I was having a discussion the other day with a friend trying to think of times where the movie is better than the book and the only one I could think of is The Shining. I liked the book but I felt like the movie was so well done that it put it on another level.

Clearly this topic will be very subjective but any other example?

1/25/2014 11:36:30 PM

To Kill a Mockingbird

it eliminates the redundant passages and the performances are incredible

1/25/2014 11:40:13 PM

Children of Men
Forrest Gump
Blade Runner

1/25/2014 11:43:39 PM

Jaws
The Thin Red Line

1/25/2014 11:44:07 PM

Haven't read the book, but guessing Godfather.

Sticking with the op's Stephen King idea..

Misery the movie >>>

1/25/2014 11:53:43 PM

what??? the shining movie was good...Kubrick is a genius, but the book brings so much more depth and personal connection that the movie ever did.

i don't know if you saw this or not...i posted it tonight about an hour before you made this thread...
http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=634532&page=1#16002372

[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 12:29 AM. Reason : ]

1/26/2014 12:18:07 AM

Lord of the Rings movies.

Most nerds will find that blasphemous, but IMO Jackson is a much better storyteller than Tolkien. He was a peerless worldbuilder but the stories themselves were a bit stiff and the characters and dialogue weren't the greatest.

1/26/2014 1:42:08 AM

Fight Club.

1/26/2014 2:53:26 AM

^^^ more depth does not always equal a better experience and in this case I struggled through the book but loved the movie

1/26/2014 8:48:36 AM

i guess it's ok to disagree. the only problem i had with the book is that i've seen the movie so many times i couldn't picture jack as anyone but jack nicholson

1/26/2014 9:35:41 AM

Hunger Games

1/26/2014 9:45:36 AM

Quote :

"Haven't read the book, but guessing Godfather."

I've read the book and would say the book is better even though the movie did a fantastic job. Mainly because the book includes Vito Corleone's early years as well, which wasn't included until The Godfather Part II. It was just more of a complete story.

One that I haven't read but think the movie is probably better: The Shawshank Redemption.

1/26/2014 12:54:35 PM

Quote :

"Misery the movie >>>"

LOL WAT - no fucking way man. for as bad as the scene with the sledge was, it's 10x more brutal in the book. Not to mention the psychological fuckery was so much more intense in the book.

[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 1:20 PM. Reason : .]

1/26/2014 1:19:31 PM

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

1/31/2014 12:20:19 PM

I can't think of one. While the movie The Shining is awesome, the book has so much more stuff going on.

1/31/2014 12:29:05 PM

50 Shades of Grey

1/31/2014 12:43:56 PM

^^^^^
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204886304574308603266273652

1/31/2014 4:47:21 PM

The Road

1/31/2014 5:09:23 PM

^ Nah. The movie falls short in every way.

1/31/2014 5:35:52 PM

I actually found No Country for Old Men better than the book. Things go down a good bit differently in the book, and I just liked the movie better.

All of King's later books seems like they were written as screenplays in book format almost, so they could be easily translated into $$$ movies.

1/31/2014 9:22:51 PM

All LOTRs

1/31/2014 9:59:51 PM

Starship Troopers

I read the book after watching the movie multiple times. While i do like the central message of the book (as well as the action it brought in towards the latter half), the movie was just pure fun. truly ahead of its time.

1/31/2014 10:14:23 PM

Quote :

"I actually found No Country for Old Men better than the book. Things go down a good bit differently in the book, and I just liked the movie better."

I really need to finish that book, the movie is one of my favorites of all time. If I read the book, I could comment on which is better but I will have a hard time saying the movie was worse because it absolutely blew me away.

2/1/2014 10:48:52 AM

http://shortlist.com/entertainment/films/stephen-king-it-remake-imminent

2/12/2014 9:40:02 AM

Quote :

"Hunger Games"

Wow. How bad was the book?

2/12/2014 10:06:40 AM

^^ The movie will be better than the book only if we find out that it isn't a huge alien spider that is eating all the children.

Stephen King is great at stories, but he absolutely sucks at endings at times.

2/12/2014 10:39:27 AM

Quote :

"Forrest Gump "

Incorrect...that book was awesome.

2/12/2014 10:39:30 AM

Last of the Mohicans.

