Movie or tv series

cthia wrote:I know what you mean. When I think of good books made into movies, I immediately think 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind.' It even rivaled the very good book. 'Hunger Games' is okay so far.

What are you talking about? Close Encounters of the Third Kind was written as a screenplay. A book adaptation came out after the movie, not before.

Hi MaxxQ,

Heinlein should have created the Society for Aesthetic Deletions to protect his work.

Actually they've made a couple of sequels even further from RAH's masterpiece, and a Saturday morning cartoon series that showed a lot of bug blood etc.

If they could get Hollywood $upport for that trash, Honor shouldn't have any problems, assuming they fix Nimitz and all the ridiculous comic figures at Tales of Honor, etc.

Given the $100M brain dead monster they made [it was actually closer to a Dutch marine PR film director Verhoeven made back in 1965 than the book] and the pitiful excuses made for not having powered armor because it was impossible [Lost in Space which came out at the same time had a CG armored suit] or intelligent humans NTM gross plot misrepresentations and insults to RAH etc everywhere they could.

There are so many things wrong with the movie hours could be wasted on what doesn't deserve the attention.

Yet I have a friend who liked the movie then read the book and thought it was really great but still claimed he liked the movie despite agreeing how bad it was.

So being human, anything is possible with your reaction.

L

MaxxQ wrote:

ripsql wrote:**quote="TheGlyphstone"**

Starship Troopers is pretty infamously a movie that was written separately then attached to the name for marketing. The director was on record as having only read the first chapter or two, then putting the book down and forgetting about it.**/quote**

Haven't read the book. Kinda enjoyed the brain washing setup of the movie. ...Cough
Anyways, I did hear about the difference to put it mildly from the series and the movie. I think the biggest part of it was doogie howser in the totalitarian getup...that is the impression I got from reading the discussion on how bad it was.

Neil Patrick Harris was the *least* of the problems with that "movie". Singular - there *are* no other Starship Troopers movies, and if I had my way, there wouldn't be the first one, either.

Read the book.

John Prigent wrote:If I had to nominate my favourite for 'worst-ever movie from a good book' it would simply have to be The War of the Worlds. About the only things that weren't changed from Wells' story were that the action took place on Earth and the invaders were from Mars. A truer conversion to movie format would need to be a steam-punk film, and that might work rather well - as long as it stayed set in England and had an English-speaking cast. And NO unneeded brat tagging along!
Cheers
John

I have been hoping for decades that someone would make a War of the Worlds set in the period the book took place. That said, I think the 1953 version is light years better than the Tom Cruise remake, although that one had a few (*very* few) good points.

Frankly, if someone would do a film version of Jeff Wayne's musical version, I could die happy. At least despite the rock music, it was set in the proper time period.

Overall, though, I'd prefer to see a straight version based directly on the book.

lyonheart wrote:Hi MaxxQ,

Heinlein should have created the Society for Aesthetic Deletions to protect his work.

Actually they've made a couple of sequels even further from RAH's masterpiece, and a Saturday morning cartoon series that showed a lot of bug blood etc.

I am unfortunately well aware of the "sequels" (and the cartoon). I just prefer to acknowledge them even less than I do the first alleged "film".

I just wish a decent version had been made prior to that piece of sh... crap. At least then, I could do what I did with my kids regarding War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still - I made them watch the originals before letting them see the remakes. The bad part is that they didn't really appreciate how much better the originals are. They preferred the flashy effects and overblown action of the later films.

You guy's are aware that in 2005 there were 3 versions of War of the Worlds released? The Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise blockbuster, a direct to video one with Jake Busey and a shoestring budget version supposedly 'faithful to the source material'.
I have seen parts of the Jake Busey version and it is probably one of the worst movies released that year, but still managed to get a sequel.
I have not viewed any of the 3rd one. Not even sure it is available for streaming anywhere.

pablopinzone wrote:You guy's are aware that in 2005 there were 3 versions of War of the Worlds released? The Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise blockbuster, a direct to video one with Jake Busey and a shoestring budget version supposedly 'faithful to the source material'.
I have seen parts of the Jake Busey version and it is probably one of the worst movies released that year, but still managed to get a sequel.
I have not viewed any of the 3rd one. Not even sure it is available for streaming anywhere.

Interesting. I did a quick wiki search and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Well ... (2005_film)

I may have to get the DVD just to check it out. I think I'd also like to see War of the Worlds – The True Story, mentioned later in the article.

3 quick notes:
1)No book has ever been succefully trasposed into a movie because of all the 3rd person observations that are pointed out to the reader, not to mention the thoughts of every character in the book. So many details really do detract from the story.
2) I despise the new Trek movies for oh so many reasons,however they did exatly what the executives whated them to do, What abrams and the writers were told to do, make star trek popular agian. and it has, not to the level it was, but it has helped.
3) I agree a TV seriers would be better except for the idea that there still isn't enough time to work everything in, unless is a 22 episode season, not the new 10 episode seasons, and if the show is canceled mid-season, then you could be stuck on bad cliff hangers.

The ones that have fake ads for 80% off at such and su=ch store, today only...?

Michael Everett wrote:

John Prigent wrote:If I had to nominate my favourite for 'worst-ever movie from a good book' it would simply have to be The War of the Worlds.

I assume that you're talking about the more recent version because the first film version was pretty good, while the radio play was inspired.

Seriously, how many radio plays cause mass panic?

MaxxQ wrote:Overall, though, I'd prefer to see a straight version based directly on the book.

I would like to see this done as well. Though to be accurate they'd have to change HMS Thunder Child from a Duncan class Pre-Dreadnought back into it's actual form as HMS Polyphemus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_%281881%29

Mike.

Michael Riddell wrote:

MaxxQ wrote:Overall, though, I'd prefer to see a straight version based directly on the book.

I would like to see this done as well. Though to be accurate they'd have to change HMS Thunder Child from a Duncan class Pre-Dreadnought back into it's actual form as HMS Polyphemus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_%281881%29

Mike.

I can get behind that. Nice bit of info there.