Some Novels Shouldn't Be Made as a Movie

My favorite book series are The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and King’s The Dark Tower. I guess I recommend reading them…but not before Covenant.

Hey, it’s Revenant!

I saw you had posted awhile back, but I didn’t get a chance to welcome you back. It’s nice to see you here.

Too bad about the PC…I hate that too. I woulda liked to have seen what you had to say.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth is my favorite science fiction book. I was worried enough when I heard it was Travolta to play Terl, but I had no idea I had to worry about the biggest bastardization of a novel anyone has ever seen. Jiminy H. Crickets!

Since Jurassic Park, Crichton novels have been 50-50 as adaptations.

Great! I hope it appeals to you more this time.

I don’t think it hurt Travolta’s career at all. He’s still a bankable star nowadays.

He’s never been a favorite of mine, mainly because he’s done so many stupid ass movies. I can’t stand some of ‘em. I still do think he’s a good actor though. He’s done some films that I really like. Saturday Night Fever and Grease are both cool flicks, and he was really good in them. Blow Out is friggin’ awesome. It is arguably Brian De Palma’s greatest film…and again…Travolta was great. Then, of course, his career entered the ice-age phase, and we didn’t pay aannyyy attention to him until Tarantino resurrected the bastard in Pulp Fiction, which everybody and their cousin’s neighbor loves aside from them kooky fundamentalists. Since then…he’s made a whole bunch of stuff I either don’t like or really care about, with the exception of Get Shorty, which might possibly be his best performance. I never understood why so many people love this guy. He’s completely overrated in my eyes.

You’ve made me want to read the novel.

That good, eh?

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Well you certainly are missing out if you havent read The Drawing of the Three. It is my fav of the series at least up to the 4th book I have not read the newer ones yet. There have even been Lobstrosity sightings.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

I generally like the books that I like made into movies...

I've was very dissapointed about Two Towers, it wasn't done well, the others were made well though

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"No, you made a big mistake, you forgot to flush" Dwight

"Walk down the right back ally in Sin City, and you'll find anything" Marv

I actually was very impressed with the Notebook. I thought the casting was wonderful and while I was reading the book, I would think how great of a movie this would make. I loved how passionate they made the characters in the movie too - i would have to say that both the book and movie was entertaining - which doesn't often happen!

I'm looking forward to seeing Shopgirl now and how much it resembles the book by Steve Martin. I'm thinking it will be close since Martin will be one of the actors...

I agree with Angie. I also heard that the DaVinci Code will be made into a movie soon. While I enjoy Brown's books, I don't know if it would do justice on screen.

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Pulp Fiction - Reservoir Dogs - Kill Bill 1/2 - From Dusk Till Dawn - Meet Joe Black - 21 Grams - Snatch - Sin City - Ocean's Eleven - Fight Club - Lost in Translation - Once Upon A Time In Mexico - Hero (英雄version) - Super Troopers - The Big Lebowski - Dazed and Confused - Rolling Kansas - Made - The Rounders - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

It's slated for release next May or June.

There was a write-up about it in this morning's paper about how the Catholic Church isn't being too cooperative in regards to where they'll allow the film crew to work. They hate the idea that the book suggests that...

I think Brown's Da Vinci Code was born to be shot. It's a wild ride, but the prose is a dog. Should be a fun movie.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Have you seen the film? If not as I've said it's no loss. If you have seen the film and it's put you off reading the novel then try to put it out of your mind.

The characters are as beautifully drawn as the Greek landscape against which the book is set. The story is filled with wit, outright comedy, pathos and tragedy. You really feel for these characters and nothing that happens to them feels dishonest. The novel is fiction but the events feel somehow true. De Bernieres has crammed his novel with accurate historical detail and this adds to the height of the tragedy befalling the fictional characters with whom we are invited to spend time. I hope this is enough to make you really want to read the novel let me know how you get on.

Yeah, I saw it on regular TV not too long ago. I didn't hate it like you did, but it didn't make me want to buy it either, let alone see it again. It certainly wasn't so terrible to me where it would make me never want to read the novel. I'll try to remember about it next time I go to the library.

Ah I reckon I'm really biased because I loved the book so much. It's quite painful when you wait for a film of a book and then when it arrives you discover they've torn out its heart and replaced it with a steaming pile of crap.

I know, man. After reading Wuthering Heights, I went in search of the very much loved classic...and hated it.

I mean if something doesn't work then fair enough change it but how some people have got the nerve to take something that is widely loved and turn it over to the whims of some hick focus group... I'm going to stop now as I'm upsetting meself. I know things need to be edited I can understand incorporating a few characters into one and things like that but why change things wholesale.

I thought Contact was a little weak too. I like plot in the book where it was this big race with the Chinese, but it was completely left out of the film.

I also wish that in "The Shining", the bushes would move. That would have made things really interesting.

I wish there had been a budget large enough (or just technically possible) to blow up the damn Overlook.

Having seen the VERY different review scores given to the book and the film adaptation, I think The Postman deserves a mention. I actually want to read the novel, now...

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"When I was younger, I always wanted to be somebody. Now that I'm older, I realise I should've been more specific."

LOTR.

Not because it does not have potential as a movie. But because the screen-writers screwed it up.

Gimli, the representative of Dwarfs in the Fellowship was turned into banal comic relief totting cringe-worthy one-liners (e.g. "Don't toss me!"). Contrastingly, Legolas was given more screen-time and cool action sequences (surfing on shields down stairways; climbing up oliphants etc.) to cater to the large fan-girl base denomination. How the heck did Aragon manage to drive off ring wraiths with a lousy sword and lighted torch? And for the record, since when did Arwen face off with ring wraiths? She was supposed to play the role of submissive female with no real place in the book! AND WHERE IS TOM BOMBARDIL?

Too often have movie makers fallen back into the comfort of using stereotypical moulds. Apparently, these techniques work, as the box-office records of LOTR can attest to. Unfortunately, they alienate the smaller group of original book-fans, without which the movie might never have been conceptualized in the first place.

But one thing I believe everyone can agree on:

The hobbits should never have been made gay.

[quote=toysailor]LOTR.

AND WHERE IS TOM BOMBARDIL?

[quote]

Leaving out Tom Bombadil was probably the best thing Jackson did with the trilogy. The first time I read it I nearly threw the book down there and then as the weird singing little creep minced through the forest trying to make everybody forget that he used to be hard.

what the heck are we talking about????

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