April 27, 2020 • 28 mins
In this episode, Movie Mike talks about some of the best movies based on books. From Harry Potter, Hunger Games to Perks of Being a Wallflower. He also discusses what movies were actually better than the book (do you agree?). Plus a movie review of Just Mercy (also based on a book) starring Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. This week, I
am talking about the best movies based on books. I
asked a lot of you guys online what your favorites were.
I took all those into consideration when forming my list,
and there's a lot, so I'm not gonna get it
to everybody's don't tweet me and saying, oh, you didn't
(00:20):
get to this movie, like how could you miss this movie? Actually,
when you look and google and search about how many
movies were based on books, and there's a lot, so
there's no way to get to all of them. So
what I did was just kind of talk about my favorites,
and I also took a stab at what movies I
think were actually better than the book. Would you never
hear that Everybody's like, oh, the book was so much better? Well,
(00:43):
I found five were. In this case, the movie was better.
So I'll get to that list too. And this was
all inspired because over the weekend I watched a movie
called Just Mercy, which is based on a book which
a lot of my friends really enjoyed. I actually haven't
read the book yet, but I wanted to watch the movie,
and I will explain why I thought it was a
(01:05):
great movie. I wasn't expecting to like it as much
as I did, but I'll get into that later. I'll
also kind of do a quick news roundup of all
the recent movies that have been pushed back now and delayed,
so a bunch coming up in this episode. It means
still much to me that you guys have been coming
back every single Monday to check this out. If you
don't mind, leave that five star rating and write a
(01:26):
review if you're listening on Apple podcasts, it just helps
me out to kind of get other people who maybe
haven't heard of the podcast before pop up on their
phones when they're searching for podcasts. But what really helps
if you guys just tell a friend. If you know
somebody who's also into movies and enjoys podcast about movies,
tell them, hey, there's a guy named movie Michaels. Is
this podcast where he talks about movies and only movies
(01:48):
every single week. You should check it out. That really
helps me out too. If you don't want to do
any of that, it's fine. Just make sure you're subscribed
so you get brand new episodes every single Monday and
I can talk and hang out with you guys, here,
So without any further ado, let's get right into this episode.
Here we go in a world where everyone and their
mother has a podcast. One man stands to infiltrate the
(02:11):
ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast.
A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like
a walking on MTV with glasses from the Nashville Podcast
Networks Movie Movie Podcast. Alright, so today we are talking
about movies based on books. And I asked you guys
(02:34):
on Twitter and Instagram what were some of your favorites.
And what I realized how plading this is together, is
almost every great movie has been based on a book
or like a short story, you're some kind of literary work.
So what I wanted to do with this talk about
some of my favorite movies based on books, and what
I kind of tried to take was just straight up
interpretations of a book, because a lot of times the
(02:57):
idea maybe comes from a book, but the movie isn't
really based on that. So that's why there's so many
out there. If you just are searching online about movies
based on books, a lot of stuff will come up.
And I also want to do what movies I think
we're better than the book, which is something you never
really hear. You always hear, Oh, the book was so
much better than the movie, And there's a reason for that.
(03:20):
I'll kind of get into that right now and then
explain later why I think some of these movies were
better than the book. So, first of all, when you
watch a movie, you're watching a little segment of what
the amount of time you invested in a book. A
book is able to go into so much more detail
and maybe describe things a lot more vividly than the
(03:43):
movie would. So I think what people think when you
when you read a book, you get a lot more
out of it, You spend more time with it, and
you're gonna feel more invested in it. It lets your
brain kind of go into a whole different like a
creative space, like a whole different imagination. You're using a
whole different part of your brain. We're reading a book,
so you're kind of creating that landscape and creating that
(04:05):
world inside your head. You're seeing characters the way you
think they need to be seen, and that's going to
create something powerful. I'm not denying the power of books.
I'm not denying the patter of literature, But what a
movie does is it takes the director and whoever adapts
the book into a screenplay and it portrays their vision.
