Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 803187 times)

pedln · « **Reply #3840 on:** August 30, 2014, 11:18:40 PM »

How many of you have read a book,
then watched a movie that was based on that same book?

Were you disappointed?
Or elated that they hadn't made any significant changes?
Or even surprised to discover the movie was even better than the book?

_______________________________

Books Into Movies Now on DVD
Recent Movies Based on Books
Books in a Series by Their Authors
Movies Based on the Book

Join us in an ongoing discussion of this very popular subject right now.
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Your Discussion Leader: pedln

Well darn, I think I lost a post here. Just wanted to say, I've heard so many good things here about LOngmire, I going to have to watch, read or both. Probably watch, I don't think all the books can compete with my current TBR list.

MaryPage, my little movie group here (early dinner, then watch film) watched Best Exotic M H last night. My 3rd time round at least, and still found it enjoyable. You're right about Penelope Wilton -- she's listed in the cast. Maybe that's the "earlier at the Best Exotic M H" part.

Last week we watched Tea with Mussolini, with an all-star cast including Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Joan Plowright, and Cher. Loved it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3841 on:** August 31, 2014, 09:30:55 AM »

Those are two of those oh so rare movie delights I can watch over and over and over again, always catching something I missed before!

marjifay · « **Reply #3842 on:** September 06, 2014, 12:22:15 PM »

We just watched a good 1952 noir film, THE NARROW MARGIN, with very good acting by Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor. When a mobster's wife (Windsor) decides to testify against his evil deeds she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Now that he's coming to trial she has to be escourted across country via train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown (McGraw) and his partner are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail."

I think this was even better than the 1990 version with Gene Hackman. Both available from Netflix.

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #3843 on:** September 07, 2014, 08:15:15 AM »

I watched the movie The Book Thief last night. I loved it. Beautiful, beautiful filming and great costuming. The acting, especially Geoffry Rush and Emily Watson, was superb. Everyone knows how great Rush is, but honestly, I don't think we hear enough of how topnotch Watson is. And always has been, right from her debut.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3844 on:** September 07, 2014, 11:44:09 AM »

MP, glad you found the Book Thief as beautiful as I did. Acting, filiming, screenplay from book...excellent.

pedln · « **Reply #3845 on:** September 07, 2014, 12:27:57 PM »

Thanks for the tip off about Narrow Margin, Marjifay. The Hackman isn't available yet from Netflix, but the 1952 version that you like is, and I've put it on my queue.

Here's an interesting link from the NYT, showing arts and entertainment that will be in NY this fall. You can play around with it and bring up a movie listing of films that are being released. There will be a new Maggie Smith. (I can't remember the title)

NYT Entertainment

Has anyone seen The Identical? Ashley Judd and Ray Liatta. What if Elvis had a twin? I'm not an Elvis fan, but they showed some clips on Morning Joe last week and it looks like it might be good. I'm sure my friend who waiting two hours in line to get into Graceland will want to see it.

Frybabe · « **Reply #3846 on:** September 07, 2014, 12:48:34 PM »

I just caught an article about A&E's cancellation of Longmire. I knew it was good, but the Screen Rant website article says is was the most watched drama series in A&E's history, and came second only to Duck Dynasty in number of viewers. I suppose A&E isn't Arts and Entertainment anymore. They seem to want to concentrate on Reality TV programming. Maybe they should change their name too. No word on whether they will be picked up elsewhere yet. I am hopeful.

Frybabe · « **Reply #3847 on:** September 11, 2014, 07:35:39 AM »

I managed to reconfigure my Comcast package. Now I get the same TV stations, but also have HBO and a much higher internet speed. And, it all costs me $20 less than I paid before. To back to Basic and up my internet speed would have actually cost more than I was paying. This is, of course, offset by what I had to pay out for more water pipe valve repairs. This old house sure feels like a money pit now that I don't work.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3848 on:** September 11, 2014, 09:31:04 AM »

Which is exactly why I downsized to a condominum. MUCH more compatible to the life style and fixed income forced upon me by my aging.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3849 on:** September 14, 2014, 01:27:16 PM »

If you get a chance, see "Magic In The Moonlight" with Colin Firth and Emma Stone. Lovely, lovely romantic comedy!
It is written and directed by Woody Allen, and I usually try to avoid any Woody Allen movies. This would be my exception! Beautiful settings, mostly in Provence. Witty repartee. Nothing objectionable in the entire movie!

marjifay · « **Reply #3850 on:** September 15, 2014, 01:31:37 PM »

Thanks, Tomereader, for your comments on the latest Woody Allen movie Magic in the Moonlight. I've been undecided about seeing it, but will now get to my theater where it is playing.