2/14/2014 2:30:26 AM

World War Z

I know it's totally different, but a more linear plot keeps my attention more than the interview style in the book

2/14/2014 3:30:28 AM

the passion of the christ

2/14/2014 7:31:05 AM

I can only name one, Lonesome Dove. Technically a tv mini-series and not a movie, but I always say this is the only movie that I've seen equal to the book [by Larry McMurtry], but primarily because the dialogue is almost identical to the book and it took 6 hours or so to tell the story onscreen. The casting was also phenomenal. Most movie adaptations try to fit everything in to a two hour window which is difficult.

And I have to disagree with the OP. Maybe it's because I was younger when I read the book, but nothing in the movie version of The Shining even comes close to doing justice to some of the scenes in the book. I remember actually having to stop reading that book once the sun set because it was too damn scary.

[Edited on February 14, 2014 at 11:31 AM. Reason : ....]

2/14/2014 11:30:51 AM

haha glad last of the mohicans and blade runner got mentioned, two books I read bc of the movies and was like wtf

I'll also throw in that mel gibson movie man without a face, the movie had a good message and then I tried reading the book and it was just some low rate gay fiction, can't believe what drew Mel Gibson to it

2/15/2014 9:14:39 AM

Quote :

"World War Z"

Surely you can't be serious

2/15/2014 10:07:35 AM

He is, and don't call him Shirley.

2/15/2014 3:25:59 PM

10 things i hate about you was mush better than the taming of the shrew.

2/15/2014 9:48:02 PM

Mrs. Doubtfire

2/16/2014 2:30:38 AM

^^^^I am serious. The book (for those of you who haven't read it) is broken up into interviews with various people before, during and after the zombie outbreak. It's an interesting read and a different take on zombie books but I just felt like some of the chapters drug on and the ones that were particularly interesting just end abruptly with no mention again. The movie had its flaws for sure and for those who were big fans of the book (I wasn't) it was an abomination. But, I got more actual entertainment out of the movie than I did reading the book.

2/16/2014 8:52:59 PM

Simon Birch/A Prayer For Owen Meany

2/16/2014 10:27:26 PM

TIL that Forrest Gump was adapted from a novel.

I am not a smart man.

2/17/2014 12:13:57 AM

Came in here to post last of the Mohicans, you guys are on point

2/17/2014 12:29:20 AM

^^It was very loosely adapted: The book is wackier, raunchier, and less historical.

2/17/2014 4:34:05 AM

yeah... forrest gump befriends a monkey, goes to space, and interacts with cannibals in the book.

2/19/2014 10:28:37 AM

Quote :

" One that I haven't read but think the movie is probably better: The Shawshank Redemption"

I read it and feel like this is true. I thought the book was good, but the movie changed a couple of important plot points for the better I think. It made prison much darker and corrupt than the book did, which makes Andy's ending more significant.

[Edited on February 19, 2014 at 10:34 AM. Reason : ]

2/19/2014 10:30:58 AM

I never read it, but I'm guessing "Stand by Me" is better than Stephen King's short story "The Body"?

[Edited on February 19, 2014 at 12:09 PM. Reason : ]

2/19/2014 12:09:20 PM

Quote :

"It was very loosely adapted: The book is wackier, raunchier, and less historical."

I could be wrong, but I thought it was fairly close (I read the book in 6th grade, so my memory is definitely fuzzy). I remembered the book having everything the movie had in it...plus a shit ton more. I thought the movie would have to have been about 6 hours long to include everything in the book...and some of the stuff they left out was very funny/entertaining. Therefore...I thought the book was better than the movie.

2/19/2014 12:27:46 PM

Quote :

"I could be wrong, but I thought it was fairly close (I read the book in 6th grade, so my memory is definitely fuzzy)"

Yeah, your memory is very fuzzy. Even the character of Forrest is vastly different from book to movie.

2/19/2014 12:37:34 PM

Oh well...18 years ago. I liked it when I was 12!

2/19/2014 7:20:17 PM

I can only think of one 100% legit example, and that's

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next

For me, awesome books are far more prevalent than awesome movies. so if a movie does justice to a phenomenal book, then that almost amounts to being "better." But not quite.

The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, the Silence of the Lambs, and Forrest Gump all do justice to their mother-novels...but I wouldn't venture to say that any is better.

2/19/2014 9:21:36 PM