Thursday Wants to be a Millionaire!

First, I just want to say I love warm weather with some sun, but plenty of cloud cover to prevent painful sunburns.

As for my favorite books turned into movies, I have approximately two of them. First one being Slumdog Millionaire (directed by Danny Boyle who is pretty much one of the greatest directors ever). The original book was called Q & A, written by Vikus Swarup. I didn't read the book until a few days ago, but I have to say it was pretty amazing, even if it was slightly reminiscent of Forrest Gump (another really amazing book to movie adaptation). The thing that makes the movie work so well is how it makes all the truly improbably happenings from the book seem like they could really happen (as well as strengthen the romantic angle). Granted, almost everything in the movie is completely different from the book, but this isn't a book where the story is the most important thing, but the idea behind the story; that sometimes you get really lucky and it's the little insignificant things in our lives that make them so amazing.

The other one I would like to mention is Breakfast on Pluto (book by Patrick McCabe). I'll be completely honest; I haven't read the novel for this movie, but how can a movie with Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Stephen Rea, and Cillian Murphy (IN DRAG!) not be a truly amazing film? I'm pretty sure that there are discrepencies between the versions, but as with Slumdog Millionaire, this doesn't neccessarily take away from the quality of the film, and can even make it better sometimes.

Now, as for horrible adaptations, I would most definately say it's Eragon (really, no one liked it). They had a perfect cast (except for Sienna Guillory as Arya) and an amazing production value, but the script and story was horribly lacking the the director completely failed to direct anything (if you make Jeremy Irons look like a hack actor you suck at your job). Also, they totally botched the ending so horribly that a sequel wasn't even possible because there wouldn't have been any coherent thought between the first film and any proposed sequel films. And we all know that the point of making movies based on book series is to make more money by actually making more movies of those books. I know that y'all have already discussed this, but I need to vent my anger over the worst adaptation ever. Seriously, Twilight was better and that wasn't even a good book (although I suppose some argue the same for Eragon, but I digress).

I also think that Ella Enchanted was a failed attempt to adapt the novel by Gail Carson Levine. I sorta liked the movie; it had Anne Hathaway (perhaps my favorite actress), Cary Elwes (As you wish!), and I actually sorta enjoyed the anachronisms such as the wooden escalator. But having said that, I didn't feel like the movie had the right essence of the novel portrayed on screen. I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I think it's because the novel has a slightly darker tone, whereas the film felt really lighthearted and didn't bring those dark elements with it. Which makes sense, because it is marketed as a family film.

I almost always enjoy the books more than the movie, so any movie that I even consider to be on the same level as the book is either a really good movie, or the book was just horrible to begin with (such as anything written by Nicholas Sparks or Stephanie Meyer).

OMG, I forgot about Stardust! So I guess you'll have to read/watch to see how awesome it is.