Have you seen the 2011 Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris? One of my favorite films that year.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3851 on:** September 15, 2014, 03:21:32 PM »

I did see Midnight in Paris (was this the one with Owen Wilson?). If so, the movie was neat, but I don't like Owen Wilson, so it detracted from my enjoyment. Kinda put the fact that it was a Woody Allen out of my head for a bit.

jeriron · « **Reply #3852 on:** September 15, 2014, 05:34:24 PM »

I like Woody Allen's movies that he isn't in. Most of them are good. Although I also enjoyed his newer ones that he was in. As long as he's playing his age(sort of) and isn't pared with a character that's in her twenties or thirties.

pedln · « **Reply #3853 on:** September 28, 2014, 10:30:46 PM »

Gone Girl premiered in New York this past week and it's next showing will be in my Missouri town Oct. 2. (No doubt in other towns too.) I'll wait for the subtitled DVD, a few friends want to see it, but a lot say they aren't going to see it. Cape Girardeau is a small city and the filming here is a big deal. I want to see it just to see who and what I recognize. The town is called North Carthage in the film and has been described as "an economically enfeebled town on the Mississippi where bad things can happen" and "is set in the recessionary present in a small fictional Missouri town, North Carthage ... desperate Anytown, U.S.A.: empty shops, vacant streets."

If any of you see it, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

This weeks TIME magazine has an interesting article about the film and about the book's author, Missouri-bred Gillian Flynn. She also wrote the screen play. An author to watch.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3854 on:** September 29, 2014, 09:05:26 AM »

I found the people in Gone Girl just too unbearably unlikable, and gave up on it in disgust. I can appreciate folk with the ability to write and to tell stories, but that book, like most of Joyce Carol Oates, is just too off the charts of plain everyday normalcy for my sensibilities to handle. Color me ordinary; I don't mind the appellation at all!

salan · « **Reply #3855 on:** September 29, 2014, 05:59:23 PM »

I agree, Mary Page. It was a ftf selection last year & most members felt the same way!
It was well written, but all the characters were just too unlikeable.
Sally

marcie · « **Reply #3856 on:** October 03, 2014, 01:45:26 AM »

I haven't read the book, Gone Girl, or seen the movie. There's an interesting, sort of humorous, review at http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gone-girl-2014 that almost makes me want to see the movie.

Here's a quote from the review:
And yet it never crosses the line and becomes too much a deconstruction or parody. It's a plot-obsessed picture that's determined to stay one step ahead of the audience at all times, and cheats when it feels it has to. It is a perfect example of a sub-genre that the great critic Anne Billson has labeled "the preposterous thriller," in which "characters and their behavior bear no relation not just to life as we know it, but to any sort of properly structured fiction we may have hitherto encountered."

ginny · « **Reply #3857 on:** October 03, 2014, 08:46:49 AM »

That's an intriguing review!

The quoted paragraph sort of sums up the book, too. I liked the book, very much. It's clever. You never know, you really don't, what's happening. who to believe, and who is telling the truth. You're in both of the character's heads, alternately. The ending is a stunner. It's hard to put down. Likeable characters? Maybe not. But the Ripley series featured a sociopath living another life on the surface, and it was wonderful.

And the book also never goes over "the line." It's an experience to read it because you are caught on both sides, every time, you swing back and forth.

Does it have a fairy tale ending with an Aesop's moral? No. Is it cozy and uplifting and sweet? No. But it has an ending that suits the characters.

It's one of a kind.

I can't imagine making a movie of it, but they say it's super!

marjifay · « **Reply #3858 on:** October 03, 2014, 10:16:05 AM »

I agree with Ginny about the book, Gone Girl. I really liked it. But I doubt I'll see the film.

