Korean Job Discussion Forums

JMO · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu

What is the worst movie adaption of a novel?

I was thinking about this because there is a movie version of "I am Legend" coming out at the end of the year.

The book is one of my fave vampire/sf novels and really gets inside your head. The movie "Omega man" based on the book, made me angry watching it because it does the novel such poor justice. Now if I hadn't have read the novel I probably would have found the movie funny in a 70s cheese kind of way. Normally I assume the better the book, the better the movie would have to be to please fans.

So what is your least favorite adaptation?

swetepete · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Location: a limp little burg

Among the Worst: "All the Pretty Horses" starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz, from the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

Among the Best: "Full Metal Jacket," from "the Short Timers,"
and "Slaughterhouse Five," from the Vonnegut book.

Alyallen · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

I still remember cringing in the theater while watching Les Miserables starring Uma Thurman....

It took years before I could think she could act.....

JMO · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu

Tokki1 · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:01 pm Post subject:

Great Adaptations

I think Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was absolutely brilliant. Johnny Depp really pulled it off. Hunter S. Thompson, rest in peace.

Lord of the Rings. Come on. What an amazing film. I watched the entire dvd set of extras and was blown away.

Bad Adaptations

American Psycho They butchered Ellis' novel. Badly.

Red Dragon I was totally disappointed with this flick.

Doogie · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Location: Hwaseong City

Great Adaptations: 1) Silence of the Lambs 2) The Godfather 3)Forrest Gump 4) Hunt for Red October

Bad Adaptations: 1)The Davinci Code - Loved the book but I was sooooo disappointed in the movie. 2) Clear and Present Danger

mj roach · Joined: 16 Mar 2003

Don't know about worst...but "Get Shorty" was good.

How about seemingly impossible adaptations?

"Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo. Reading the book no way to imagine making it into a movie. One of the best anti-war statements ever.

kimchi story · Joined: 23 Nov 2006

cangel · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: Jeonju, S. Korea

The Bourne series although, had I not read the books, would have been great movies.　But, hands down, the worst adaptation is Simon Birch, which is from the great novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Then again, The Cider House Rules, also a John Irving book, was a terrible movie compared to the novel.

Richard Krainium · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

Lizara · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Location: Seoul

I second Les Miserables and Simon Birch. I hate it when moviemakes take great books and turn them into typical Hollywood crap. Hardball, with Keanu Reeves (I think) was also a tremendous disappointment as I really loved the book, and the movie had almost nothing to do with it apart from sharing a name and being about baseball.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

"Salem's Lot" by Stepen King (or Richard Bachman - maybe that was King's first novel using his real name). I rented it. Think it was a TV movie. The book was great. The movie was bad and stupid.

A good series of novels were the "Deadly Sins" (First, Second, etc.). If memory serves me correct, the TV movies weren't too bad, but could never compare to the books, of course.

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:09 am Post subject:

Starship Troopers.
Battlefield Earth.
Cujo. (nearly all the King adapations suck, but Cujo was the worst of the bunch).