Everyone talks about the WORST book to movie/television adaptations, but what are some of the BEST, in your opinion?
Everyone talks about the WORST book to movie/television adaptations, but what are some of the BEST, in your opinion?
190 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
Big Fish!! One of the only movies I prefer over the book!
Game of thrones season one was super accurate to the first book. It was amazing seeing the characters and places come to life.
Misery
@Kacie +1
Notes on a Scandal! Both the book and movie are so good. Also Room and Gone Girl (which I actually preferred to the book!)
Interview with the Vampire. The Princess Bride.
Holes.
@Jodie holes!
Definitely Interview With The Vampire.
I third Holes! Almost exactly what I pictured when I read the book.
I liked the Big Little Lies series SO MUCH more than the book. Stand By Me, the Shawshank Redemption, the Green Mile, Gerald’s Game. The good King ones stand out to me since so many bad ones have been made.
@Brenna big little lies definitely agree
it’s kind of a funny story was pretty damn decent
Freaky Friday! The book is boring lol
@Danielle I agree!
The Mist is an outstanding adaptation – both the original ending and the movie ending are heart-wrenching.
The Notebook is a far better movie, as is Secret Garden (that novella was a mess).
The Green Mile is a solid adaptation, as is The Shawshank Redemption. (Have you noticed I’m a King fan?) ?
Into the Wild and The Perfect Storm are far better than the books, too. I DNFed both books.
@Lisa I loved the movie of the Mist but the TV series was abysmal.
@Jodie Right there with you. I pretend that didn’t happen. And what a shame, too; Frances Conroy is a treasure.
@Lisa I totally agree, I adore her in so many other things I just try to forget the show existed ?
@Lisa Finally I see someone else who is a Green Mile fan! Have the screenplay and the book. Both are fabulous!!!
Agreed. Loved the story and the characters. The casting for the film was spot-on, too, which has a lot to do with how good it is. ?
The Notebook, Practical Magic and The Best of Me imo. ??♀️
The handmaids tale
@Melissa YESSSSSS THE TV ADAPTATION IS KILLIN IT. Although, probably cuz Atwood is still involved and they made it more applicable to modern day
@Ashton idk what it was, the book was just NOT interesting to me and the show is just SOOOO GOOOD
IT was good (at least part 1)
Stardust… & it might be an unpopular opinion but i thought the Hunger Games adaptations were pretty good
Lord of the Rings, The Help, The Princess Bride, and Holes!
I liked “the lovely bones”, I actually saw the movie first ? and I really loved “to all the boys I’ve loved before”, I think they did a wonderful job with that one ?
Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2) was the closest to perfection on the big screen that I’ve encountered. I’ve never read a book, then seen it captured so perfectly on screen. Especially the arena.
YES!! I second this!! The arena portrayal was breathtaking!!
I really thought they did a good job of PS – To all the Boys I Loved .
@Paula I dont know if you like comic books but there is a show based on the series called Deadly Class and the girl who play Lara Jean is in that show. It’s really good. I highly recommend checking it out.
@Abbi I do like comic books . I had heard briefly about Deadly Class but wasn’t sure whether it was good or not ?
@Paula i haven’t read the comic yet but the show is AMAZING so I have high Hope’s.
the comic is great!!
For me I loved the movie The Help but struggled to get through the book
@Paula ohh I loved the book. Felt like it grabbed me from page one, sorry you didn’t enjoy it.
@Jo-Ann I think because it used the African American language of the time she was written in that style , like The Secret Life of bees I struggled . But absolutely loved the movie as figured I’d try to read the books before the films
@Paula bookworm trait right there. Read the book before the film
@Jo-Ann totally agreed
Howls Moving Castle
@Patricia omg yes!!
Fallen! Omg sooo bad! One of my favorite books, couldn’t even finish the movie
I really enjoyed Stardust and the LotR movies. Princess Bride I actually like more simply because I grew up with the movie long before I read it. And I did not like the book Jane Austen Book Club but love the film.
I also have undying love for both versions of Howl’s Moving Castle but they’re very different beasts, I would call the movie inspired by rather than adapted from the DWJ book.
Oh also The African Queen is one of my favorite movies but I really didn’t enjoy the book at all
I love the movie, I didn’t know it was a book!
@Stacey Allnut (Bogie’s character) has a Cockney accent in the book written COMPLETELY in dialect, it drove me up a wall
That would be annoying!
@Stacey it’s honestly a bit boring compared to the movie but here’s hoping you enjoy it more than I did!
To Kill A Mockingbird was good. Charlotte’s Web was spot on. I loved The Natural movie but hated the book.
The Hate You Give
That is awesome to hear! My daughter read the book and is now hosting a movie watching party on Friday for this!
@Tegan I’ve been worried about this one not living up to the hype so haven’t seen it yet.
I really enjoyed it. Try watching it and let me. Know whatcha think
@Tegan ?
Came to write this movie. It was such an amazing movie!
The Outsiders!!! By far- best book to movie adaptation ever. Lots of good ones but this one is the best!?
Crazy Rich Asians
The book is entertaining but has a TON of details to keep up with. The movie did an amazing job bringing it all to life and showcasing the extravagance of the details in the book.
@Katie i Loved this movie ?. IMO – enjoyed it more than the book . The casting was great for this one
Still not over that wedding scene ?
Obsessed with this movie! ?
@Katie I loved that wedding scene
@Katie so much Asian excellence!!?❤️ I literally cried in the theaters
Drive. My least favorite Sallis book made a solid film.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Love, Simon
I did not care for the movie version of Dumplin or the series version of A Discovery of Witches. Both paled in comparison to the books.
@Holly but which did you think were good adaptations?
I love the Stardust movie so much more than the book
Fight Club. This is Where I Leave You. Romeo + Juliet (the Leo and Claire 90’s version!) to name a few that haven’t already been mentioned.
I’ll second fight club!
Shawshank Redemption!
The princess bride, atonement, game of thrones.
Shawshank Redemption
I know they modernized The Great Gatsby, but I thought it followed the story pretty well! I loved Me Before You as well.
Stardust is the first that came to mind
The Princess Bride, Holes, Fight Club… all had good books and possibly even better movies!
The Devil Wears Prada is such a better movie than the book.
Cujo.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Came here to say this.
Lord of the Rings. Some of my other favourite movies are also books but I haven’t read them and probably never will because I love the movies too much. Like Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries books are cute, but the movie is sooo well done. The Queen in the books is also less likable than Julie Andrews.
@Jennifer every now and then I get the urge to read them just to get more of the story but then I also don’t want to start comparing the two
I loved the movie The Lovely Bones. I thought it was very well done!!
Weird, I really disliked the movie. The book had me sobbing and emotional, while the movie just made me want to start a punching spree hahaha
I haven’t read or watched since like high school though. Maybe I’ll go back and rewatch/reread.
Lord of the Rings does a great job of cutting the unnecessary and building on the books strong points while keeping the spirit of Middle Earth.
The Fault in Our Stars, both made me cry equally ?
The lord of the rings, the lion the witch and the wardrobe, the princess bride, game of thrones season one!
The Godfather, LOTR, Me Before You
I really liked the TV miniseries adaption of Stephen King’s It. Partially because it’s my favourite actor (Tim Curry) paired with my favourite writer, partly because it was as scary as the book.
The 2017 film was okay but didn’t match up.
I read “IT” right before the 2017 movie was coming out because I heard it was going to be a great adaptation. Throughout the whole movie I kept complaining to my BF “this isn’t how the book was at all”. I was sorely disappointed. I think it would have been good if I didn’t have that expectation.
@Megan I love the allure of Curry’s Pennywise so much more. He was so creepy because he was luring children to their deaths by being friendly! Skarsgard’s Pennywise was just scary.
I thought the child actors performed very well, but I agree that some of the movie was lacking.
I thought a simple favor movie was better than the book!
I think the Hunger Games Trilogy was well done on screen…
@Mary highly agree
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Personally I liked the movie better than the book! I thought they made Kitty and Chris more likable.
@Victoria I loved the movie too! Watched it multiple times.
Stardust!!!
@Brianna yes!!!!
A Painted House by John Grisham
Dredd was epic
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hate U Give
Contact by Carl Sagan
Stardust
The Princess Bride
Howl’s Moving Castle
Fight Club
Dirk Gently
Practical Magic
Forrest Gump (never read the book)
Sherlock
Endeavor
Jurassic Park
LOTR, Pride and Prejudice the BBC miniseries, the Mel Gibson Hamlet, the Emma Thompson Much Ado About Nothing
Holes, The Hate U Give, Fight Club.
Anne of Green Gables. The one with Megan Follows.
@Ashley co-sign
North and South by John Jakes. 2 weeks of Patrick Swayze with a hot Southern accent!
@Rachel Man, North and South was soooo good.
@Donna I loved it so much I made my husband take me to Charleston and to the plantation they used for Mont Royal.
I thought the divergent movie was better than the book
Very much agree! Shailene Woodley did a fantastic job.
Annihilation. It had the approval of the writer, as he and the director are friends, to be more of a ‘dream’ of the book than a proper telling. I think it got into a lot of aspects the novel avoided, and it did so cleverly.
Pride and Prejudice TV series on BBC!! Colin Firth is the perfect Mr. Darcy!!❤️❤️
Henry V, based on Shakespeare’s play with Kenneth Branagh is amazing. Also The Hollow Crown series is so good. ? Shakespeare nerd here.
Pride and Prejudice (2005) is one of my favorite movies ever.
Although it went to the weird side, i love Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal tv series.
Silence of the Lambs was good.
And David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is also a personal favorite.
Omg, so many!
I love Pride & Prejudice, the film and BBC mini series so much.
