The Worst Book Adaptions
by jwoehr | created - 09 Jul 2011 | updated - 31 Aug 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Watchers (1988)
R | 91 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A boy takes in a stray dog, later discovering that it is an ultra-intelligent runaway being stalked by a dangerous creature from the same genetic research lab.
Director: Jon Hess | Stars: Corey Haim, Michael Ironside, Christopher Cary, Graeme Campbell
Votes: 4,698 | Gross: $0.94M
The Dean Koontz book was amazing and I couldn't put it down. The movie though, only got Einstein the genius dog right!
2. King Solomon's Mines (1985)
PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Fortune hunter Allan Quatermain teams up with a resourceful woman to help her find her missing father lost in the wilds of 1900s Africa while being pursued by hostile tribes and a rival German explorer.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, Herbert Lom, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 14,912 | Gross: $15.06M
I have to see it again, but from all the bad reviews it's easy to say that it's not as good as the book.
3. The Running Man (1987)
R | 101 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.
Director: Paul Michael Glaser | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown
Votes: 167,595 | Gross: $38.12M
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Kelley, Jeffrey Tambor
Votes: 291,444 | Gross: $260.04M
Jim Carrey was the perfect choice but if he put the goofiness down about a thousand notches the movie would have been a little better.
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
In an alternate Victorian Age world, a group of famous contemporary fantasy, science fiction, and adventure characters team up on a secret mission.
Director: Stephen Norrington | Stars: Sean Connery, Stuart Townsend, Peta Wilson, Jason Flemyng
Votes: 183,925 | Gross: $66.47M
6. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
R | 135 min | Drama, Romance
An affair between a young woman and a pastor has disastrous consequences.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall, Lisa Andoh
Votes: 16,291 | Gross: $10.40M
7. Red Riding Hood (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family's displeasure.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke | Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Lukas Haas, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke
Votes: 115,788 | Gross: $37.66M
If Tim Burton did it and not the mushy director of Twilight, this could have been awesome. Instead, you have two boys who love her and one might be the big bad wolf!
8. Twilight (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 122 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke | Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Sarah Clarke
Votes: 487,452 | Gross: $192.77M
The follow-ups are a little better due to improved direction. This one feels like a Levi's commercial at times with too many shots of vampires walking in slow motion and Bella and Edward just staring at each other.
9. Dreamcatcher (2003)
R | 134 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Friends on a camping trip discover that the town they're vacationing in is being plagued in an unusual fashion by parasitic aliens from outer space.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis
Votes: 96,449 | Gross: $33.72M
As if a book about aliens taking over bodies by going through butt holes and an alien leader with an English accent could have made a good movie.
10. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
PG | 118 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A teenager discovers he's the descendant of a Greek god and sets out on an adventure to settle an on-going battle between the gods.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Logan Lerman, Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Brandon T. Jackson
Votes: 202,944 | Gross: $88.76M
Rick Riordan books to me, are....always addicting and hard to put down. The Percy Jackson movie though is as if Chris Columbus filmed it with his eyes close, thinking "I made the first two Harry Potter's" I can easily make a Percy Jackson film.
11. Queen of the Damned (2002)
R | 101 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
In this loose sequel to Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), the vampire Lestat becomes a rock star whose music wakes up the equally beautiful and monstrous queen of all vampires.
Director: Michael Rymer | Stars: Aaliyah, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez
Votes: 59,947 | Gross: $30.34M
12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
PG | 153 min | Action, Adventure, Family
As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.
Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon
Votes: 595,369 | Gross: $301.96M
The only one I don't see worth watching over and over again. It could have easily been the best one too.
13. Gulliver's Travels (2010)
PG | 85 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver takes an assignment in Bermuda but ends up on the island of Lilliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens.
Director: Rob Letterman | Stars: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet
Votes: 73,599 | Gross: $42.78M
I was some-what into it even if they hacked the books to bits to make it a comedy.
14. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
PG-13 | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there, while an InGen team approaches with another agenda.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn
Votes: 443,879 | Gross: $229.09M
I haven't read the entire book, yet I know that the movie isn't anything like it. The movie is some fun though if you enjoy non-stop running and screaming.
15. Congo (1995)
PG-13 | 109 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
When an expedition to the African Congo ends in disaster, a new team is assembled to find out what went wrong.
Director: Frank Marshall | Stars: Laura Linney, Tim Curry, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson
Votes: 48,653 | Gross: $81.02M
16. Sphere (1998)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A spaceship is discovered under three hundred years' worth of coral growth at the bottom of the ocean.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote
Votes: 112,494 | Gross: $37.02M
17. Desperation (2006 TV Movie)
R | 131 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.
Director: Mick Garris | Stars: Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning
Votes: 11,767
Mick Garris did a decent job with the Stand and Riding the Bullet, but everything else sucks!
