Books Turned Movies

Like the title says... books turned movies. There are so many of them I can't remember which movies I've seen weren't books first. And I have to admit... I RIP movies to shreds if I've read the book and liked it and find that the movie is NOTHING like the book.

Like Eragon, for example. Aside from the names there wasn't much in the movie that resembled the book. At all. And the first time I watched it I HATED it. I refused to watch it again for the LONGEST time. I couldn't BELIEVE that Christopher Paolini was OK with the way the movie turned out. I should never go see movies with anyone when something like this comes out, I ruined it for my husband who'd never read the books by telling him EVERYTHING that was wrong with the movie. After about a year I was finally able to watch the movie again and if I didn't think of the book at ALL it wasn't that bad.

Harry Potter. Now, I love the books AND the movies equally. I still pick the movies apart because that's just how I am. But they aren't SO different that I don't enjoy them at al. I look forward to the movie releases as much as I looked forward to the book releases. And lets face it, the Harry Potter movies are movies you can watch OVER and over again and not get tired of them. And can I just say, I absolutely LOVE the Harry Potter cover art. At one point I'd stumbled across the artist's page but I don't remember where.

Charlie and the Chocolate factory. One of my favorite stories/movies of all time. Another I can watch over and over again. But I mean the Johnny Depp version. Don't get me wrong, I love Willy Wonka. Lots of fond memories. But Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp is just more my style. And I love Deep Roy as the Oompa Loompas.

The Count of Monte Cristo. Oh my gosh, I LOVE Jim Caviezel. He has got to be one of the most phenomenal actors alive and he was amazing as Edmund Dantes. I adored the movie. But I absolutely loved the book as well. I saw the movie first so I'm not as critical of it as I would have been... but I still pick apart the differences when I watch it. I loved watching the movie first because then I could picture everything from the book in my head as I read.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Total classic. Loved the book AND the movie (the newer version is the one I'm talking about, not the BBC version). I think it's one of the truest-to-the-book movies that I've ever seen. There was only ONE instance in the movie where I said "Nope, didn't happen that way". The rest of it I thought was spot on. And I've read the book, listened to the full cast audio (which is PHENOMENAL by the way, I believe it's done by Focus on the Family), seen the BBC movie, seen the cartoon movies, etc. I am in love with this entire series. Prince Caspian definitely didn't follow the book nearly as much as I'd liked, but that's another story.

I think that's about all the books and movies I'll bother you all with today. BUT if you want to check out the full cast radio theater audio books on CD for the entire series go here.