With it being Tuesday that means it’s Top Ten Tuesday and this week the topic is the best and worst book to movie adaptations.
Best Movie Adaptations:
1. Pride and Prejudice: Both the mini-series from the 90’s and the early 2000’s adaptation are amazing, that 2004 adaptation though. I could watch it all day, there’s an amazing cast, the movie was so well done, and don’t even get me started on Matthew MacFayden as Mr. Darcy…
2. The Reader: This book was amazing and Kate Winslet, I don’t think a that a movie that she’s in can possibly be bad.
3. Generation Kill: So, this is a mini-series which might be cheating, but oh well because it is so well done it’s not even funny. Definitely not for the faint of heart though.
4. Speak: Even though I’m hardly Kirsten Stewart’s biggest fan, Speak is a book that deals with tough situations and the movie just blew me away when I watched it.
5. A Walk to Remember: So good. I cry every time.
6. Choke: Another one that’s definitely not for the faint of heart, courtesy of Chuck Palahniuk. Choke is a crazy book and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this adaptation came together.
Worst Movie Adaptations:
1. Dear John: I love, love, loved this book so naturally I had to see the movie when it came out. The ending completely destroyed it for me. I was fuming coming out of the theater.
2. Starship Troopers: This book was my first science fiction novel so I was hoping I could sit down watch the movie and enjoy it… Nope. It was terrible.
3. The Da Vinci Code: Suffice it to say I was so disappointed in Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. It saddens me to this day.
4. Twilight: Yes, I went there. So, this movie didn’t have the best starting place to begin, but the first movie could have been so much more. I mean really. Even comparing the second and third movies to the first, you can see the difference.
So those are 6 of the best and 4 of the worst movie adaptations I can think of. Agree? Disagree? Have some others? Please share!
Among Stories 
Definitely agree with you about P&P. Great book, excellent adaptations.
Loved the series Generation Kill. Totally blew me away with its raw and real depiction of modern warfare. I’ve just picked up the book so I expect to be reading it soon.
The movie of Starship Troopers was a travesty. Loved the book, loathed the film.
I don’t think either lead in The Da Vinci Code came off very well (much as I love Audrey Tautou). Thought the book was disposable fun but the film bored me. The less said about Angels & Demons the better!
The movie of Twilight was so bad I think I threw up in my mouth at one point (only kidding but you get the point). I’m coming up to my next batch of books which has a Vampire theme. I’ve challenged myself to read the book – bought before I saw the movie to see how bad it really is. I’m already gritting my teeth!
I hope you enjoy Generation Kill when you read it! I love it, so of course I want everyone else to love it too, lol.
As if Starship Troopers wasn’t bad enough, they made a second movie I found out. I don’t even want to know what that one’s like. -_-
And the only reason that Angels & Demons isn’t on my list is because of Pierfrancesco Favino. I love him and don’t have the heart to call anything with him in it bad, haha.
Good luck with Twilight! It’s a quick read so it’ll be over soon.
Oh, I believe that they made *several* sequels to Starship Troopers and each one was worse than the one before. If they’re available you should check out the Troopers animated series. It wasn’t bad. Much better than the movie(s) anyway!
I think I’ll follow Twilight with the Bram Stoker classic – Dracula. That should clean my mental pallet.
I saw A Walk To Remember before I read it and was so disappointed in the book. Movie was way better.
I completely agree that the first Twilight movie was so much more worse than the others, I’ve determined it was bad directing since the other ones turned out better.
It’s unfortunate about the first Twilight movie because I’ve seen other movies from the same director and they weren’t THAT bad. The ball was definitely dropped there.
I didn’t realize there was a movie adaptation of Speak. Such a good book. Glad to hear the movie does not disappoint.
Here’s my Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations.
I could not agree more on Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. It just was….wrong.