Best book that was turned into the worst movie....

[Pooh21]

The Sum of All Fears thanks to the terrorists in CAIR.

That would be like letting switching the baddies in Gung Ho! (released 1943) from Japanese to Haitians

[59funkman]

"We Were Soldiers..."

As disgrace to the men who were at Albany and X-Ray.

[lasersailor184]

"We Were Soldiers..."

As disgrace to the men who were at Albany and X-Ray.

Wrong.  They guy who cuts my firewood was in that Battle.  He said it's dead on.

[Cthulhu]

Wrong.  They guy who cuts my firewood was in that Battle.  He said it's dead on.

Absolutely. One of the most factual military movies ever. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway made sure they got it right.

[59funkman]

You guys apparently didn't read the book.  There's about 30 minutes of completely fictional material at the end of the movie, where Hal Moore leads a charge up the mountain and captures the NVA HQ, with Snake Crandall (flying a gunship of all things) providing close air support at a range of about 10 yards. 

Didn't happen.  Not even close.  The NVA still held the mountain at the end of the battle.  Moore's battalion was relieved and went home to lick their wounds.  One of the relief battalions was then slaughtered by NVA elements when they tried to withdraw on foot to LZ Albany.  This takes place in the second half of the book which is entirely omitted from the film.  Oh, and Snake didn't fly gunships until a couple of years later.

If you have a friend who says he was there and the movie is correct, he's either got memory issues or he's lying.

[ODBAL]

Cat in the hat, hands down!  Great book, and the original film, although a cartoon was spot on with the book. But, the live action film was a farse, it sickened me.

[Mustaine]

Can't believe Michael Crichton hasn't been mentioned..

Sphere
Congo
Jurassic Park series (yes 3 and 4 written FOR the movie)

I haven't seen Coma so I can't comment on it.

Sphere left out SO many plot parts it was ridiculous. Congo, I don't have words for that disaster, if you saw the movie don't bother reading the book it will taint it.

[DYNAMITE]

Mustain you're so right it hurts...

Congo bit gnuts!  Such a disappointment after reading the book... actually pretty much all of them were.  I'm I big crichton fan and the moves are such let downs.

[bongaroo]

Can't believe Michael Crichton hasn't been mentioned..

Sphere
Congo
Jurassic Park series (yes 3 and 4 written FOR the movie)

I haven't seen Coma so I can't comment on it.

Sphere left out SO many plot parts it was ridiculous. Congo, I don't have words for that disaster, if you saw the movie don't bother reading the book it will taint it.

I enjoyed sphere the movie, I'm assuming the book is even better?  will having seen the movie ruin the book?

[Mustaine]

I enjoyed sphere the movie, I'm assuming the book is even better?  will having seen the movie ruin the book?

umm NO.

<EDIT> oops thought you said Congo... but yes that book may be ok... only just ok.

If you imagine queen latifa at any time set the book down and step away forever.

Samuel Jackson's character was the only one based even remotely on the book, though a munge of 2 or 3 characters. I'd guess he was the ONLY one who actually read the book in preparation for the movie.

for me watching Jurassic ONE before reading the book actually helped a bit. I had a "face" to the dino's, and could imagine in my mind the scenes. It's like that though with a book about something no one has ever seen. Jurassic was another "rated R" book, death and more horrid death. even the character Hammond was eaten alive in the book. I would suggest if anyone enjoyed Jurassic and hasn't read the book to do so. It can be more vibrant in your mind if you let it.

[Reschke]

I gotta go with The Sum of All Fears. Hollywood started screwing with Clancy books too much in Clear and Present Danger and even though I think Without Remorse would be a kick butt book I cringe thinking about how Hollywood would screw with the book to "make it work for film".

I thought that Willem Dafoe played a decent John Clark in that as setting the stage for Ding Chavez to begin taking a lead role in the books as a setup for Rainbow Six a few years afterward. If they were going with a current actor for a young Clark as in the Without Remorse movie I would suggest someone like Thomas Jane as Clark if they move ahead with Without Remorse in the near future or maybe even that guy that plays on the tv show Las Vegas as the ex-Marine (Josh Duhamel)...or maybe even Ryan Reynolds. Who knows.

[bj229r]

Can't believe Michael Crichton hasn't been mentioned..

Sphere
Congo
Jurassic Park series (yes 3 and 4 written FOR the movie)

I haven't seen Coma so I can't comment on it.

Sphere left out SO many plot parts it was ridiculous. Congo, I don't have words for that disaster, if you saw the movie don't bother reading the book it will taint it.

Ahem <cough cough>

Timeline---utterly butchered the can't-put-it-down-book by Michael Crichton, turned it into a bad Arnold move (which is of course, redundant)

[Rich46yo]

"Cold Mountain" is one of the great works of American Literature.

The movie was horrible.

[lasersailor184]

You guys apparently didn't read the book.  There's about 30 minutes of completely fictional material at the end of the movie, where Hal Moore leads a charge up the mountain and captures the NVA HQ, with Snake Crandall (flying a gunship of all things) providing close air support at a range of about 10 yards. 

Didn't happen.  Not even close.  The NVA still held the mountain at the end of the battle.  Moore's battalion was relieved and went home to lick their wounds.  One of the relief battalions was then slaughtered by NVA elements when they tried to withdraw on foot to LZ Albany.  This takes place in the second half of the book which is entirely omitted from the film.  Oh, and Snake didn't fly gunships until a couple of years later.

If you have a friend who says he was there and the movie is correct, he's either got memory issues or he's lying.

If I can remember correctly, something similar but not exact happened in the book.  But I'm shooting from the hip here to say that.  So I've just started rereading the book.