Musing Mondays: Movies

Today's musing is about movies . . .

How do you react to movies made of your favorite books (or even not-so-favorite books)? Do you look forward to seeing them or avoid them? Do you like to have read the book before seeing the movie?

My response:

Generally, when I hear that a movie is being made of a book I've already read and loved, I'm interested and excited about it. It's the idea of the characters I know from the book being brought to life that excites me. However, I've been disappointed more times than not. I want it to be just like the book - but it seldom is. One example is John Grisham's THE FIRM. I absolutely devoured that book when it came out and when I heard it was going to be movie I was thrilled. Unfortunately, the movie was just OK for me. I felt there was so much left out that it just didn't work for me. I know it's impossible to put everything from a book on the big screen, but sometimes screen adaptations just don't work. It was a huge hit at the box office, so I realize I'm probably in the minority of people who didn't like it. That said, there is an exception to this - LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry. Back in 1990,when I heard the movie version was going to be on TV at the end of the week, I hadn't read the book yet. I was working at a nail salon at the time and had a full appointment book for the whole week, but I ran to the grocery store down the sidewalk on my break, grabbed a paperback copy (900+ pages) and read it in four days! I've never read so hard in my life! To my delight, the movie did the book justice. It didn't hurt that two of my favorite actors (Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones) starred in it. More recently, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES movie was a pleasant surprise for me. I loved that movie, too. Beyond that, not many others come to mind. For some reason, the movies come across as corny to me if I've already read the book. I don't understand why, but they just do. There is one movie-from-a-book that I will never watch and that is THE KITE RUNNER. I loved that book so much and I don't want a mediocre movie version to ruin the images and memories I have etched in my mind from that amazing book.

If I haven't yet read the book, I'm not as excited about it and if I'm planning to read the book, I will put off seeing the film version until afterwards. I'm not a big movie watcher like I used to be, so this isn't really a problem for me.

I'm sure there are other good movies made from books, but this is just my opinion and I realize I may be too critical. How do you feel about books made into movies? Do you avoid ar attend? Visit Rebecca at Just One More Page for more Mondays Musings.