HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Jul 26, 2013 11:54:20 GMT -5
Inspired by the deal breaker thread.... (no spoilers, please!)
I read The Life of Pi last month and just saw the movie last week. My H was laughing at me because I didn't see the "twist" coming in the book at the end and I was all !?!?!?!!!. I was thinking about it... and for those of you who have seen it, you will understand. But I think in a book, just about anything is plausible and real because you are using your imagination to imagine the whole scene, the whole book, everything. When you see it in a movie, it's all CGI and special effects and your eyes are telling you "that ain't real!". Anyways, after seeing the movie, I enjoyed it, but I really liked the book much, much better. Though the book had some really gross parts that weren't in the movie.
So for me - the book wins.
What other book v movie would you like to opine on?
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jul 26, 2013 12:03:09 GMT -5
For me, it's always the book that's better. The only movie I can think of that was on equal footing with the book was Misery. Any other thing that gets made a movie of, the book is always better. There's more room in a book for details and explanations that might make the movie too long. My 2 cents
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2013 12:03:25 GMT -5
I saw all 3 of the Swedish Dragon Tattoo movies and I will not be watching the Hollywood versions any time soon. Noomi Rapace was perfect casting IMO.
And I thought those were just as good as the books, which is an accomplishment for any film version of a book.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Jul 26, 2013 12:05:17 GMT -5
The only movie I can think of that was on equal footing with the book was Misery. Probably because hearing those crunching noises .... oi. That and Cathy Bates is just a phenomenal actress.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Jul 26, 2013 12:28:59 GMT -5
I was really surprised by the Hollywood version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was far better than I was expecting. I need to watch the Swedish versions of the other too.
I read Life of Pi back when it was supposed to be the book club book for the boards. Anyway I watched the movie this weekend and I agree it seems contrived and made up. Someone told me I had to watch it that it was amazing. I was disappointed. Maybe because I'd read the book.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Jul 26, 2013 12:33:21 GMT -5
L.A. Confidential was a better movie than book. I like James Ellroy but sometimes there are just too many tangents - the movie version was much more streamlined.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 26, 2013 12:37:05 GMT -5
I remember doing a comparison/contrast essay back in HS for a book/movie where the book came first. I picked John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief". I remember spending most of the movie explaining to my dad (who hadn't read the book) all of the details that were missing from the movie because he was horribly confused the whole time.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2013 12:57:48 GMT -5
I remember doing a comparison/contrast essay back in HS for a book/movie where the book came first. I picked John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief". I remember spending most of the movie explaining to my dad (who hadn't read the book) all of the details that were missing from the movie because he was horribly confused the whole time. I refuse to watch Grisham movies if I have read the book. Not one of them has been good.
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Clever Username
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Post by Clever Username on Jul 26, 2013 13:03:13 GMT -5
The Books were great. The Sweedish verisons were good. The Hollywood version was passable. The Hollywood casting director failed.
I'm halfway through Gone Girl and I just saw that Fincher is directing that too. Shall we come back in a year or two and debate their execution on that one?
Speaking of Fincher, the Fight Club movie was better than the book. Paulanick needs a better editor, his work always feels like short story anthologies more than novels.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Jul 26, 2013 13:05:49 GMT -5
Under the Tuscan Sun- I like the movie better than the book. I couldn't finish the book.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Jul 26, 2013 13:09:00 GMT -5
I'm halfway through Gone Girl and I just saw that Fincher is directing that too. Shall we come back in a year or two and debate their execution on that one? I am interested to see how Gone Girl comes out. I love the book. I actually went back and read all of her books. They are making Dark Places into a movie as well and I can tell by the casting listed that they've already effed it up.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Jul 26, 2013 13:10:59 GMT -5
Aren't they casting Ben Afflick in Gone Girl? That seems like a miss to me.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Jul 26, 2013 13:14:02 GMT -5
Aren't they casting Ben Afflick in Gone Girl? That seems like a miss to me. Yes. he's currently the only person on the cast list on IMDB. They have Charlize Theron cast for Dark Places. which- NO. I could see her in Gone Girl. but the character in dark places is supposed to be really small, like SHORT, almost childlike.
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perhaps
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Post by perhaps on Jul 26, 2013 13:15:24 GMT -5
I usually like the book way more than the movie. As others have said, the movie does not have a chance for all the necessary character development and details.
However there are a few where I have liked both the movie and book:
To Kill a Mockingbird Rebecca The Great Gatsby (the Robert Redford version....I have no desire to see the new version)
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jeep108
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Post by jeep108 on Jul 26, 2013 13:16:23 GMT -5
Princess Bride was a better movie than the book.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 26, 2013 13:23:35 GMT -5
I could totally see Ben Affleck as Nick in Gone Girl! that said, I did not like that book. and as I said in the "book club" thread, I really didn't like Life of Pi.
I just finished reading Mystic River last night, it ended pretty much how I thought it would. I suppose I should see the movie some time. I spent more time trying to figure out which parts of Boston were supposed to be which parts of East Bucky, even though I knew it was all a mishmash anyway.
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ontrack
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Post by ontrack on Jul 26, 2013 13:27:47 GMT -5
I remember doing a comparison/contrast essay back in HS for a book/movie where the book came first. I picked John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief". I remember spending most of the movie explaining to my dad (who hadn't read the book) all of the details that were missing from the movie because he was horribly confused the whole time. I refuse to watch Grisham movies if I have read the book. Not one of them has been good. The only one I liked was the Client. I thought they did a good job with that one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2013 13:29:00 GMT -5
How about musicals? Wicked was a much better musical than book.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Jul 26, 2013 13:30:00 GMT -5
Hopscotch was a better movie than book. I saw the movie first and went and tracked the book down because I assumed the book was going to be better. Nope.
