Movies that pissed on the books they were based on.

[MikeKz]

If you want a Starship Troopers movie that's like the book, just watch Full Metal Jacket and imagine that they go into space instead of Vietnam.   

Thank God Total Recall became what it was.  I don't think a movie about a skinny accountant named Douglas Quail would be all that interesting. 

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen could have been easy to adapt into a movie.  The comic book has some nudity in it, but it's not all that essential to the story.  So if a studio wanted to cut that out to make a PG-13 movie, they could and not compromise the original story.  The part of the story with the Invisible Man would be tricky.  Can one make a rapist into someone who fights for the good guys?  I don't know.   Other than that, there is no excuse to change what Alan Moore wrote.

[Tripe]

If you want a Starship Troopers movie that's like the book, just watch Full Metal Jacket and imagine that they go into space instead of Vietnam.   

Thanks for reminding me. Full Metal Jacket didn't exactly piss on The Short-Timers/i] but it certainly cut it short (much like another Kubrick adaptation).

Don't get me wrong I like both but I'd have liked to see a little more of the book.

[daltysmilth]

The Princess Bride is pretty faithful to the book.  In fact, much of the dialogue is taken verbatim from the novel.

This is somewhat off-topic, but the movie version of You Can't Take It With You really craps on the original play.  The original play is a delightful, absurd, almost Marx-Brothers-ian tale about an eccentric family clashing with an upper-class businessman's family.  The movie is basically Frank Capra shouting "Capitalism bad!" over and over.  I mean, it's slightly more subtle than that, but only just.

[Mr.Nobody]

The review I read yesterday for 'I am Legend' makes it sound like it definitely qualifies for this list.

[Tripe]

Really? Crap!

[PlayMSTie]

This is somewhat off-topic, but the movie version of You Can't Take It With You really craps on the original play.  The original play is a delightful, absurd, almost Marx-Brothers-ian tale about an eccentric family clashing with an upper-class businessman's family.  The movie is basically Frank Capra shouting "Capitalism bad!" over and over.  I mean, it's slightly more subtle than that, but only just.

Interesting interpretation. I didn't take quite the same message away from it -- though I think I see how you got that. But I agree with you that the movie is anything but subtle (even though I'm fond of it mostly for the sake of Stewart and Arthur's scenes together, especially the "scream scene"), and that hurts it. Unfortunately, several of the comedies from that era -- including what I'd call some of the best comedies of all time, like The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday -- have that same flaw. Brilliant when they're being funny and focusing on the character relationships; over-earnest, plodding, and sometimes even incomprehensible when they go into "message movie" mode. (I'm still trying to figure out, after multiple viewings, what that "guns are made for use" idea in His Girl Friday even means, let alone what bearing it has on the story.)