What are the best book-to-film adaptations?

[RunMickeyRun02]

The Harry Potter franchise as the best film adaptations? Please. The films were overall a triumph and earned a lot of money, but overall as films were average. 1 and 2 were hyper attention-to-detail kid's movies, 3 was absolutely fantastic, 4 was a piece of garbage, then 5-8 were good film that took a lot of creative license on source material.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you. I liked the first 3 books, and the first two movies, but after that I lost interest. I could see it being on the list, but def. not #1.

 

[StPaulHusker]

The Godfather

Jurassic Park

The Passion of the Christ

I would disagree with The Da Vinci Code. I thought the book was very good and the movie didn't measure up at all.

 

[NUinID]

The Harry Potter franchise as the best film adaptations? Please. The films were overall a triumph and earned a lot of money, but overall as films were average. 1 and 2 were hyper attention-to-detail kid's movies, 3 was absolutely fantastic, 4 was a piece of garbage, then 5-8 were good film that took a lot of creative license on source material.

Jurassic Park is probably tops on my personal list. The movie still holds up 20+ years later, and was one of the most revolutionary films ever made as far as pushing the envelope of what is possible, and Crichton is one of my all-time favorite authors with that book being one of my favorites.

A huge one I see missing is Fight Club. In fact, most of Fincher's best work should be on this list imo, but definitely Fight Club, Social Network and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

The Silence of the Lambs, No Country For Old Men, Requiem For A Dream, Stand By Me... - a lot of really high-quality literature/filmmaking that isn't making the list because they aren't necessarily blockbusters.

Having only read the first HP book I really can't say as far as how they compare. The 4th movie was my favorite and the third is my least favorite after the first 2. I agree the first 2 were kids movies. My son says I would like azkaban better if I read the book.

Jurassic Park was ok, but nothing special.

 

[TGHusker]

This may not fall in the usual genre of books to film that Knapp was looking for but my wife & I are currently watching the John Adams HBO series based on David McCullough's book. David is one of my favorite historians and all of this books are very well written and hold your interest. The HBO version does an excellent job of capturing the excitement, danger, political peril and intrigue of those days and is a good reflection

of the book. For my wife to be interested in history, it must be done well. She has enjoyed the history and I enjoy seeing McCullough's John Adams book coming alive. It would be nice if they followed up wt a Truman movie based on David's Truman book.

 

[StPaulHusker]

This may not fall in the usual genre of books to film that Knapp was looking for but my wife & I are currently watching the John Adams HBO series based on David McCullough's book. David is one of my favorite historians and all of this books are very well written and hold your interest. The HBO version does an excellent job of capturing the excitement, danger, political peril and intrigue of those days and is a good reflection

of the book. For my wife to be interested in history, it must be done well. She has enjoyed the history and I enjoy seeing McCullough's John Adams book coming alive. It would be nice if they followed up wt a Truman movie based on David's Truman book.

I forgot about this. The book was really good and the mini-series didn't disappoint either.

 

[TGHusker]

From Knapp's original post: I thought they did a really good job updating the Bourne books into modern-day thrillers. Initially I didn't like Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, but by about midway through the first movie I was on board. Good stuff.

I agree with this. It wasn't so much that I didn't like Matt Damon initially, it was more like - I'm surprised by him in the role and then it got to be - he is great in the role. Again I'll use my wife in this review. She isn't a history buff nor does she like 'violent' movies, however, she is so intrigue by the way Matt plays the role in all 3 movies that at the end of the 3rd movie when it shows that he is alive (like who would doubt) and he swims away (sorry if I spoiled it now ) she gives out a spontaneous cheer (sorry long grammatically incorrect sentence - I write like I think). The Bourne series is my favorite action series of all time. There have been times during the Christmas season when the whole family is over (2 sons and wives) were we'd watch the 1st movie, play games, watch the 2nd, play games, then watch the 3rd - an all day Bourne fest.