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OT: Name a Movie or Series better than the Book.

Bulldog Bruce

Bulldog Bruce

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Another post brought this topic to my brain. So many times movies or shows actually fall way short of the book they are adapted from.

I actually have 3 in mind but it will only give one for now. Field of Dreams is miles better than the Book, Shoeless Joe, that it came from.

What else ya got?
 
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Lettuce

Lettuce

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I’d say Jurassic Park. The Lost World was a better read, however.

Both of those novels were really good tho
 
Duggar Hall Desk

Duggar Hall Desk

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Bulldog Bruce said:
Both the books were way better than the movies. Especially since Spielberg changed the Lost World to King Kong the T-Rex.

No Micheal Crichton adapted movie is as good as the book. Most are horrific.
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Congo (the movie) was terrible, One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I hadn't read the book before I saw the movie and promptly got the book because I thought, "No way Crichton wrote something that bad." I was right.
 
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Lettuce

Lettuce

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Duggar Hall Desk said:
Congo (the movie) was terrible, One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I hadn't read the book before I saw the movie and promptly got the book because I thought, "No way Crichton wrote something that bad." I was right.
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Agree. Congo was an awful watch.
 
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johnson86-1

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Bulldog Bruce said:
Both the books were way better than the movies. Especially since Spielberg changed the Lost World to King Kong the T-Rex.

No Micheal Crichton adapted movie is as good as the book. Most are horrific.
Click to expand...
Yup. I would put Jurassic park up there as one of the better adaptations but just not going to be as good as a good book.

I remember liking the rising sun movie. I watched that before reading the book. I think that helps movies a lot.

The Harry Potter movies did a really good job too.

Don’t know that I’ve got any movies that were better than the book.
 
Lettuce

Lettuce

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Bulldog Bruce said:
Both the books were way better than the movies. Especially since Spielberg changed the Lost World to King Kong the T-Rex.

No Micheal Crichton adapted movie is as good as the book. Most are horrific.
Click to expand...
Yeah they left a ton of detail out of the movie…but I was really into dinosaurs as a child and into grade school and read the book in Jr High. It kind of drug on…my attention span was short.

The movie at the time blew me away.

I need to reread both, I love Crichton.
 
DesotoCountyDawg

DesotoCountyDawg

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The Last of the Mohicans.

The movie is really good and that book is unreadable. Snoozefest.


The Count of Monte Cristo

Probably my favorite book that I had to read in high school and the 2002 movie is just as good as the book. It changes the story a little but stays pretty close.
 
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Villagedawg

Villagedawg

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I’ve not found one. Or at least I can’t remember one. I think it comes from two things. 1. Reading is such a personal experience where you create everything-visuals, sounds, etc and you are immersed while movies try to do all that for you and are therefore less compelling. 2. You just can’t put everything from a complicated novel into a couple hours on the screen and there’s no way to get the nuance without a narrator which is clunky and again not personal.
 
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Dawgbite

Dawgbite

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I like to watch a movie and then read the book to compare the two. Lonesome Dove is almost word for word with the book. Neither is better nor worse than the other. Shawshank redemption and Stand By Me are two movies that are better than the book, although both were short stories rather than books.
 
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DesotoCountyDawg

DesotoCountyDawg

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Dawgbite said:
I like to watch a movie and then read the book to compare the two. Lonesome Dove is almost word for word with the book. Neither is better nor worse than the other. Shawshank redemption and Stand By Me are two movies that are better than the book, although both were short stories rather than books.
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And Shawshank bombed in the theater. Cult classic.
 
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DAWGSANDSAINTS

DAWGSANDSAINTS

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Jaws, movie is better
So far, 11.22.63 the series is better.
Amityville Horror, the book is better.
The Firm - ? Maybe the movie is but a toss up.
I like John Grisham books and I think most of them are better than the movies.
 
msudawg12

msudawg12

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Forrest gump was as good as the book. The book took him more places but they were both great.
I enjoyed the opportunity to eat dinner with Winston Groom one night. He was a truly interesting man. Forrest Gump is his only fiction book. The rest of his books are military history and they are all great. With that being said, he absolutely hates the “life is like a box of chocolates” line
 
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Ozarkdawg

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Not a big reader, so I haven't read these books but for those that did how to the 2 Terminal Lists series stand up tot he written versions? I did enjoy watching both.
 
She Mate Me

She Mate Me

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Based on the one James Patterson book I read about half of, I have to assume that everything of his (or whoever writes his books) that is adapted to a screen is better than the source material.
 
Bulldog Bruce

Bulldog Bruce

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Ozarkdawg said:
Not a big reader, so I haven't read these books but for those that did how to the 2 Terminal Lists series stand up tot he written versions? I did enjoy watching both.
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The Terminal List is like many adaptations. The Series is very good and the Book is very good. They are different stories and it probably makes sense for a video to do what they chose. I enjoyed both and didn't let the differences get me upset.
 
Bulldog Bruce

Bulldog Bruce

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The third movie I had in mind that is far better than the source is

How to Train Your Dragon.

The book is not readable and how they got the story that's in the movies is hard to figure.
 
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Bulldog Bruce

Bulldog Bruce

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DAWGSANDSAINTS said:
Jaws, movie is better
So far, 11.22.63 the series is better.
Amityville Horror, the book is better.
The Firm - ? Maybe the movie is but a toss up.
I like John Grisham books and I think most of them are better than the movies.
Click to expand...
Amityville Horror book is one of the scariest stories I have ever encountered. The movies suck.
 
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