18. The Langoliers (1995)
PG-13 | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Most of the passengers on an airplane disappear, and the remainder land the plane in a mysteriously barren airport.
Stars: Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell, Tom Holland, Kate Maberly
Votes: 31,882
19. The Cat in the Hat (2003)
PG | 82 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Two bored children have their lives turned upside down when a talking cat comes to visit them.
Director: Bo Welch | Stars: Mike Myers, Spencer Breslin, Dakota Fanning, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 87,981 | Gross: $101.15M
20. The Time Machine (2002)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races.
Director: Simon Wells | Stars: Guy Pearce, Yancey Arias, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law
Votes: 130,374 | Gross: $56.68M
Although I sort of enjoyed it, the director who's related the H.G. Welles hacked the book to bits. The film from the 50's is much better.
21. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
R | 123 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
When the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man that he has created, the Creature escapes and later swears revenge.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce
Votes: 59,320 | Gross: $22.01M
Disturbing and depressing are the first two words that come to mind.
22. Angels & Demons (2009)
PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works with a nuclear physicist to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican during one of the significant events within the church.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 309,520 | Gross: $133.38M
I actually didn't only enjoy the Da Vinci Code...I loved it! This movie makes crowning a new pope look like a rock concert which is pretty cheesy. While the best character was cut out! So to me the Da Vinci Code was much better, since it at least was a lot more like the book.
23. Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The life of a businessman begins to change after he inherits six penguins, and as he transforms his apartment into a winter wonderland, his professional side starts to unravel.
Director: Mark Waters | Stars: Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury, Ophelia Lovibond
Votes: 105,599 | Gross: $68.22M
I read the book to my niece and in no way is Jim Carrey Mr. Popper or is the movie enough like the book. The film is just more proof that they need to stop casting Carrey in films based on books.
24. Eragon (2006)
PG | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Family
In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realizes he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king.
Director: Stefen Fangmeier | Stars: Ed Speleers, Sienna Guillory, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich
Votes: 130,465 | Gross: $75.03M
25. Battlefield Earth (2000)
PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
It's the year 3000 A.D., and the Earth is lost to the alien race of Psychlos. Humanity is enslaved by these gold-thirsty tyrants, who are unaware that their 'man-animals' are about to ignite the rebellion of a lifetime.
Director: Roger Christian | Stars: John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates
Votes: 83,079 | Gross: $21.47M
Although....the books are supposed to suck too.
26. Children of the Corn (1984)
R | 92 min | Horror, Thriller
A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believes that everyone over age 18 must be killed.
Director: Fritz Kiersch | Stars: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, John Franklin
Votes: 57,315 | Gross: $14.57M
27. The Mangler (1995)
R | 106 min | Horror, Mystery
A laundry-folding machine has been possessed by a demon, causing it to develop homicidal tendencies.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Robert Englund, Ted Levine, Daniel Matmor, Jeremy Crutchley
Votes: 9,962 | Gross: $1.78M
28. Maximum Overdrive (1986)
R | 98 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.
Director: Stephen King | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith
Votes: 35,804 | Gross: $7.43M
29. Sleepwalkers (1992)
R | 91 min | Fantasy, Horror
A mother-and-son team of strange supernatural creatures move to a small town to seek out a young virgin to feed on.
Director: Mick Garris | Stars: Brian Krause, Mädchen Amick, Alice Krige, Jim Haynie
Votes: 24,556 | Gross: $30.52M
Mick Garris has made some of the worst King adaptions...yet he has been chosen to direct way too many movies based on King books! He even has Bag of Bones coming out!
30. Watchers Reborn (1998)
R | 90 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
An extra-smart dog and detective team up to stop a DNA enhanced killer.
Director: John Carl Buechler | Stars: Mark Hamill, Lisa Wilcox, Stephen Macht, Gary Collins
Votes: 802
Only a little bit better than the 1988 film. Still, I'd love to see a version that's actually....the book!
31. The Lovely Bones (2009)
PG-13 | 135 min | Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from purgatory. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Susan Sarandon
Votes: 179,892 | Gross: $43.82M
A waste of Peter Jackson.
32. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
PG-13 | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Richard Stanley | Stars: David Thewlis, Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 35,478 | Gross: $27.66M
33. How to Eat Fried Worms (2006)
PG | 84 min | Comedy, Family
During the first day of his new school year, a new kid in town squares off against a bully and winds up accepting a dare that could change the balance of power within his class.
Director: Bob Dolman | Stars: Luke Benward, Hallie Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, Austin Rogers
Votes: 6,044 | Gross: $13.02M
34. A Sound of Thunder (2005)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A single mistake in the past, by a time travel company in the future, has devastating and unforeseen consequences.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley, Catherine McCormack, Armin Rohde
Votes: 20,498 | Gross: $1.89M
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