And the first season of the Hannibal show was really interesting, though it went weird FAST.
The Haunting of Hill House. I honestly hated the book but LOVED the show.
@Tahira haven’t read the book and i hear the show is very different, but i really liked it a lot.
They are very very different. I love scary stories and saw the show before I read the book. I was disappointed with the book.
Holes hands down
Black Dahlia.
Holes definitely. I also really like the Water for Elephants movie.
Cranford ,Return to Cranford and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. The BBC did absolutely stellar productions of these.
The Handmaids Tale & Mr. Mercedes are two of my current favorite book to TV series adaptations
☺️I really liked Gone Girl and Crazy Rich Asians
I loved Room by Emma Donoghue. I thought Brie Larson was spectacular. Was so wonderful seeing how close to the book they kept the movie.
@Ashleigh I just scrolled down to see if someone else would say this!! My favorite adaptation ever. Larson and Tremblay were amazing.
@Kacey yes! Think I’m going to watch it when I get home tonight. Been in my head since I wrote this comment.
Both made me cry buckets. Brie Larson is incredible.
It’s not mentioned enough, but The Color Purple is a masterpiece of a film. Especially when you factor in the behind the scenes factors – Spielberg’s fight to have it made because no one believed in or wanted to fund it, casting an unknown actress at the time (Whoopi Goldberg) in the lead role, iconic scenes that were improvised….. Just amazing.
I really liked how The Help was adapted to the silver screen
How to be single. The movie was ten times better than the book
@Katrina I loved the book so much that I was scared to watch the movie. the trailer looked super different from what I remember about the characters. Is it closely related to the book at all?
Vampire Diaries. Lol it just became like an alternative universe
*Shutter Island
*Gone Girl
*Fight Club
*The first few seasons of Sherlock is good too
*A Clockwork Orange
@Anna I love Sherlock!
Perks of being a wallflower
Atonement!
White Oleander
Kind of old school but The Indian In The Cupboard!
Or any of the Dan Brown books ? The books are still better but I thought the movies were all great!
Crazy Rich Asians
The Colour Purple
Pride and Prejudice (BBC TV Series)
Crazy Rich Asians
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
Memoirs of a Geisha
To Kill a Mockingbird
Alias Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale and the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice
ditto on Alias Grace. The book was slightly tedious but the netflix version was perfect
Wonder. It didn’t have all the details that i felt were important, but thhe story was portrayed SO WELL and the casting was perfect! It still made me very emotional
The Martian. Lord of the rings. Birdsong (TV). Stardust.
@Carol the Martian is such a good movie I didn’t know it was a book.
@Abbi book is awesome!
Clockwork Orange
Stardust, Big Fish, The Princess Bride, The Hitchhiker’s Guide, The Notebook, Holes.
@Amanda I have never seen or read the notebook.
The movie is infinitely better.
I love what the did with the Handmaids Tale series. I was very worried when I first heard they were making the book into a series, but I think they are doing an excellent job.
anne of green gables!!!
The Outsiders.
Stardust, Cloud Atlas, The Handmaid’s Tale, LoTR, Holes
The Color Purple
The Road
Holes and Stardust
@Joanna those 2 also get my vote!!
The Princess Bride for sure. I could not get into the book, but it is one of my all time favorite movies.
I enjoyed Big Little Lies… I couldn’t finish the book.
Memoirs of A Geisha
I thought the movie about Miss Peregrine was way better than the book. I hated the book, but I saw the movie 2x in theaters.
This! Eva Green as Miss Peregrine was amazing
I thought You was a great adaptation!
Game Of Thrones ? I love the fact that everyone is older in the tv show :p
Haunting of hill house. I actually liked it better than the book. The 90s The Stand adaptation was pretty good too.
Requiem for a Dream and and The Hate U Give
Time traveler’s wife!
I didn’t know this was a book!
The Handmaid’s Tale. I love the show way more than the book.
The Fault in Our Stars
I totally agree, I love both so much!!
The Spectacular Now, Room, We the Animals
The Shining!!!!
I loved the book, I didn’t like the changes they made in the movie!
The Princes Bride!
Z
The Heiress
The Innocents
A Place in the Sun
Death in Venice
The Leopard
Cyrano de Bergerac (the Depardieu version is my favorite, but the Ferrer ranks a close second)
Seven Days in May
The Crucible
Death of a Salesman
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Fences
The Designated Mourner
Steel Magnolias
Agnes of God
The War of the Roses
I love Death of a Salesman. Have never seen the Dustin Hoffman film though.
The hunger games. Five feet apart.
The Bridges of Madison County. Most of the John Grisham novels.
Ella enchanted ! The entire story was changed! It made me want to cry
I thought the Great Gatsby movie adaptation was far better than the book!
The first two Hunger Games films did pretty good. It’s been al while since I read/watched them, but I remember that I thought the last two films did a bit more poorly for the last book. But I think still not bad.