Are there any film adaptations of books that you thought were better than the source material? One that comes to mind for me is "The Princess Bride". The film presents the story at a better pace than the original novel by removing subplots that would have slowed down the movie if they had been included.
shareThe Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Jumanji (1995)
Frankenstein (1931)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Matilda (1996)
Blade Runner
The Shawshank Redemption
The Man Who Would Be King
"Are there any film adaptations of books that you thought were better than the source material?"
- Jaws
- The Fifth Harry Potter Movie
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- Fight Club
- The Godfather
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Stand By Me
- The Shining
- Silence Of The Lambs
- Manhunter (Based on The Red Dragon)
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
- Die Hard
The only one I can think of at the moment is "Practical Magic." Both my mom and I love that movie. However, when I made the mistake of reading the book, I was unhappy to find that the book really sucked. I ended up throwing it in the trash when I was done.
shareJaws by Peter Benchley - maybe the most obvious choice, but the novel (minus one chapter) is actually quite good, I have tried reading many 'shark' novels and Jaws is still my favorite
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - the novel is very good, I think a little overrated, whereas the film is a masterpiece
Misery by Stephen King - I am not a huge fan of the movie, saw it once and that was enough, but I am really really not a fan of the novel, which everyone else seems to love, it does absolutely nothing for me, one of my least favorite King novels
2001: a space odyssey by Arthur C Clarke - to me, this is Clarke kinda phoning it in, he has written several much better novels, the movie is unlike any other, a monument
Soylent Green (based on the novel Make Room, Make Room by Harry Harrison) - it is a testament to that era of SF films and the makers of this film they were able to turn such an average novel into a very good movie (I think Harrison is fascinating to listen to but I have very little interest in his works)
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty - this is a fairly close call since the novel is very good and effective but the film is even better
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - I much prefer the Robert Wise adaptation to the novel, a similar and scarier haunted house novel is Hell House by Richard Matheson
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin - another close call, the novel is terrific but the movie is incredible, one of the very best in the horror genre
The Shining by Stephen King - I enjoyed the novel but the movie is a masterpiece
Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King - the illustrations are very good, the story had to take King about five minutes to create, nothing interesting at all, the movie Silver Bullet is pretty good
You've all covered most of them but left out Forrest Gump and Fight Club. Another one is Altered Carbon, though this is a series and not a film.
sharePlanet of the Apes (1968).
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