*-*-*-*- I lifted this from wiki
Hopscotch is a 1980 American film directed by Ronald Neame and produced by Otto Plaschkes. It was written by Bryan Forbes and Brian Garfield, based on Garfield's novel of the same name.
The film is a comedy starring Walter Matthau as Miles Kendig, a renegade CIA agent intent on publishing a memoir exposing the inner workings of the CIA and the KGB. Sam Waterston and Ned Beatty play Cutter and Myerson, Kendig's protégé and his obnoxious, incompetent, and profane former boss, respectively, and are repeatedly foiled in their attempts to capture him and stop the publication of the damaging memoir. Herbert Lom is Yaskov, the sympathetic KGB agent with an equal interest in his capture. Glenda Jackson plays Isobel von Schoenenberg, his Austrian love interest who helps him stay one step ahead of his captors.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Jul 26, 2013 13:34:09 GMT -5
I could totally see Ben Affleck as Nick in Gone Girl! that said, I did not like that book. and as I said in the "book club" thread, I really didn't like Life of Pi. you're the first person I've heard say they didn't like it. Curious- What about it did you not like? the story line?
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jkapp
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Post by jkapp on Jul 26, 2013 13:42:36 GMT -5
I saw all 3 of the Swedish Dragon Tattoo movies and I will not be watching the Hollywood versions any time soon. Noomi Rapace was perfect casting IMO. And I thought those were just as good as the books, which is an accomplishment for any film version of a book. Good call...the hollywod version was awful (at least for the first one). I enjoyed the Swedish ones a lot more, and agree that the casting was top notch.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Jul 26, 2013 13:44:31 GMT -5
Generally what I've noticed is the movie cuts out unnecessary content. Which makes sense when you think about it. You have to fit a few hundred page book into a two hour movie, not everything is going to make it. Sometimes I think that's a good thing, as it cuts down on the unnecessary exposition that permeates a lot of books. On the other hand, the world and characters often feel less fleshed out.
For example, I read the first book of the Lord of the Rings trillogy, and saw the movie. I thought the movie was better because the author did go into too much detail about trivial things. The movie cut ouf the fluff, so to speak. But I've been told that the Harry Potter books/movies are the opposite. That the cut content really fleshes out the world.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jul 26, 2013 13:45:13 GMT -5
I could totally see Ben Affleck as Nick in Gone Girl! that said, I did not like that book. and as I said in the "book club" thread, I really didn't like Life of Pi. you're the first person I've heard say they didn't like it. Curious- What about it did you not like? the story line? I'll tell you what I didn't like about it, I saw it coming halfway through the book. BEFORE the journal finished.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jul 26, 2013 13:47:08 GMT -5
Generally what I've noticed is the movie cuts out unnecessary content. Which makes sense when you think about it. You have to fit a few hundred page book into a two hour movie, not everything is going to make it. Sometimes I think that's a good thing, as it cuts down on the unnecessary exposition that permeates a lot of books. On the other hand, the world and characters often feel less fleshed out.
For example, I read the first book of the Lord of the Rings trillogy, and saw the movie. I thought the movie was better because the author did go into too much detail about trivial things. The movie cut ouf the fluff, so to speak. But I've been told that the Harry Potter books/movies are the opposite. That the cut content really fleshes out the world. The problem is defining what is "necessary content". If people find a film confusing when they haven't read the book before, someone did a bad job of fishing out the needed stuff. I've explained movies to DH because they just cut too much out. (wish I could remember which ones, I watch and forget, it has to be awesome for me to recall much about any movie)
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Jul 26, 2013 13:48:39 GMT -5
I thought they would have cut more of the violence out of the Hollywood version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was surprised by what they left in.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 26, 2013 13:50:05 GMT -5
I could totally see Ben Affleck as Nick in Gone Girl! that said, I did not like that book. and as I said in the "book club" thread, I really didn't like Life of Pi. you're the first person I've heard say they didn't like it. Curious- What about it did you not like? the story line? which one? pretty much what CL said for Gone Girl. Life of Pi just dragged and dragged. it easily took me longer to read than books twice the length just because I could only take so much before I had to walk away for awhile.
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Icelandic Woman
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Post by Icelandic Woman on Jul 26, 2013 13:51:52 GMT -5
I always think the book is better than the movie. The only movie that comes close to being as good as the book is Gone With The Wind.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jul 26, 2013 13:52:01 GMT -5
you're the first person I've heard say they didn't like it. Curious- What about it did you not like? the story line? which one? pretty much what CL said for Gone Girl. Life of Pi just dragged and dragged. it easily took me longer to read than books twice the length just because I could only take so much before I had to walk away for awhile. You know, I disliked Gone Girl so much, I never even noticed you had referred to 2 books in the original review. lol
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Jul 26, 2013 13:53:00 GMT -5
I always think the book is better than the movie. The only movie that comes close to being as good as the book is Gone With The Wind. It hit the high points and the story didn't suffer. It's a beast to read though. I try to do it once every decade.
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jkapp
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Post by jkapp on Jul 26, 2013 13:57:39 GMT -5
I can't think of many movies that were better than the books... Lord of the Rings did a good job of making movies from some very detailed books, but the books still had a lot more back story. The extended versions of the movies added a little more, but still missed/altered some things. Very well casted though. I thought the first two Harry Potter movies flowed from the books well, but then the books started getting more detailed, with extensive side stories, that made the movies seem lacking. And the movies began to feel "pressed for time" to try to tell what little story they did manage to bring in. Another well-cast set of movies, though, so I do give points for that I do think the first Jurassic Park movie outdid the book...but probably due to the excellent special effects that put my imagination to shame
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