Worst movies made from books (cinema, films, watching, Andrew)

[lovinCarl]

Watching Needful Things again (coz Hubby has never seen it) and I'm reminded how absolutely HORRIBLE this movie is in comparison to the book

They always tend to screw w/Stephen King's books but this IMO was the absolute worst.. Needful Things was/is my all time favorite King book and to watch how they tore it apart pisses me off

What movies made from books to you rate as some of the worst?

I'd also have to put on there A Time To Kill (John Grisham) as a horrible rewrite.

[R.J. MacReady]

Queen of the Damned. They messed up with two books on that one.

[leangk]

eragon. terrible book, horrible movie

[Mark S.]

THE GIRL IN A SWING. The book is one of the best ghost stories ever written. The movie is incoherent.

TREASURE ISLAND. Some of the movies have been better than others, but none have managed to capture the brilliance and fun of the book.

DUNE. Ditto last comment.

'SALEM'S LOT. Ditto last comment.

If we're counting comic books as books, then there's quite a list: DAREDEVIL, ELEKTRA, THE FANTASTIC FOUR, SUPERMAN IV, GHOST RIDER, NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

THE HOBBIT. Great book. The old cartoon is pretty terrible.

[Aylalou]

I knew I NEVER should have seen Love in the Time of Cholera. You can't make that into a decent movie. Worse than horrible. The books is my favorite.

[JeepGirl118]

Flowers in the Attic (VC Andrews) . . . the movie was nowhere as stellar as the book. They never made movies out of the rest of the series, thank God.

[eevee]

Originally Posted by leangk

eragon. terrible book, horrible movie

LOL, exactly what I was thinking! I still don't get why they felt the need to put feathers on the dragon...

ditto about the good SK book/bad movie. "Dreamcatcher" is a decent book (not King's best, not his worst), but it was butchered when it became a movie. that book was the most "internal" of Kings book (a lot of his books involve telepathy or inner monologues if the character is going loony) and it's hard to translate that into movie form. I had similar issues w/ "The Tommyknockers".

other than "Jurassic Park", I don't think I've enjoyed any other Michael Crichton movie. "Congo" was horrifically bad!

[LiveChick]

Definitely Stephen Kings. Other than the Green Mile and Carrie....I cant think of any other films inspired by his books, that were "great".

Lots of them suck. I loved Sleepwalkers, but I hated the film adaption...oh boy


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix wasn't good either, imo.
Left out too many things.
The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice wasnt that good either. The casting was on point, but the movie bored me. WTF !!
The Bridge to Terabithia....Omg. I read this book in Junior high and read it again in HS. I think the recent movie was awful, but the first film was better.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by LiveChick

Definitely Stephen Kings. Other than the Green Mile and Carrie....I cant think of any other films inspired by his books, that were "great".

THE SHINING. Kubrick's version is a masterpiece of cinematic art. I even liked the ABC-TV version. In matters of cinematic art, it doesn't add up to Kubrick's, but in terms of story, it's much better.

STORM OF THE CENTURY. Granted, it wasn't a novel first. It was written for the screen. But it's one of the best Stephen King stories put to film. Really, really good.

THE DEAD ZONE. Cronenberg's film was really good. The TV series inspired by the novel was really good for a few seasons, then it lost its way.

DOLORES CLAIBORNE. I couldn't get into the novel, but the movie was great.

MISERY. Good book. Great movie!

"Apt Pupil." (short story) Good story. OK movie.

"The Body." (short story) Good story. Great movie: STAND BY ME.

"The Mist." (short story) Good story. Good movie.

"Hearts in Atlantis." (short story) Great story. OK movie.

"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." (short story) Haven't read the story. Great movie.

CREEPSHOW. Totally campy. Totally fun.

[SeriousPosterIsSerious]

I agree. Looking back on it, there are actually quite a few Stephen King books that I thought were turned into good, or great, movies. The Stand, Pet Semetery, The Mist, Stand By Me, The Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne, and Misery are all at least good. Maybe not great, but hardly terrible. Those are just the ones I've seen in their entirity.