There is a film just out in my favorite theater that I do want to see -- TRACKS, an Australian film, a true story, about a young woman who goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her faithful dog. One reviewer says, "I found it truly moving. It's a beautiful film - not just in it's transporting cinematography and landscapes, but beautiful for it's truthfulness, it's honesty. "Tracks" is both extremely poetic and extremely authentic - it's emotionally raw. I didn't find one false note in the movie - no melodrama or stereotype characters that you see in most Hollywood films. Mia Wasikowska's performance demonstrates that old line from Keats, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" - it's a great performance - the epitome of soulful."

Marj

marcie · « **Reply #3859 on:** October 03, 2014, 11:18:45 AM »

Thanks, Marj. I think that Mia Wasikowska is a wonderful actress. I'll look for TRACKS.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3860 on:** October 04, 2014, 08:35:33 AM »

Marcie, when I tried yesterday, and again today, to REPLY in the PBS forum, I find there IS no "reply" button. The first one showing is NOTIFY. But I do not know what that is for, so I hoped I could get your attention in here and ask if it is just my computer, or what.

jeriron · « **Reply #3861 on:** October 04, 2014, 09:20:34 AM »

No it's not you. I just went back and checked and there's no reply button. Weird!

ginny · « **Reply #3862 on:** October 04, 2014, 05:48:03 PM »

I have fixed it, somehow it got locked, it's good to go.

marcie · « **Reply #3863 on:** October 05, 2014, 02:48:30 AM »

Thanks for reporting the problem, MaryPage and Jeriron. Thanks, Ginny, for fixing it!

MaryPage · « **Reply #3864 on:** October 05, 2014, 08:13:46 AM »

Phew! Wish y'all could solve ALL of my problems that easily! Boy oh boy, I would rush in here and give you a list DAILY!

jeriron · « **Reply #3865 on:** October 05, 2014, 12:39:45 PM »

Me too!

pedln · « **Reply #3866 on:** October 08, 2014, 11:24:31 PM »

Tracks sounds good, Marjifay. The film is out, but not the DVD so it'l be a while before Netflix has it. The book on which the film is based is by Robyn Davidson, the woman who make the trek. It sounds like a long lonely walk to me.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3867 on:** October 20, 2014, 03:50:28 PM »

My daughter Becky reported to me last night that she took two of her grandsons (my great grandsons!) to see the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day over the weekend. She was not wildly enthusiastic, saying it was not the same as the book at all and was not as good as the book. That being said, she said the boys loved it and there was nothing objectionable and she enjoyed taking them.

ginny · « **Reply #3868 on:** October 29, 2014, 07:03:02 PM »

I expect this has nothing to do with books but on the subject of movies. I bought the original Avengers series. It's every one of the original black and white series (or at least so far), with Mrs. Peel in it...

It was very inexpensive, I can't remember what it cost, and it's something like 70 episodes. There was an awful lot of chatter I think it was on Amazon where I first saw it about how don't buy it, the disks are loose they've all scratched each other they had to be returned . But that's not the situation with mine. All of mine are on those folded out plastic things that holds all of the disks, and I haven't had a problem at all.

It's really amazing the quality of those old things, and you take them in order. And the first two episodes are just wonderful, they really are good.

I'm really enjoying the old series.

marjifay · « **Reply #3869 on:** October 30, 2014, 09:26:02 AM »

I also really liked the old 1960s Avengers with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel (was she Mrs. Peel, and if so was she still married or was she a widow?) and Patrick Macnee as Steed. Interesting that I don't recall there being any romance in the series between the two. All the episodes are available at Netflix.

As you probably know, Diana Rigg was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Does that make her now Lady Rigg?

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #3870 on:** October 30, 2014, 09:31:21 AM »

I just watched on Turner Classic Movies Dick Cavett's interview on his 1970's program with Alfred Hitchcock. Fascinating. Hitchcock said if he had to name his favorite of all his films, it would be Shadow of a Doubt with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. That was my favorite also. For those who like his films, what is your favorite? My least liked was Vertigo, probably because I don't care for Kim Novak's acting.

Now I'm going back and adding to my Netflix queue those few Hitchcock films I have not seen.

