Have you ever seen a good film adaptation of a book? It seems like most films that're based from a book aren't that good (at least, compared to the book.) Today I watched Asylum. The book was pretty average, so I was expecting the movie to be average too...such a simple plot, even with the "twists", I thought they couldn't get this wrong...and sure enough, it was horrible. Seems I have seen very few movies based from novels that were any good. The only one I can think of that didnt ruin the book at all is Mystic River; no doubt one of the best adaptations, used lots of the same dialogue from the book.

What were some books that became movies that weren't ruined and you enjoyed?

Schindler’s List
A Time to Kill
Doctor Zhivago
Goodfellas
The Godfather
Psycho
Forrest Gump
Willard
Shawshank Redemption
The Haunting
The Grapes of Wrath
1984

Misery and Pet Semetary are the first that come to mind that were pretty much like the books. The Shining movie sucked, the book was definetly better.

^ How could I forget those? Steven Kings novels usually translate well on screen.

What TheDarkKing thinks about the Misery film

Quote :

Misery is a brilliant adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. The movie is close to the storyline with some additional parts, such as the character of the sherrif which only increase the viewer’s knowledge of the main characters.

The film is a suspenseful thriller, a drama and sometimes even a horror movie. It has all the right ingredients: a seemingly innocent place, the growing feeling that something isn’t right until a thrilling climax.

Kathy Bates, who won an Acadamy Award for this role, is amazing as Annie. She is able to switch moods so convincingly that you never know what will happen next when she’s entering the door. Will she bring some food or does she cut off another limb of Paul? Kathy Bates masters the difficulty to play a believable psychopath without being ridiculous for one single second.

The tension in Misery is comparable with Norman Bates’ Psycho. Kathy Bates is brilliantly mentally unstable! James Caan plays the injured writer very well and you can’t help but feel for him. The scene where Annie smashes Paul’s ancles is one of the best scenes in the movie, although it’s hard to watch.

Misery being no classic horror movie is still scary, creepy and extremely exciting.

After you watched this movie, you will think twice if you want to be famous and have thousands of fans. It could be that Annie Wilkes is among them as your number one fan.

Everything in that article is true, especially about Kathy Bates, she is a brilliant actress and she scared the hell out of me in Misery! Great flick for people that have not seen it, I recommend it.

I still wince when I think about her breaking his ankles. And I'm not the type who gets queasy easily.