Why World War Z is the most insulting movie of the year

[Ack]

STAND BY ME is an odd lot as well. It's not even it's own book, and LADY IN THE WATER shouldn't have been mentioned.

Stand By Me is based on Stephen King's novella The Body.

I put up the 1947 film noir Lady in the Lake, which is an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's 1943 detective novel The Lady in the Lake, featuring Philip Marlowe (also the star character in Maltese Falcon, Long Goodbye, Big Sleep, among many others). The film is notable for being entirely first person. Not Lady in the Water.

[fastbilly1]

I would say that Blade Runner is the best book to movie adaptation ever.

as in most faithful? as in best film that has a book as a source? can you clarify?

Sure. The book that Blade Runner is based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is considered one of Philip K. Dicks worst works. It was up for a Nebula in 1968, it lost to Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. The book is convoluted, difficult to follow, and lacks the punch that the rest of his novels had. It is by no means not worth reading, it is simply a poor showing by a master. However Hampton Fancher saw that it could be something, convinced Dick to let him turn it into a movie. He however had issues with Ridley Scott and they brought in David Peoples to co-write it and mitigate.

Well to get more in depth it would be spoilers (and Id need to watch the film again to get it fresh in my mind), but overall the movie took a book that would have been forgotten, and converted it into an amazing film. It is the only time that I can honestly say the book is better than the movie in every capacity. It is not faithful, but in a good way. Its not like when they made changes to Minority Report.

[Luke]

STAND BY ME is an odd lot as well. It's not even it's own book, and LADY IN THE WATER shouldn't have been mentioned.

Stand By Me is based on Stephen King's novella The Body.

I put up the 1947 film noir Lady in the Lake....

Yeah, I know that. But it's a short in Different Seasons and nothing more. Definitely a ton added to the movie's story.

Oh, LADY IN THE LAKE. Whew. Different ballpark.

[Ack]

Yeah, I know that. But it's a short in Different Seasons and nothing more. Definitely a ton added to the movie's story.

Yeah. Note the disclaimer:

..do I need to continue? All of these are based on or adapted from novels, novellas, or short stories, with the few exceptions of films based on earlier films that were based on or adapted from novels, novellas, or short stories.

Even if the film expanded considerably upon the short story, it's still a work derived from an original work of narrative fiction. So is The Fly, The Thing variants, and Conan the Barbarian (a series of short stories). There are numerous films based on Howard Philip Lovecraft's short stories as well which I didn't include, to name just one author. I think they still serve the point of the original question, that there are "good" or even "excellent" films based on narrative works.

[Hobie-wan]

Fight Club is another example where the movie is better than the book IMHO. The book is good, but the movie tightens things up nicely. As I recall even Chuck thought so.

[dsheinem]

I would say that Blade Runner is the best book to movie adaptation ever.

as in most faithful? as in best film that has a book as a source? can you clarify?

Sure. The book that Blade Runner is based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is considered one of Philip K. Dicks worst works. It was up for a Nebula in 1968, it lost to Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. The book is convoluted, difficult to follow, and lacks the punch that the rest of his novels had. It is by no means not worth reading, it is simply a poor showing by a master. However Hampton Fancher saw that it could be something, convinced Dick to let him turn it into a movie. He however had issues with Ridley Scott and they brought in David Peoples to co-write it and mitigate.

Well to get more in depth it would be spoilers (and Id need to watch the film again to get it fresh in my mind), but overall the movie took a book that would have been forgotten, and converted it into an amazing film. It is the only time that I can honestly say the book is better than the movie in every capacity. It is not faithful, but in a good way. Its not like when they made changes to Minority Report.

Gotcha. I've read probably 2/3 of Dick's works but, since I'd seen this film first, have never read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (though it has been on my shelf for ages). Now I am hesitant to

I don't think there's too many books where I am familiar with the book being poor and the film being excellent...sounds like Blade Runner's a good candidate, though. Still, there must be some great director that has done other remarkable work with a mediocre book by a much lesser author than Dick. In other words, I'd bet that Dick's worst is still better than lots of other authors' best, and that excellent films have been made from worse source material.

[fastbilly1]

Still, there must be some great director that has done other remarkable work with a mediocre book by a much lesser author than Dick. In other words, I'd bet that Dick's worst is still better than lots of other authors' best, and that excellent films have been made from worse source material.

I agree that Dicks worst is better than most authors best. He was a brilliant though crazy man. I will dig through my vault for another example. My films are sadly in a dozen moving boxes still.

[Retrodude]

I thought the film of Pet Semetary was better than the book, but Stephen King wrote the screenplay himself, so I guess that's alright. He reportedly hated Kubrick's version of The Shining, which led him to do the miniseries version, which I also prefer.

[indecks]

Starship troopers was better than the book. But the movie sucked.


"Hey lets focus on a memory of his math teacher for a chapter or two. Powered armor? Who cares. Lets talk about teachers. Oh and Im gonna write a chapter where I see my dad."

[MrPopo]

Starship troopers was better than the book. But the movie sucked.


"Hey lets focus on a memory of his math teacher for a chapter or two. Powered armor? Who cares. Lets talk about teachers. Oh and Im gonna write a chapter where I see my dad."

There's not enough facepalms in the world for this post.