Look at the time, it's Angry O'Clock

[levendis]

GUYS. Let's make a list of movie adaptations that are as good as or better than their source.

I WILL BEGIN.
Better than: Bladerunner, Kiss Me Deadly, The Godfather pts 1 & 2
As good as: Night and the City (The plot may be mangled, but Dassin translates Kersh's poetic griminess perfectly. Also Richard Widmark's face.)

(I still want a movie of Prelude to a Certain Midnight sooo baaad but idk the likelihood of a movie with a deeply flawed, old-school-bamf, middle-aged single woman as protagonist.)

I'd list 2001 but I haven't read the story it's based on. Hmm.


C'mon help me out here. Every time someone cries online about how Hollywood should stop adapting novels, the sound of my teeth grinding is audible from the moon.

Comments

[holli]

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day! Book = delightful. Movie = even MORE delightful. If you like Bechdel-passing '30s screwball comedies, anyway.

[levendis]

omg I love screwball comedies. Putting that on my to-watch list.

[hlagol]

Totally with you on Bladerunner and Godfather, and the others I don't have experience with both source and movie.

[thatyourefuse]

I'd argue both versions of The Manchurian Candidate (the 2004 remake is underrated) are at least as good and probably better than the book, but it's been a while since I read it.

[dulcinea]

Do TV miniseries count? The Stand is pretty epic.

[swankyfunk]

I really love L.A. Confidential. I've only read the novel once, but it's obviously quite different. Though I enjoyed Ellroy's writing, I liked how the film version streamlined the plots and made the characters more palatable.

[l_elfie]

i would say "as good as" to the princess bride--since the movie was adapted to basically be a different genre from the book, they're both good for different reasons, i think.

one i want to read is hard core logo, for similar reasons. the book is poetry, from what i understand?

haha, i asked my roommate and we have agreed that an argument could be made that the lord of the rings movies are better than the books. XD neither of us actually managed to read the books until after seeing the first movie--damn you, tom bombadil. (yes, yes, i know lots of people love tom bombadil. it would be generous to say that i am not one of them.)

[pauraque]

Late to the party here, but Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's based on a book (Who Censored Roger Rabbit), which I have read, and which is okay but not great. The best thing about the book is the concept of cartoon characters being real, but it doesn't work nearly as well in text as it does visually, and the plot is not as fun and the characters not as interesting as what they came up with for the movie.