And what that's meant to do is kind of provide
(04:27):
a whole different kind of sense. Is because sometimes you
can visually express something that you can't do in a book. Now,
there's some examples. I'm just gonna get into one of mine,
A Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is a great book,
but I feel there's parts of that movie that are
more like you get a different feeling when you watch
(04:49):
them on the screen. When they're like driving in the
truck down the tunnel, you feel something in that moment,
like what mixed with like a soundtrack and the cinematography
and the characters, the moment that that's in. I feel
moments like that are things you don't get in a book. Now,
in a book, you're gonna get a lot more of
the details of the characters, maybe some of their interactions.
(05:09):
But I also feel sometimes just because something is written
in a book doesn't mean it's it's always better, doesn't
mean that it was told in a better way. So
that's why I think you go and you watch a
movie and sometimes you let down because yes, you did
invest so much, and yes they were able to get
into every little thing in the book. But I I
want to start with just some of my favorite movies
(05:31):
based on books, and I gotta hit some of the
big ones, which are you know, I mean some of
the biggest franchises in the last twenty years have been
based on books. So starting off with one of my
favorites that I read every single book before I watched
the movie. It was The Hunger Games, and I remember
these books coming out and I was so invested in
(05:54):
I think I read every book in The Hunger Games,
maybe in a day or two, just because I I
one of the books that I couldn't put down. I
just kept reading it and kept reading it, and I
created this vision of what Catniss Everdeen looked like in
my head, and I remember that, and I wasn't let
down by the movie. But I also felt that the movie,
(06:15):
the first movie they didn't invest as much money as
I would want them to put into a movie like that.
I felt it got. It wasn't anything with the way
it was portrayed on the screen, like it was pretty
close to the book. It just I felt like it
was a little rushed through, and the movie production wasn't
quite there because they didn't know if it was going
to be as big a hit as it was. I
(06:37):
felt like there was just something missing in the quality
of the movie, which they got a lot better in
the second third. And then they broke up the third
book because it's a trilogy, but they broke up the
last one in the two movies, and I kind of
hate when they do that, and I know why they
do that. They do it to make more money. But
that's the kind of thing that Harry Potter started in
a bunch of other movie franchises based on books that afterwards,
(06:59):
and I don't like that at all. But the first
one I thought was fine, and then Catching Fire and
Mocking j I thought were a lot better because they
invested more money into it. And then you have Jennifer
Lawrence as Catnets, And when I read the book, I
had a whole different kind of vision of what Catnets
Everydeen looked like. I didn't really picture of Jennifer Lawrence
(07:20):
because in the book she's described as being a lot
more frail, and they don't really kind of portrayed that
in the movie. Of how like scarce Food was and
how like skinny she was, and how that was a
part of the book, like the whole actual like hunger
wasn't in the Hunger Game, which is a little weird.
It was kind of more just in the whole battle
(07:41):
and everything around that. I think that was a big
part of the book that was not portrayed in the movie.
But I get it because you can only tell so
much story. And not only that is a book can
go in a bunch of different directions and kind of
put them together and place things in the parts where
reading it it makes little more sense. But if you
try to put all that in a movie, it doesn't
(08:03):
make sense. You kind of get lost in it. So
they have to streamline it no matter what. So that's
why it's gonna be a little bit kind of not
as descriptive. But I thought the Hungry Games overall did
a pretty good job in the movies as far as
sticking to what happened in the book, because that's a
big part of like I think the bigger movie franchises
they pretty much stick to exactly what they did in
(08:25):
the books. So that's probably my favorite interpretation. Um, of course,
you got the Harry Potter books, which are a whole
different other category, and I think in in that whole world,
I mean, I feel like the books and the movies
are kind of their own separate whole thing, just because
the movies are just so iconic on their own without
(08:46):
the books, it's harder to compare. I don't know, I
feel like it's hard to compare them both as two
separate things because the movies. Now you go back and
you kind of just talk about the movies, I feel like,
and then the books are just kind of this whole other,
different in segment. But I remember as the kid, you
know that's coming down and being such a big cultural
impact of like people waiting in line and like a
(09:09):
midnight release for a book and then waiting in line
for the midnight release of the movies. So I feel
like both of those were just so huge. So I
feel like The Hungry Games was probably my favorite movie
franchise based on a book. I think it got me
at a time when that was kind of the last
book series I really got into and really invested my
(09:30):
time into reading every book and then watching every movie,
And I think before that it was probably Harry Potter,
and then I would kind of get into and put
into this category of all the other kind of big
movie franchises based on books, which I would also throw
in Twilight, which I really wasn't a paid of the books.
