# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/41 "2009-06-18T14:19:34Z")
**Perfume**. I thought the book was overrated but the film was excellent. ---
**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, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/42 "2009-06-18T15:29:26Z")
> [@Martha\_Medea](#): > > **Perfume**. I thought the book was overrated but the film was excellent. I think I will have to disagree with you on that one. If for nothing else, I think Dustin Hoffman acted pretty poorly in it, which is not a good sign. \*\*The Devil Wears Prada \*\*is supposedly better than the book it is based on. All I know is that Meryl Streep rocked her role and that the writing of the book was so bad that I put it away after five pages. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/43 "2009-06-18T15:58:33Z")
As always, my answer is the Disney version of _The Little Mermaid_. Oh, and _Zorro, the Gay Blade_ was better than the original book, _The Curse of Capistrano_. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/44 "2009-06-18T16:06:33Z")
**"Last of the Mohicans"** - The book was almost unreadable. I seriously thought that English was Cooper’s second language and I’d picked up a crappy translation. The movie not only makes compelling changes to the plot (e.g. the romance between Cora and Hawkeye; Alice throwing herself off the cliff rather than live with the evil Magua) but it was filmed in the gorgeous mountains of North Carolina. Throw in a delicious long-haired Daniel Day-Lewis and voila! Great film! ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/45 "2009-06-18T16:13:53Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This is what I was going to say. The book (Who Censored Roger Rabbit) is terrible and makes very little sense. The movie is fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/46 "2009-06-18T16:24:06Z")
Let me third (?) _The Princess Bride_. Both the book and the movie have their own pros and cons, but overall I liked the movie better. The movies is missing one of my favorite exchanges from the book, though: “Your Higness, your father is dying.” “Drat, that means I’m going to have to gt married!” ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/47 "2009-06-18T17:29:10Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > **“Last of the Mohicans”** - The book was almost unreadable. I seriously thought that English was Cooper’s second language and I’d picked up a crappy translation. > > The movie not only makes compelling changes to the plot (e.g. the romance between Cora and Hawkeye; Alice throwing herself off the cliff rather than live with the evil Magua) but it was filmed in the gorgeous mountains of North Carolina. Throw in a delicious long-haired Daniel Day-Lewis and voila! Great film! Seconded. The only reason I was even interested in reading the book was because I liked the movie. As I’ve mentioned around here before, the cashier at Borders when I bought the book warned me that it was the worst book she had ever read. I should have listened to her. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/48 "2009-06-18T17:38:18Z")
_Twilight._ Lemme see…Stewart’s Bella is better, but that’s because she actually isn’t anything like the book Bella. But it still counts. Stewart reminded me of a skeptical indie kid, whereas book Bella seemed like an insecure crowd follower. Basically, if Stewart’s Bella read the book, she’d throw it across the room complaining about how stupid it was. _LotR_. My Gods, I could watch the entire trilogy in the time it took to Tolkien to describe one patch of grass! Man, I don’t read a lot of books that get made into movies… ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/49 "2009-06-18T18:09:22Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 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. Yet he and his flunkies appeared at WorldCon to showcase the bugs, and to enlist fans as extras in the game crowd near the beginning of the movie. This says to me that either a) you are wrong about Verhoeven’s motivations, or B) he really is the biggest douchebag in the universe, and needs to be tarred and feathered before being impaled. The book was wonderful, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/50 "2009-06-18T20:12:08Z")
_The Right Stuff_. The book is fine, but the movie is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/51 "2009-06-18T20:22:06Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Totally agree. The book was _ok_ but if I had read it first I’m not sure I would have bothered with the movie. This. And purists will mock me, but Dune. Loved the visuals, loved the music, loved the actors. I found the books hard to get into and found it hard to give a crap about any of the characters or their situations. But I’m not a huge fan of overly political storylines, it’s just a personal preference. I read the first 4, but really didn’t enjoy them. ---
**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, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/52 "2009-06-18T21:04:09Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > _The Right Stuff_. The book is fine, but the movie is awesome. I dunno about this one. I think they hold up equally. Great book, great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/53 "2009-06-18T21:14:16Z")
Speaking of Stephen King, I liked the movie of \*Needful Things \*more than the book, which I found nihilistic. W. D. Richter’s script was a big improvement. especially Ed Harris’s big humanist speech to the town. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/54 "2009-06-18T21:17:10Z")
\*\*The Last Detail \*\*was a very good book. Especially since I read it when I was in the Navy. But the movie with _Jack Nicholson_ was outstanding! ---
**Author:** ![Clare\_de\_Loone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/clare_de_loone/32/3407_2.png) [@Clare\_de\_Loone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clare_de_Loone)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/55 "2009-06-18T22:00:30Z")
**The Hours** worked better as a movie for me and I usually prefer books. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127/56 "2009-06-18T22:12:34Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > **“Last of the Mohicans”** - The book was almost unreadable. I seriously thought that English was Cooper’s second language and I’d picked up a crappy translation. Isn’t Cooper the guy that Mark Twain ranted about? Yep, [here it is](http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html). Another vote for _No Country for Old Men_. Maybe if I’d read it before seeing the movie I’d recognize the book’s greatness, but the movie rocks. The book felt like cliff notes. But I think Tommy Lee Jones improves anything he’s involved with. Also _The Name of the Rose_. Nicely condensed, without all the fancy Latin words that I didn’t understand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-liked-better-than-the-book/500127.md?page=2)