Movies/TV series that were so much worse than the books they were based on

[Bluejaye]

After reading what's in Edgy's thread, I thought we needed the flip side so everyone could bitch and rant about incredibly bad book to movie/TV series adaptions. There may be some spoilers in here too, read with caution.


To start the ball rolling here are a couple of mine.

War of the Worlds.
While the Gene Barry version from 1953 was a credible attempt for the time it was made, the Tom Cruise version was so bad that I struggled to watch it all and haven't watched it since.

Dune.
The original movie was good, I am a big fan and I own more versions (VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray/special editions) than any truly sane individual should. The scale of the movie was great, Kyle MacLachan's, Paul was close to the book and Sting's psychotic Feyd Rautha was brilliant. But the Sci-Fi channel's mini series was bloody awful. Paul was shown as a petulant little shit you'd have been happy to see get killed during the Harkonnen attack. They should never have pushed Chani's role back and brought a small, but important to the story character from the book and pushed it further into the limelight. The Emperor's daughter Irulan. They got the scale wrong, even worse than Sharpe's Waterloo.
Knowing how big a Dune fan I am someone went and bought me the second mini series, Children of Dune. I still have watched it, I just know they're going to have fecked that one up too.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

The Green Berets. The book, although a bit dated, is an interesting read. John Wayne trying to portray an active Green Beret Colonel just was not believable. Also, watching that cock smoker George Takei play an ARVN officer is fucking hilarious, because y'know, them oriental-types be interchangeable (See Jack Soo, a Korean also playing a Vietnamese). Don't matter none that he's Nissei, let him play a zipper head. Why not? That scene where the Duke's helo crashes is one of the unintentionally funniest moments in film history. Watching Timothy Hutton's dad get impaled on a booby trap was also pretty entertaining. And that little kid, Ham Chuck or whatever the fuck.........I know children can be pretty good actors but holy dog shit. That portrayal was cringe inducing.

The level of shittiness is so strong with this that I've contemplated creating a drinking game. Whenever someone is giving a terrible performance, take a drink. You'd die of alcohol poisoning before the second act.

 

[DrakeM]

"The Last Ship" by William Brinkley is a brilliant post nuclear war novel following the last few survivors. The TV series of the same name has absolutely nothing in common with the novel except that both take place on a ship. The TV series isn't terrible but it is complete bullshit that they based it on the novel (which the credits claim). If you can still find it, buy the book, worth a read and it will stay with you.

 

[himperv203]

Sherlock Holms--- the movies suck

 

[freeones_regina]

Under the Dome by Stephen King, I loved the book but they did such a bad job with the tv show. I'm surprised it even got 2 seasons.
I quit half way through the first season because I could not stand how they changed the characters and the story.
I don't understand why they never stay close to the source .

That said they fuck up most adaptations of his books.