I recently watched the new version of DUNE on the SciFi channel and was vastly disappointed. People always expect the worse when they hear a book is being turned into a movie. Just curious if anyone can come up with a case where the movie did indeed live up the book's expectations/standards.

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"I'm nobody's Tonto."

Misery was a good movie that earned Kathy Bates an Academy Award.

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"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day."
Harry S Truman

Nope, I don't think that any movie that I've seen ever was better than the book.

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Mickey Mouse
Oh Lord give me patience...NOW!

There have been some pretty decent versions of Jane Eyre. And Hitchcock's version of "Rebecca" was pretty darn good. "Gone With the Wind" was good, although it didn't follow the story accurately. The three versions of "Little Women" that I've seen were done quite well.

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Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness.

I always thought Silence of the Lambs held true to the novel. You're right about Misery, scottm. Is this just a suspense/horror thing? :P

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"I'm nobody's Tonto."

What about "The Green Mile," "To Kill A Mocking Bird" and the BBC 1995 production of "Pride and Prejudice?" All of those movies were very successfully made from books

I can't believe I forgot my favorite movie. This is not from a book, but rather a play. Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. It is pure genius.

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Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness.

Wasn't sure if anyone could come up with book-turned-movie successes, it's all too easy to point out the negative. Glad to see people are thinking. Now I'm curious as to how or why you think they succeeded. When I mentioned Silence of the Lambs...hrrmph, karma...it had nothing to do with the right amount of gore. LOL Although, the pickled head shot did tickle my toes. I thought it caputered the essence of the characters, and held true to their emotions, their motives, their instincts, their causes and effects. Not to mention that it did follow the story line/plot accurately.

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"I'm nobody's Tonto."

I think Steven King's "The Stand" deserves a spot on this list. Although there may have been a few things ommited, I was just as taken by the movie as I was the book.

The GODFATHER the only movie thaat I have ever seen that was as good as the book if not better. It was just a fantastic movie.

I am of the opinion that Ridley Scott's "Bladerunner" was an impeccable rendition of the immortal and beyond genius Philip K. Dick's "Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep". While it changed many characters and the plot was somewhat different, the main motif and underlying questions/characters remained the same. Another that comes to mind that was as good -- if different than the novel -- is Carl Sagan's "Contact". "1984" also springs to mind, as well as the made for tv version of "Animal Farm". In fact, if I were so inclined I could probably find several dozen quality adaptations of books to film.

A couple that I'm desperately hoping are as good as the story/novel that are coming out are: "AI", "Neuromancer", "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Queen of the Damned", etc.

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Mr. Tangent [the binary police]

"Religion is a magic device for turning unanswerable
questions into unquestionable answers." -Art Gecko,
Wombat Discord-1, 128649

You know what I hate most about movies-turned-books? Its how they leave so much darned detail out. Also, (don't think I'm crazy) it's an insult to the book. The book was written to be READ. To encourage thouhgt, not brain rot. (WHOA! To much poetry in lit class. next thing you know, i'll be speaking in limricks.) Books should be read, adored, loved and observed. Not wacthed brainlessly, poorly acted, poorly rewritten. Not to metion that some people think that watching books-turned-movies is an excuse to reading.

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"I used to hate math because it had to many numbers. Now I hate math because it has to many letters." ~Me, in Algebra.

"The Neverending Story", directed by Wolfgang Pederson, was as good as Michael Ende's book. Both were absolutely wonderful and among the pillars of my childhood. Part of the formula for success was that the movie didn't try to absorb the entire, richly detailed book; instead, it adapted only about the first third of the text, which was quite capable of standing alone.

Sadly, "Neverending Story Part II", based on the next third and not directed by Pederson, was absolutely wretched. And I never could bring myself to watch Part III.

"The Sweet Hereafter" based on the Russell Banks novel was very close to the book with a few exceptions and was a good movie. However, it is very dark and may move too slowly for some viewers. The movie was directed by Atom Ergoyan and the screenplay was nominated for an Oscar (it lost out to Good Will Hunting). "