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i heard the same about the island it but after watching it i found quite good (i haven't read the book)
having Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson doesn't hurt either ;)

Must be a different film - I was talking about the one with Michael Caine. :eek:

'The Island' (Ewan McGregor version!) isn't actually based on the book but it does have a remarkably similar plot to 'Spares' by Michael Marshall Smith. Great book - I'd love to see some of his stuff make it to the screen and done well.
 
A movie, no matter what the source, has to stand or fall on its own merits. It can be hard to put this aside when seeing a movie based on a book you like--for a long time I could not, for instance, appreciate Blade Runner for what it does well because it leaves out virtually all of the book it is supposedly based on. How could they leave out Mercerism? It makes no sense!

While I love Dick's short stories I think some of them are better taken as inspirations rather than movie scripts. Total Recall would have never become the cult classic it is if it kept close to the book.
 
Best: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, True Grit, The Wizard of Oz, Jurassic Park, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice

Worst: The Golden Compass, The Time Traveller's Wife, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Count of Monte Cristo (the book is amazing!)
 
I read The Island, but I heard the movie was terrible so I never bothered with it. The book was okay, not good enough for me to bother to read it again, IMO.

I don't have the perspective of the book, but this is one of those movies where I was not crazy about it the first time I watched it, but it was ok. Later something ate at me and I watched it again falling in love with it.

Best: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, True Grit, The Wizard of Oz, Jurassic Park, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice

Worst: The Golden Compass, The Time Traveller's Wife, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Count of Monte Cristo (the book is amazing!)

The book is amazing. I thought the 2002 movie was ok, not terrible. ;)
 
Thinking of The Shining, I remember being pissed that the screen adaption, they killed off Dick Halloran, when in the book, he was the one that saved the survivors. It was like what was the point? And they dropped the entire maintain the furnace aspect of the plot. I was able to forgive Kubrick for it, but wished they had stuck with the plot.

Apparently King hated it and authorized a mini-series to correct the situation, but it was lacking as I recall.
 
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"How to Train Your Dragon". Absolute worst movie adaptation. The only things in common are the names of characters and the fact that both have dragons. I liked the book, but I loved the movie, so in this case, I'd say it was fine that they had only minimal similarities.
 
Best/Worst book to movie adaptations

"How to Train Your Dragon". Absolute worst movie adaptation. The only things in common are the names of characters and the fact that both have dragons. I liked the book, but I loved the movie, so in this case, I'd say it was fine that they had only minimal similarities.


I had no idea it's a book. I loved the movie though.
 
Really couldn't stomach the Harry Potter movies (for the most part).

Deathly Hallows was OK, but then I guess with them splitting it into two movies, less got cut.
 
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