Movie recommendations - films of the books

by Crumpet 4 Replies latest social entertainment

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  Crumpet

  This week I watched two movies based on books I've read in the last few years.

  The first was The Night Listener by Armistad Maupin - a very good book - a thriller, with lots of twists and turns and enticingly written about a gay broadcaster who becomes friends by telephone with a fan, a boy who was horribly abused by both mother and father. When I heard they were making a movie I thought fantastic. So I finally got the movie in the post. Within about 15 minutes the mystery which occupies the first half of the book as I recall is revealed and exposed. I was flabbergasted. I mean I saw that Maupin was on the production team. Did he just lose his mind letting his creation be sullied and ruined like this? So I wondered how they were going to fill the rest of the film? It was crap - utter shite. Do not watch this movie. Robin Williams does his best I guess with such a pants script. There is no momentum. The best part was played by Robin Williams boyfriend - youngish hunky type. I didnt come away convinced he was gay though, but everything else in his performance was fairly convincing. Everything else seemed so insincere - I was really disappointed. And also the film was only about 70 minutes long - ridiculous. The editor/director/script writers and anyone who agreed to act in the movie all need shooting. 2 out of 10 and that generous.

  So the other movie I watched was Perfume: The Story of a Murderer based on the book by Patrick Suskind. I read the book a little while ago because it was rated quite highly by readers voting on a book poll by the BBC called The Big Read. Its one of those word of mouth books that just takes off and people who dont read from the moment they leave school get their hands on to look cool, read it and declare best book they ever read - omitting to mention its the ONLY book they ever read. So anyway I read lots, and frankly I was not all that impressed with the book. I liked the story, it was nicely written but didnt strike me as any great genius. Well I watched the film - AND WOW! I could kiss the feet of the the Director of photography Frank Griebe. And the Director Tom Tykwer. I had goose bumps for a full ten minutes towards the end of the film and realised I had stopped breathing altogether with the sheer power of it. Every image on the screen is indescribaly beautiful. It captures 18th century Paris exquisitely. Its an adult fairytale. I might have to watch it again before it goes back! John Hurt narrates - I love that man's voice, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman star along side the lovely vulnerable British answer to Christian Bale Ben Whishaw and a whole bevvy of unknown female beauties who are almost seen naked. But thats not why I loved the film - honest! It makes me want to go to provence immediately.I highly recommend this 8.5 out of 10.

  Have you seen any films that utterly corrupted the book or alternatively improved upon it in your opinion?
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  hemp lover

  I really want to see Perfume, more now that you've recommended it.

  I read the short story that Brokeback Mountain was based on after I had seen the film and I think they perfectly captured the sparse writing style of Annie Proulx. Both the movie and the short story tore me up, but I think the movie got to me more for some reason that I still haven't figured out. I wanted Heath Ledger to win Best Actor, because he built the character so beautifully from only the written word. Phillip Seymour Hoffman (who won instead) is one of my favorite actors, but he was doing an impression and I'm tired of actors being rewarded for imitation.

  There's a movie coming out this year that I'm very excited about. It's the first film adaptation of anything David Foster Wallace has written, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they manage to turn this into a movie. The book is exactly what the title implies: hilarious, sick, twisted, brilliant first person narratives by various fictional men. I think John Krasinski from "The Office" is writing the script and directing.

  And the book that absolutely sucked as a movie: Running with Scissors. How they managed to make that book boring is beyond me, but they did it. Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood, and it still sucked. And that's just sad and wasteful.
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  Madame Quixote

  I haven't been reading much for entertainment lately - just science - but I do love fiction and used to read it quite a bit. Any recommendations are appreciated.

  Cold Mountain - the book was very, very good and I was surprised by the movie's ability to inspire images that seemed nostalgic because they captured the imagery of the story, at least in a few captivating scenes. Still, the book was much, much better. You just cannot capture in a two hour film what depth a book can impart.

  I liked the movie Beloved much better than the book, probably because I have such trouble with reading dialect (and have a mental block too about Ebonics. I find it so distracting). I was greatly moved by the acting in Beloved, much more so than by the writing. Sometimes books and the stories they tell get so much hype that it's hard not to be let down when you finally get to see it or read it.

  I was also disappointed with the t.v. series based on the mystery-writer (whose name I can't recall); Finding Joseph was a great story and even done for t.v., it was good, but important details were left out and it seemed the motivations and detours of the t.v. show were lacking, although the filmwork was lovely.

  Any other recommendations? I'm falling asleep to Richard Dawkins lately.
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  misanthropic

  I really want to see Perfume, more now that you've recommended it.

  
  Me too. I haven't seen many films that were made from books (mainly because if I read it it is never as good as the actual book and that kind of ruins it for me). But Pride and Prejudice (the original one with Colin Firth) was very well done if you haven't seen it yet.
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  5go

  Count of Monte Cristo

  Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy

  The Right Stuff

  Flags of our Fathers but don't see it see the japanese one Letters from Iwo Jima

  Sorry I don't know more I do video games.