much crap from beginning to end. The book was much better. The movie that come to mind when I read this thread is _Jaws_. Not a very well written book. No likable characters. Sheriff Brody is a schlub. Mrs Brody is an adulterous bitch. Hooper is a spoiled rich kid and complete asshole who sleeps with Brody’s wife and Queeq isn’t very interesting. Bad writing and lousy characters. The movie is much better. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/28 "2009-06-18T03:35:57Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > The Godfather for me as well. While I would have liked to see the scene where Apollonia’s assasin get what’s coming to him(it’s in the book, not in the movie), the movie was much better paced, particulary the ending sequence. It is in the movie. Sort of. The version that was released in[chronological order](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809488/) had added scenes. In it they show Apollonia’s killer get his. They also show Vito meeting a young Hyman Roth. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/29 "2009-06-18T05:07:45Z")
If you’ll accept television shows, then the show Dexter is better than the book from whence it came. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/30 "2009-06-18T06:53:51Z")
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/31 "2009-06-18T07:58:26Z")
I really liked **No country for old men** , the book, and I think Cormac McCarthy is a terrific author. However, I prefer the movie. Partly because the photography and sound effects are sublime. But it’s also perfectly condensed and well acted. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/32 "2009-06-18T10:26:07Z")
Pretty much any movie based on a shorter children’s book (as in, takes less time to read than the movie). I was going to list them, but it seems to be a pretty normal pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/33 "2009-06-18T11:41:31Z")
**American Psycho** - maybe the book is supposed to evoke the banality of consumerism with its endless lists of desirable products, but the film was much better in my opinion - perhaps because the hilarious vanity involved is largely visual. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/34 "2009-06-18T11:48:07Z")
Mine have already been said for the most part—Lord of the Rings, the Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Forrest Gump. But I’d like to add Jaws to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/35 "2009-06-18T12:55:52Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > **Starship Troopers** > :ducks and runs: Heh. Maybe you’re joking, but I’d say that and be totally serious. The movie works, if it works at all, as a scathing indictment of exciting war movies. The guys we’re rooting for wear Nazi uniforms, the propaganda is ridiculous, and an ending sequence with a captured enemy looks like a thinly-veiled rape/torture fantasy. The normal objections to the movie (insanely stupid tactics, science fiction that makes no sense, lack of fidelity to the book) are irrelevant to the director’s utter contempt for people who enjoy that sort of thing. The book is among the worst books I’ve ever read. Horrible descriptions of everything, characters who function as mouthpieces for Heinlein’s weirdo politics, and not much in the way of pacing or rhythm. I thought the movie was irritating and juvenile, sort of the equivalent of a GWAR show. I thought the book was loathsome. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/36 "2009-06-18T13:03:11Z")
_Nobody’s Fool_ would be my contribution. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/37 "2009-06-18T13:06:50Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The Princess Bride Totally agree. The book was _ok_ but if I had read it first I’m not sure I would have bothered with the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/38 "2009-06-18T13:23:46Z")
_Field of Dreams_. I don’t get all sobby when Ray and his dad have a catch like most folks do, but I am a sucker for baseball so I read the book _Shoeless Joe_, and I thought it was overly precious and affected. The movie in some ways too, but not as much. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/39 "2009-06-18T13:24:31Z")
I read _Dune_ when it came out & loved it; of course, I was pretty young. This summer, I picked it up again & began the sequels. (Avoiding anything not written by Frank Herbert, of course.) Up to _Children of Dune_ now. And wishing that David Lynch had been allowed to complete the film as he’d wished. And then continued with the series, as some sources say was the intent. Herbert had some great ideas but I’m finding his prose flat & awkward. Lynch’s work wasn’t perfect, but he added some depth & style. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/40 "2009-06-18T13:30:12Z")
Seconded on _Jaws_. How Benchley could make a sex scene unappealing to a 13 year horny teenager is beyond me even today. The movie was so much better than the novel that Benchley’s Estate ought to be still paying Spielberg extra royalties. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127.md?page=3)