LibriVox Forum

Timothy Ferguson wrote:The later Harry Potters. I thought they needed a hard edit, and in Goblet of Fire, the film, they received it.

Ditto!!

Oops, sorry about my first post, I misread the title.

As for movies better than books, definitely "The Bonfire of the Vanities"! The book was so boring, but I thought they did a great job on the movie. I quite liked some of the unusual camera angles, but had to close my eyes when they filmed over that strange carpet from above. I was starting to feel sick!

Definitely with you on the Princess Bride and Mary Poppins. I still need to finish the Mary Poppins book.

Ones I noticed were "Freaky Friday". Of course the Jodie Foster version is still a winner but I remember the two other films being better than the book.

Also "Bedknob & Broomsticks" as well. There was some neat extras in the book, but the film won out for me.

Oh, and "Escape To Witch Mountain" it's been a long time, that's almost a toss up, but I've obviously watched the 1975 film more than read the book.

There is also the Jeremy Brett, 1980's Sherlock Holmes series, but for me that worked in tandem. The episodes helped me get through reading a great
deal of the stories, but they made some alterations like with "The Greek Interpreter" that weren't so far-fetched as to be unrecognizable to the story and
helped resolve certain issues. (Plus seeing Mycroft in any active mode is a rare treat.)

I have a question on this: Is there any "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" film adaptations (I know there are likely zillions) that worked better for anyone? It's a constant juggle for me. (The story was great for my insomnia! -or am I thinking of Rip Van Winkle? )

Morlock wrote:I have a question on this: Is there any "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" film adaptations (I know there are likely zillions) that worked better for anyone? It's a constant juggle for me. (The story was great for my insomnia! -or am I thinking of Rip Van Winkle? )

I've seen only one: the highly entertaining Disney cartoon version. I think it might actually be called "Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman"; I'm not sure. If you like cartoons it's quite entertaining though. Brom Bones is highly reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast's Gaston.

Gaskell has already been mentioned but... I like the North and South mini-series better than the book.

I like the film War Horse much better than the book. The book is less exciting than the film

The original film of Planet of the Apes. Especially the last scene if you are not expecting it.

patrickjeaton wrote:The original film of Planet of the Apes. Especially the last scene if you are not expecting it.

I hadn't realized that Planet of the Apes was a novel!

gypsygirl wrote:

patrickjeaton wrote:The original film of Planet of the Apes. Especially the last scene if you are not expecting it.

I hadn't realized that Planet of the Apes was a novel!

Golly, yeah. If remember the credits right, it was a French novel. I agree with the poster from Kenilworth -- a brilliant novel, by the way:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1606

-- that the original film is the one. So long as you ignore the bad science and engage in a "willing suspension of disbelief", the original film is good entertainment. Charlton Heston got out while the going was good. The films get worse as time goes on and as those who benefit hammer the franchise into the ground.

The very worst one is the most recent with Helena Bonham-Carter as a supposedly sexually attractive monkey. (?!?) That's not normal ... where I come from at least. And to be frank, I know what they say about long voyages but there aren't enough light years around to make Helena Bonham-Carter in a monkey-suit attractive.

Mike001 wrote:If remember the credits right, it was a French novel.

Oh, it's the same author who wrote Bridge Over the River Kwai, I see.

gypsygirl wrote:

Mike001 wrote:If remember the credits right, it was a French novel.

Oh, it's the same author who wrote Bridge Over the River Kwai, I see.

That's interesting. Quite some achievement to have had two major films made of his books by foreign directors.

I looked him up, and I see that Bridge on the River Kwai comes partly from his personal experience.


The apes are pretty hard to take seriously. They have a fairly low standard of material culture -- there are no vehicles, for example -- and yet they have express rifles. Here they are at 0:40 mins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcpRHuPjOI

While it would be possible to make these in a shed, as opposed to on a modern production line, using drawings in old books -- but how did the old books survive the nuclear holocaust? -- or from a surviving example, surely you'd need machine tools to do it? Wouldn't you need high-quality modern steel, too? Are the apes supposed to have discovered the Bessemer Process? And, apparently, they can make the propellant, and make ammunition to sufficient tolerances, for the weapons not to foul or jam.

But those kinds of things are minor besides the problem that the apes -- and several different species of ape simultaneously at that -- have presumably evolved a superior intelligence in short order. What's the cause of that? And why haven't their skull sizes and shapes -- and, in general, their physical morphology -- changed along with the encephalization? ...

But it's fun, if you ignore all that.

Hobbit wrote:

Morlock wrote:I have a question on this: Is there any "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" film adaptations (I know there are likely zillions) that worked better for anyone? It's a constant juggle for me. (The story was great for my insomnia! -or am I thinking of Rip Van Winkle? )

I've seen only one: the highly entertaining Disney cartoon version. I think it might actually be called "Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman"; I'm not sure. If you like cartoons it's quite entertaining though. Brom Bones is highly reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast's Gaston.

I know this is forever ago, but I'm here and I just want to say, "Yep! That's the first version I knew of. And likely that's the best fun we could have from that story. They were rather nice to Ichabod."

D.

At the risk of being tarred and feathered, I would say any film adaptation of anything Charles Dickens wrote, because you don't have to endure all the blah-blah-blah 1800s endless wordy prose for hours at the time, it actually ends within a short time and you don't have to ever think about the book again!

Have you tried actually listening to one of our readings? In Dicken's days they were written as serials and published weekly often. And very often read to other people while they darned socks and hemmed sheets and did other really exciting jobs. One of my ancestors rode about 20 miles every Saturday to buy the nect episode and then read the serial in the evenings to his family. So they really were written to be read aloud. They were like the soap operas of the times, written for everyone not just the literature buffs - sort of the soap operas of their times.

Anne

Well, I... That is ... You see...
Hey! Look!
[*points over your shoulder*]
WHAT IS THAT?!?!?!?
[*runs the opposite direction*]