Movie adaptations: the good and the bad

iVillagers give their verdicts on the best and worst film adaptations

Ah, the silver screen. Sadly, many of our favourite books are barely recognisable when they reach it. Are there any film adaptations worth the price of admission? Or should everyone just stay at home with a good book? Here's what iVillagers had to say:

'I usually will not see a movie if I really liked the book. A friend of mine talked me into seeing The Horse Whisperer. Here they took a really good book and made a really bad movie. The whole point got lost somewhere in Robert Redford's wrinkles.'

'I have loved most of the movies made from books. I always have to read the book (if I haven't already) when I see a movie made from a book. It doesn't bother me that endings are sometimes changed, or that things I might think were important are left out. My favourite? Gone With The Wind.'

'I agree that normally books turned into movies suffer in the transition. A Time To Kill by John Grisham was one of those. In fact, most of his books-turned-movies are pretty bad. One book that I think is even better on film than on paper is Stephen King's The Shining. Kubrick and Nicholson turned out a masterpiece that gives me chills just thinking about it. Another example of a movie being even better than the book is Jaws… a classic film, but a so-so book.'

'Some book adaptations of movies are wonderful. I think the classics, such as Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Hamlet, tend to be great because the original language is difficult for many people to follow. When the background is provided we can enjoy these stories even more because we can focus on the plot. However, some books are meant to be just that: books. In the book Circle of Friends, Benny does not go back to her boyfriend, which shows the growth she has made. Even though her boyfriend in the movie is Chris O'Donnell, she shouldn't go back, let alone sleep with him!'

'Some are very, very good; some are very, very bad. Some even improve on the book (like The Wizard of Oz or Gone With The Wind.) One of my favourite movie adaptations is Clueless, which transplanted Emma into a modern-day California high school - high school being one of the few social structures left which has the same rigid hierarchy and unspoken, unwritten, but absolutely unbreakable rules that Jane Austen's England did. I thought it was quite clever, and very, very funny.'

'When I teach adult illiterates to read, I explain to them that reading The Shining once they have developed their skills will be a lot more frightening for them than any movie they might see based on the story. I explain to them that each of us brings our own fears and memories and experiences to bear on the descriptions we read, essentially making our own mental movie.'

'Usually, I am very disappointed in movies from books. There is one, however, that surprised me. We had to read Bram Stoker's Dracula in high school. When the newest movie version came out (with Winona Ryder) I thought it actually stuck to the book. I was amazed. The worst I've seen so far is The Pelican Brief.'

'I am sure that there are worse films made from books, but I recently watched Message In A Bottle, which was an adaptation of a book by the same name from author Nicholas Sparks. The ending was the best part of the book, and Hollywood's commercialisation of it totally messed it up!'

Why not chat to other iVillagers about film and entertainment on the That's Entertainment message board. Take a look at some of the LIVE discussions taking place right now on the board: