Bad Book to Film Adaptations - or I expected nothing and I’m still let down

Less Than Zero is legitimately the worst

The book is all about the culture of nihilism and decadence in LA. It ends on a snuff film and the lead losing his friend to prostitution

The movie decides the entire thing was a cheesy anti drug message (despite everyone in the book continuing to snort cocaine and pop xanx)

To this day that movie has destroyed the reputation of the book. It turned a scathing critique of hedonistic excess into drugs are bad m'kay

Was Robert Downey Jr. at least good in it? He's the only reason I had an interest in it.
 
Was Robert Downey Jr. at least good in it? He's the only reason I had an interest in it.


Yeah he's great but it's just such a huge waste of time to people who've read it. Its not even a particularly good anti drug movie. Requiem for a dream and Trainspotting do it better

No scenes from the book and every character is turned into a cardboard cutout
 
Yeah he's great but it's just such a huge waste of time to people who've read it. Its not even a particularly good anti drug movie. Requiem for a dream and Trainspotting do it better

No scenes from the book and every character is turned into a cardboard cutout

I like Trainspotting but am not a fan of Requiem. Basketball Diaries is my go-to drug movie. Although is that technically a book adaptation? The real guy wrote poetry.
 
Stanley Kubrick's Lolita made a lot of changes that don't really work. Apparently the script was written by Vladimir Nabokov but Kubrick heavily edited it, so I don't who made what changes. Anyway the one of the biggest changes was turning Quilty into more of a character which may sound good on paper but completely misses the point of his character in the book. Clare Quilty was Humbert's double and supposed to be his dark reflection (or a truer version of him). There also is the fact that the ages and maturity were changed to make Lolita seem older and Humbert more sympathetic which again misses a big part of the book. In the second part of the book Humbert constantly complains about plain and annoying Lolita's personality is and doesn't even have anything close to a change of heart till maybe near the end of the book.
 
Stanley Kubrick's Lolita made a lot of changes that don't really work. Apparently the script was written by Vladimir Nabokov but Kubrick heavily edited it, so I don't who made what changes. Anyway the one of the biggest changes was turning Quilty into more of a character which may sound good on paper but completely misses the point of his character in the book. Clare Quilty was Humbert's double and supposed to be his dark reflection (or a truer version of him). There also is the fact that the ages and maturity were changed to make Lolita seem older and Humbert more sympathetic which again misses a big part of the book. In the second part of the book Humbert constantly complains about plain and annoying Lolita's personality is and doesn't even have anything close to a change of heart till maybe near the end of the book.

The Kubrick version is bad and so is the remake from 1997 with Jeremy Irons.
 
I also didn't mention The Golden Compass in 2007. The moment I heard it was going to be adapted, I figured it was going to be butchered with the anti religious themes and abuse from the church being removed or toned down and turned into a magic and colorful adventure. Not only that, several major events were left out, certain ones happened out of order, the changed ending and the last two to three chapters weren't even adapted. I'm glad it flopped. The best thing from the movie was the salt from religious groups wanting people to boycott believe it would make people become atheists.
I can’t see the first book turning someone athiest, but damn the second book almost turned me Evangelical it was so euphoric :neckbeard:
 
I can’t see the first book turning someone athiest, but damn the second book almost turned me Evangelical it was so euphoric :neckbeard:
Agreed. His Dark Materials in general comes off as Pullman trying to write an atheist version of The Chronicles of Narnia without any of CS Lewis's talent or charm. The third one, the Amber Spyglass or whatever, comes off as especially euphoric and bitter by portraying God as a senile old man who the heroes then kill.
 
Sonic weapons are an actual SF and real world concept. If you can tell me how a movie made in 1984 could convincingly portray flash-stepping kung-fu and not look fucking ridiculous, make your own damn movie.

Oh sure, because there was absolutely nothing else in there that didn't look 'ridiculous'. That would have been the deal-breaker. They portrayed Baron Harkonnen as a scab-faced, shrieking lunatic who apparently bathes in a combination of engine oil and his own vomit instead of the manipulative genius he was, Feyd's only purpose essentially consisted of tooling around in a metal speedo and then being killed by Paul...
 
Oh sure, because there was absolutely nothing else in there that didn't look 'ridiculous'. That would have been the deal-breaker. They portrayed Baron Harkonnen as a scab-faced, shrieking lunatic who apparently bathes in a combination of engine oil and his own vomit instead of the manipulative genius he was, Feyd's only purpose essentially consisted of tooling around in a metal speedo and then being killed by Paul...
I've never understood the problem with Baron Harkonnen having boils on his skin. Fat people don't typically have great skin, and Baron Harkonnen is all about excess. It kind of fits.
 
I've never understood the problem with Baron Harkonnen having boils on his skin. Fat people don't typically have great skin, and Baron Harkonnen is all about excess. It kind of fits.

Yeah, and every time he's onscreen, I'm surprised he hasn't gained weight from chewing on the scenery. If you have to portray him as being an almost comedic level of insane to make it clear the villain is the villain, you're really insulting the intelligence of your audience.

Bad or not, the TV adaption portrayed Vladimir more correctly than that thing did.
 
Technically this still counts because King's film adaptations - in my opinion - are really bad book-to-film adaptations.

The absolute worst one that Stevie's had a hand in is Cell in my opinion. Yes, the book wasn't all that great towards the end, but god damn was the concept interesting and really put a fun twist on the idea of a zombie apocalypse.

The movie, however, took almost everything that was well done in the book and threw it out the window. It felt more like a generic thriller/horror/sci-fi flick than a proper survival horror film.
 
Yeah, and every time he's onscreen, I'm surprised he hasn't gained weight from chewing on the scenery. If you have to portray him as being an almost comedic level of insane to make it clear the villain is the villain, you're really insulting the intelligence of your audience.

Bad or not, the TV adaption portrayed Vladimir more correctly than that thing did.
>Villain

I'm sorry, are you implying Dune has heroic characters outside of pre-ghola Duncan
 

I hate that they made Ellie the kid that dies and not Gage. There's something infinitely more fucked up about having a sweet little toddler that barely even began to live turning into this murderous hellspawn undead monster. Ellie's job in the book is to spout cryptic vision shit a la King's penchant for having psychic children.

...This adaptation looks like wasted shit.
 
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