I didn't read those books, but the movies I felt
get some pretty harsh criticism when it comes to people
(09:53):
saying that the love story isn't quite there. I just
feel like those movies were so big and so huge
and so very kind of mid to late two thousands
that you can't deny that's one of the best ones.
Whether you agree with the movies or not, that's that's
got to be up there. And then I feel like
one of my other really favorite ones was a book
(10:14):
and a movie by the same title called Holes. Now.
The book is one of those you read pretty early
on in elementary school, and I felt like the movie
came out and it was starring Chila buff at a
time where he was coming off even Stevens, and I
like this movie so much because it feels like the book,
and it feels The thing I love about movies based
(10:36):
on books is the dialogue in it is so much
better than a normal movie because when you take that
adaptation from a book, it's already so much more well written,
and the dialogue is going to be so much better.
I think you can kind of tell, Like even when
I watched go into a movie not knowing it's based
on a book, I can kind of tell after a
(10:56):
while like, oh, just the storyline is so much more
or like okay, it goes from here to here to here,
and it's just told in such a better way where
it has a different feel. Like even earlier this year,
I watched a movie called The Invisible Man Storry Elizabeth Moss,
and I wasn't really familiar with that movie so much
as far what it was about, and I could kind
of tell that it just had a different feel to it,
(11:18):
and it was actually, yeah, I found out later it
was based on a book. So I think when you
go into it, you kind of have a different expectation
of a movie based on a book, because either the
book was like a best selling novel where it's already
well established and it's gonna be like, Okay, we are
going to take a story that's already been proven on
paper and turn it into a movie, and that's kind
(11:41):
of where you get movies like this. But holes, I
just thought it was kind of a classic and it's
kind of an underrated movie too, because came out in
two thousand and three. You can watch it now on
Disney Plus. And I think it's one of those books
that you read as a kid and it's just all
this kind of imagery that you're like realizing what it's about.
And I feel like back in the day as a
kid when you read a book and then you're kind
(12:04):
of so excited to see the movie because you've already
spent so much time with it. At this time, I
think I took like a test over it, maybe even
wrote a report about this book. And then the movie
comes out and you're just kind of watching scene for scene,
first scene of like, oh, this is how they're gonna
do this, Oh, this is this character, and you're like, oh,
this is how I pictured them in my head. And
then you're like, oh, this character makes no sense and
(12:24):
now in the book, and I just really like it
in this movie. It's funny as a great cast and
I think even now still holds up. And then another
one of my favorites, which I actually didn't know was
based on a book when I saw the movie. I'm
not that culturally inclined, but Gone Girl it's a really
great movie, and it's one of those movies that just
so kind of sick and twisted and takes you on
(12:45):
so many turns that I think it maybe one if
I were to go back and read a book and
then once the movie again, that would be one for sure.
And I know last week I was talking about actors
who are considered bad actors, and Ben Affleck is in
this movie and he does a really great job been
that so may motivate me to go back and read
the book and then rewatch it and maybe even rejudge
(13:05):
Ben Affleck's performance in that one. But all right, so
that's gonna do it. For what my favorite movies based
on books are what I want to get into next
and go through real quick. Are actually movies that I
thought were better than the book, which you don't hear
about often. But I'm gonna list mine and then I'm
gonna wait for the backlash. But anyway, I'll do that
(13:26):
after this, alright, alright, alright, so I went on Twitter
and Instagram and asked all you guys, what are your
favorite movies based on books? And I read through all those,
So thanks for everybody for sending this in and then
I also compiled this list of movies that I think
we're actually better than the books, and I have some
reasoning for this, so I'll explain why. And some of
(13:49):
these I'm gonna say that I haven't read the book.
But the reason I think that they are better movie
than they are a book is because you didn't even
know that it was based on a book, and nobody's
talking about the book. There's really no indication in any
way when they present a movie like, oh, this is
based on a novel. Note they are just great movies
(14:10):
and probably really iconic movies without even the book being
attached to them. So at number five, I'm gonna put Jaws. Now,
like I said, I've never read Jaws. I didn't even
know it was based on a book written by Peter Benchley.
