What are some movies that are better than the books? - The book is always better, usually

I would add these since they were actually books before they were adapted to screenplays. And I didn’t know that for the longest time.

Forrest Gump
Jurassic Park
Silence of the Lambs (including the other books)

The one I read that was better on the big screen was Holes. That Disney movie with Shia LaBeouf before he went crazy and when Disney still did live action well.
 
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User names must be unique said:
Edge of tomorrow, that tom cruise groundhog day film with the aliens.
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I'd say that depends on one's tolerance to japanese bullshit, I perfer the book but get the people who don't. Either way mech suit> gay exo-skeletons and All You Need Is Kill is objectively a cooler title and I completely understand why they changed it.
 
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It's not better really, but seeing John Hurt's 1984 (made in 1984) before the book helped me get into the concepts somewhat. Orwell's writing is very easy to read though so it's not necessary in that order. A lot don't seem to like the movie but I thought it was great.
 
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Tarkovsky's Stalker. I mean it's more an adaption of the concept of the zone since basically none of the events of roadside picnic happens in the movie. Roadside picnic is a phenomenal book but stalker is a masterpiece directed by one of the best film makers of all time, even if you can describe the plot as "3 hours of people walking to a room and then don't go in".
 
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The News Crews said:
The Thing (1982)
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Schwarzwald said:
Clockwork Orange
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I agree with most of the choices ITT but I would quibble with these two specifically. If OP means "Who Goes There?" the short story, that's very much worth reading, and it's not super long either. A Clockwork Orange is also very much worth reading, but I could be biased because I'm a Burgess fan. It's also not super long, it's like 170 pages, maybe even less.
 
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Trainspotting. The book is written in dialect even less comprehensible than Robert Burns'. At least with a visual you can kind of figure out what's going on.
I never saw Naked Lunch but it had to have been better than the book. The book is borderline unreadable.
Schwarzwald said:
The Godfather
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Hard disagree. The book gives a lot more context and character depth than the movies provided. Plus the insane plot point of Sonny's giant dick and his mistress' unusually large snatch.
Schwarzwald said:
Clockwork Orange
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I think the book and the movie are about equal, with the exception of the last chapter which got cut from the movie because American audiences hate happy endings or some shit.
 
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Idiotron said:
Lord of the Rings, of course.
Books are shit, movies are pretty good.
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HEATHEN!

................

But as for the thread topic....

The Neverending Story was the first that came to mind. Michael Ende's original novel is pretentious, one of those that wants to beat you over the head with its symbolism and how clever the author is, while telling a story that is absolutely balls. Just for an example: In the novel when Atreyu finally meets the Gmork, the Gmork is chained up and nearly dying because of off-screen events. Then when Gmork finally realizes who he's been talking to.... he laughs, then just keels over dying. This is representative, actually: In the book neither Atreyu nor Bastion actually do anything, but mostly just show up so that things can happen around them that conveniently put them on the path to what they have to do next. It's just terrible.

The movie loses a lot of the pretention, is far more fun and imaginative (the original novel's version of things like the Nothing are actually kind of lame when they're explained), has that awesome theme song... and still manages to be profound in its re-interpretation of what the name "Neverending Story" actually means. The novel just goes with a typical "these events play out all over again every couple of years, that's why its neverending" thing. Compare that to the movie's "its neverending because we share in Bastion's story, who shares in Atreyu's story..." metaception thing.

The one thing that might make the book worth reading is that the movie only covers the first half of the book, and there is some interesting stuff in the second half (which has never been accurately adapted into a movie)... if you can stand the Ende-isms.
 
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