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[Orbert]

Wow, if we're gonna get in Shakespeare, that's a whole category of its own. I like some of the ones where they follow the original words exactly, but totally change the setting. Romeo + Juliet was kinda cool that way. Pretty creative.

[McTaggart]

Yeah, Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet was enjoyable all the way. Franco Zefferelli's one (I think that was his name, we had to watch this in english in highschool was uniformly bland and dated. The only real enjoyment to come from it was 'do you bite your thumb at me, sir' becoming one of the phrases that people started using in everyday conversation.

[bujiatang]

The Scouring of the Shire definitely should have been included. The only thing I can defend that with is that the ending in its final form went on and on forever. Goodbyes and farewells and see-you-laters for like 40 minutes. Great flick, but I was actually relieved when it was over.

Wasn't it Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with a fat Val Kilmer where they make fun of the never ending end to the movie... best part of the mucking fovie.

[camelpimp]

How was McMurphy much different? I read the book first, and the character in my head was a lot like how Nicholson played it.

Well, physically (and before anyone points this out, I do know it's silly pointing it out) Nicholson looks nothing like how McMurphy is described in the book. Considering how much ado is made in the book about his "rugged" and "manly" appearance, the movie version of the character seems slightly off to me. Secondly, the way Nicholson played the character he lacked the sort of snake oil salesmen charm the character orginally had. He became and orginary skeeze, while in the book he was... well still a skeeze. But... a charming skeeze? I dunno.

[Orbert]

But that's all through Chief Bromden's eyes. Remember that at the beginning of the book, Chief Bromden is bummed because he's so small. They did something to him to make him small, and at some point much later, he notices that he's big again, and wonders how McMurphy did that. At the end, he comments on how there's no way that's McMurphy. He's too small. Where are those huge arms? He's just not big enough. Why? Because the light has gone out in his eyes. McMurphy "in reality" may not be a very big man at all, but because he's loud and cocky, he seems larger than life. After the procedure, he's small.

Chief Bromden is a huge man, but originally thought McMurphy was much bigger than him. It's all perception. That's one of the points of the story.

[BillAdama]

Best:
LoTR (Also duh)
First 80% of Minority Report
Children of Men

Worst
Last 20% of Minority Report
I Robot
The Human Stain (Seriously.  The main character is a black guy who is light skinned enough to pass as a Jew, so he spends his life posing as white.  Then he gets fired and betrayed by his friends because he's accused of racism after using the word 'Spooks' which he meant in the 'ghost, phantasm' sense, and didn't know was an obscure racial slur.  Who did they cast?  ANTHONY HOPKINS.  Worst.  Casting.  Ever.)
A Beautiful Mind (It's not even a bad movie.  It's just awful how they romanticized John Nash to make the audience like him more.)

I also hate it when a movie comes out for a book, and it becomes impossible to buy the book without pictures from the movie on it.

[Dimmukane]

Worst

I Robot

You have to keep in mind that they did not intend for it to be a book-to-movie thing.  They had said from the beginning that it was only loosely based off of the book, it was never trying to be like the book.  It did borrow a few important parts, sure, but it was still mostly its own thing.  Doesn't mean it didn't suck, though.  Have we ever seen Will Smith in a movie where he's anything but arrogant?

[Trollstormur]

clearly I'm the only person here who thought the Dune movie was good. I'll defend it now, I guess. Sure, it wasn't a particularly faithful retelling, and sting was in it, but I thought lynch's slow, muted style really worked for the story. It's like his only film I can watch, actually.

and it gave me one of my favorite sayings when dealing with women: "THE BENE GESSERIT WITCH MUST LEAVE"

[thegreatbuddha]

I'm with Troll on Dune.  The one with the half hour introduction is great (Director's Cut I think).

Worst: Rising Sun.  Sean Connery wasn't bad in it, but Wesley Snipesas the other detective threw me for a loop.  Also, I think they removed one of the major players (Eddie Nakamura) from the movie, but I haven't seen it in so long I could be wrong.

[tomselleck69]

clearly I'm the only person here who thought the Dune movie was good. I'll defend it now, I guess. Sure, it wasn't a particularly faithful retelling, and sting was in it, but I thought lynch's slow, muted style really worked for the story. It's like his only film I can watch, actually.

and it gave me one of my favorite sayings when dealing with women: "THE BENE GESSERIT WITCH MUST LEAVE"

One of two people. I said I liked it!

[Liz]

Love:
Lord of the Rings- With books that size, the adaptations they ended up with are amazing.
The Constant Gardener- A vast, vast improvement on the book.
Left Behind- So I'm a nerd. I like the books a lot, and as cheesy as the movies are, I really like them as well.

Hate:
Harry Potter- Don't get me wrong, I love the movies and own all four, but they could just do so much better. Make the movies three hours long. The fans will love you.
Eragon- So I actually liked the book. I'll admit that fully. But the movie was crap. It wasn't even two hours long! Everything just go jumbled together into one big scene with no exposition. I was severely disappointed.
Jurassic Park, The Lost World, etc- Any movie based off of a Michael Crichton book has not done the author's work enough justice. Though I do hope someone makes a movie out of State of Fear. As long as they do it well.

[Luke C]

Love:
300
V for Vendetta
New Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (except the lame ending)

Hate:
All other Rold Dahl movie adaptions although Matlida was ok-ish.

[Stryc9Fuego]

i think that the way that hollywood makes scripts from good books is this: the script writer gets the book and reads it and says to themselves "that's a good book". then they eat the book. 3 or 4 days later they pass the script. at this point the editors and lawyers pick through the "script" removing any still acceptable nuggets. the remaining effluence they decide to film. this is best worked once the original writer has passed on so they can hook a generator up and power LA with the writer spinning in his grave.

They're not trying to make movies, they're coming up with cheap power.

[Runs_With_Scissors]

Love:
Seabiscuit. One of the best movies from books. Though some parts were cut out, it was still really well made.

Hate/Love:

Black Beauty. There are some versions of it that are pretty close, but there is one in particular that is so far off  the book, I thought I switched the movies around.

Hate:
The Young Black Stallion. Shit movie. Good book.
The New Flicka. Just..no.

(Can  you guys tell I watch/read to many horse movies/books?)

[SonofZ3]

Blade Runner: In my mind one of the greatest films ever made. I never get tired of watching it. The book it was based off of, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is fairly mediocre as far as sci-fi novels go. Deffinately a case of the movie being way better than the book.

[Stryc9Fuego]

I didn't like the movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... I love that actor, and it was good in theory, but the book is so clever and so perfect that it just couldn't be squished into movie form, in my opinion...

I gotta agree with everyone out there on this as well; the book for HHGTTG is too WIN for film.That's best enjoyed with your own psychotic imagination.