Thursday Movie Picks: Worst Book to Movie Adaptations
Wandering through the Shelves hosts a weekly movie challenge in which you choose 3-5 movies based on that Thursday’s theme and explain why you chose those movies.
Today's theme is Worst Book to Movie Adaptations so here are my choices! I am a huge fan of Stephen King so I went for a theme of the absolute worst adaptations of his work. Granted, there are so many more than 3, so I picked a few at random.
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
The Lawnmower Man is an extraordinary, horrifying short story by Stephen King in Night Shift. The story is about a lawnmower man who makes human sacrifices to Pan. The 1992 film adaptation took the term "loosely based" to a whole new level, so much so that Stephen King sued the studio to remove his name from the film itself (he succeeded). Occasionally, even poorly adapted films can still be good, but The Lawnmower Man is terrible.
The Dark Tower (2017)
There's just no way you can try to cram eight novels' worth of material into a 95-minute movie. Sure, this film was supposed to jumpstart a franchise, but they went about it the wrong way from the very beginning. Not even Idris Elba could save this dud. And it's really a shame because way, way back in the day, when they started discussing adapting The Stand, I said Matthew McConaughey would have made an excellent Man in Black/Randall Flagg. So I got excited when they cast him in that role for The Dark Tower. Alas...
Graveyard Shift (1990)
Graveyard Shift is a short story by King, also found in his Night Shift compilation. It's eerie, atmospheric, and gross as hell! The story is quite simple. A group of men who work at a textile mill agree to work the graveyard shift to clean the mill's basement to earn extra money. While they're down there, they realize that the basement has been infested with rats, many of whom have mutated into something horrifying.
Yes, it's a simple story, but very effective in its horror. The movie is, again, very loosely based on the short story, and I cannot, for the life of me, help but wonder why Hollywood insists on changing what makes King's stories SO good in order to make them more "commercial". This is why King's work has more bad adaptations than good ones.
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I like your theme within a theme! I haven’t seen any of these. I keep meaning to start the Gunslinger books but they’re so long. lol
The first book (The Gunslinger) is tough to get through, I admit. But worth it! It’s certainly a journey.
I love a theme within the theme! There was a relatively brief period where I read a lot of Stephen King-starting with Salem’s Lot and finishing up with The Dead Zone though I’ve read a random stray from time to time and The Stand is still on of my favorites. That said I never made it the The Dark Tower though I know the title. I did however attempt to watch the other two adaptations and never made it more than 15 minutes into either, they were too terrible. Neither of the original stories were ones I held any great affection for, though they were okay, but the movies were rubbish.
Sadly it does seem that a good adaptation of a book is often a tough thing to produce and these three are good examples of that!
The Scarlet Letter (1995)-In a 17th century Massachusetts Puritan settlement Hester Prynne has a secret adulterous affair with the local minister Arthur Dimmesdale while her husband is in Europe resulting in the birth of a child-Pearl. Condemned by the townspeople she is forced to wear a scarlet A in perpetuity to atone for her sin. Such is the meat of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s moralistic novel, but you will find extraordinarily little of any message, or anything else, in this sexed up hash that stars Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. When it’s not vulgar it’s stupid.
All the King’s Men (2006)-Southerner Willie Stark is a simple man who once he is elected to office slides wholly into corruption stepping on anyone in his way and crushing enemies and friends alike in his insatiable quest for power until a reckoning befalls him. Author Robert Penn Warren’s roman a clef novel of the rise and fall of politician Huey Long won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Oscar winning film (Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress) in the 50’s. All that is thrown away in this cinematic dog where the director managed to attract an amazing cast (including Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Mark Ruffalo) and guided them all to giving some of their worst performances in a film that is both overblown and boring.
Romeo & Juliet (1936)-The tragic story of impulsive teenagers who because of their families enmity feel compelled to take drastic measures rather than be parted. More a stage text than a book but either way this stiff and clunky adaptation shots itself in the foot coming out of the starting gate by having 34-year-old Norma Shearer playing the 13-year-old Juliet and even worse Leslie Howard aged 43! cast as her 16-year-old swain!
I almost forgot about the Demi Moore/Gary Oldman adaptation of The Scarlet Letter! Moore seemed SO miscast. I remember watching a version of this book in high school but I cannot remember who starred in it!
I remember the Romeo and Juliet with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer! So ridiculous.
I’ve only seen The Dark Tower but yikes, that movie was terrible. It’s tough enough turning just 1 book into a movie so this one was absurd!
Yeah I have NO idea why they were doing it the way they were. And then the Amazon series looked like it was going to be amazing but they canceled that too. Just sucks!
I’m a Stephen King fan too so of course I like your theme within a theme! I somehow managed to miss all of these but The Dark Tower is still on my watchlist because of Idris Elba, even though I’ve read nothing but negative reviews.
Idris Elba is probably the only reason to watch! but go in with super super low expectations.
Thankfully, I have not seen any of these.
You are lucky!
I haven’t seen any of your picks, and I have to say I’m glad about that 😂