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #3871 on:** October 30, 2014, 11:32:30 AM »

No, no lady. It makes her Dame Diana.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3872 on:** October 30, 2014, 12:50:10 PM »

Now about Books Into Movies: Friday opens here "Before I Go To Sleep". It stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. If anyone read the book, you will surely be interested in seeing this movie. It hasn't received much advance notice (not like "Gone Girl") but I hope it will be enjoyable. My friend, the movie reviewer, said the movie Gone Girl was A-W-F-U-L. She said after the first 30 minutes she wondered what she was doing there! I haven't seen it, but I had high hopes that it would be much better than the book (which I hated). We seem to be in the Halloween/Horror/Zombie mode for TV and some movies. Can't be bothered with those and wish the movie moguls would save their money. I just glanced at my calendar and noticed that the same day I'm going to see Before I Go to Sleep, the live in HD version of "Carmen" will be showing at the same theatre. Darn.

marjifay · « **Reply #3873 on:** October 30, 2014, 12:59:58 PM »

Okay, MaryPage.

(I'd rather be called a lady than a dame (LOL)

Maj

MaryPage · « **Reply #3874 on:** November 01, 2014, 08:35:17 AM »

Ah, but remember

"THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DAME!"

Dana · « **Reply #3875 on:** November 01, 2014, 03:09:16 PM »

Talking of old tv series, a while ago my husband got absolutely TONS of episodes of Barney Miller dirt cheap somewhere. Anybody remember those? Anyway we got completely re hooked and happily watched the whole lot, it seemed like for months. Very funny, my favorite character always was Wojo, my husband's was the Japanese guy--who, we discovered died of throat ca halfway thru the series......perhaps not a politically correct series any more (like "Till
Death do Us Part"...or as adapted for the US, "All in the Family").... but fun.

marcie · « **Reply #3876 on:** November 02, 2014, 12:15:58 PM »

I remember watching the Barney Miller series faithfully and enjoying it. It sounds like the series stood up over the years for you, Dana. I found the closing few minutes on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPlIT24pj2U

I'm impressed by the number of actors who are also musicians or who can sing well. Hal Linden had an early career with the "Big Bands" and later starred in musicals as well as plays on stage.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3877 on:** November 03, 2014, 11:38:16 AM »

So, to tell you about the movie "Before I Go To Sleep". It has outstanding performances by both Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. Following the storyline of the book, Kidman does "wake up in a new world" every morning, not even recognizing her "husband" Colin Firth. Keeping to that storyline becomes a teeny bit repetitious even confusing when you are not quite sure if the scene is the one you saw before, or a new morning. After they get you into the groove of that, the story progresses, a bit slowly, as she gains tiny bits of memory. The doctor who is working with her, surreptitiously, is trying to increase these bits until she can recall how she became injured in the first place. As the movie progresses, I found my heartbeat speeding up! Not scared out of my seat, but reacting to the "thriller" segments. It has been quite sometime since I originally read the book, so I was unsure if they maintained the ending properly. Loose ends were tied up, so I had no quarrel with that. Frankly I didn't remember any of the storyline, except the bare bones so to speak, so I was awakening in a new world too!

pedln · « **Reply #3878 on:** November 12, 2014, 12:04:24 AM »

Tomereader, thanks for sharing your thoughts about Before I Go to Sleep. You've sold me and it's now on my Netflix queue. A good plot, a bit of mystery and outstanding acting. -- can't go wrong there. I've enjoyed the Colin Firth films that I've seen - especially The King's Speech and another biographical type Railway Man, about British Officer Eric Lomax who was imprisoned by the Japanese during WWII.

I havn't seen anything really really good lately. I did like the Longmire episodes and the DCI Banks, both recommended here, but am waiting for a terrific recent 5 star movie. Any suggestions?

MaryPage · « **Reply #3879 on:** November 12, 2014, 07:58:58 AM »

They usually bring out the big guns between Thanksgiving and Christmas; they seem to do this every year in order both to pull in the holiday shopping crowds and for Academy Award consideration.
I cannot recall (surprise! surprise!) all those I have read about in the past year that are to be released then, but I seem to remember several from books that have been popular AND, not for everyone, but most definitely for us, there will be the new Judi Dench/Maggie Smith/Bill Nighy, etc. about the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Is that what it is to be named? I do not know.

But we should have at least a couple of goodies.

News:

Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 803187 times)