But I'm just gonna think about the plot of Jaws here.
It's about a big shark that attacks a bunch of
(14:31):
people on a beach and then they go out on
a boat and try to kill Jaws. So I'm just
gonna go out of a limit saying that the book
is probably nowhere near to as iconic as the movie.
And when you think about Jaws, you think about the movie.
Nobody really mentions the book. So I'm putting that at
number five. At number four, I'm gonna go with Forrest Gump. Now,
(14:54):
Forrest Gump one of the biggest, most iconic movies of
our lifetime. Tom Hanks is a man Erican treasure and
this movie just kind of it's the test of time.
It's a movie that is pretty much on a whole
bunch of people's list of their favorite movie. But you
never hear anybody say that I loved the book more
than I love Forrest Coump. And you probably didn't even
(15:15):
know that it was based on a book written by
Winston Groom? Did you? Did you know that? So I'm
gonna say that Forrest come better movie than the book.
And number three, i'm gonna go with the Lord of
the Rings. Now. Lord of the Rings, written by J. R. R. R. Tolkien,
was a book that I was forced to read in
(15:37):
like sixth grade, and I think we were all probably
forced to read The Hobbit and all these books, and
I just felt there was so much I guess the
fact that they were assigned to me and it felt
like homework. I just never really enjoyed these books and
it's mainly because there's just so much description in these books.
They're so long and thick, and there's so much going
(15:58):
on that they're describing, like the way they cooked food
and all this weird stuff about these characters. And maybe
it's more character building, but I feel like it's too
much character building, and it's just so much reading and reading,
and even in the movies, I feel they're not my
favorite movies, Like I like the Lord of the Rings movies,
all right. I know there's some really they won a
(16:19):
lot of awards, you know, and there people love these movies.
I'm not the biggest fan of them. I just feel
like there's not enough action in them, and they're a
little slow. It's a lot of just them walking and
walking and walking. I'm not the biggest Lord of the
Rings fan. So I think what they did here was
take the book and made it more exciting by turning
it into a movie and making it a lot less shorter.
(16:42):
So I'm gonna say Lord of the Rings the movie
series better than the book. At number two, I'm putting
Fight Club now. I remember Fight Club the book probably
also in my middle school days, and it was one
of those books that people kind of passed around as
a cool book because it was like written weird and
had curse words in it, and it was kind of
supposed to be like, oh, we're not assigned to read this,
(17:03):
but here, here's The Fight Club and there's a movie
on it too. But I just think the movie is
so much more iconic than the book and really does
a better job of making it its own kind of
unique kind of vision of the story that's told in
the book. Because in the movie they create the narration
of Edward Norton that's not in the book, and I
think that's just such a big part of why that
(17:25):
movie works so well and why it's so unique. It's
because it is him inside of his head and you
get that whole kind of different perspective and vigidly. I
think the movie is just even more iconic than the story,
and there's so much music in it and the imagery
of the actual fighting and everything inside of the movie.
I just feel it was so visual that the movie
(17:47):
is better than the book. And also it has Brad
Pitt shirtless and ripped, so that's not in the book.
So I'm going to get at number two, Fight Club
better movie than the book, and at number one, I'm
gonna have to go with Jurassic Park, easy one directed
by Steven Spielberg, one of the best directors of all time,
and another one I just feel is so much more
(18:07):
visual than anything could kind of put in a book.
And I just feel like the story of dinosaurs and
the way this whole franchise kind of works is it's
such an action based movie and it's so visually driven
that I think the movie is better. And it's also
kind of one I think you kind of forget that
it's even based on a book. And yes, it has
(18:29):
spawned more sequels that aren't based on a book, but
I guess the first one alone was taken from the
story and it created really one of the biggest franchises.
And as a kid, I'm not going to read Jurassic
Park the book. I want to see the movie. So
I'm gonna put at number one movies better than the book,
I'm going with Jurassic Park. And there's the list. Don't
(18:50):
at me, everybody, all right, you're gonna get into a
movie review now. Over the weekend, I watched a movie
called Just Mercy, which I actually wanted to see in
theaters but never got a round to it. And it's
based on a true story and novel, which kind of
what gave me the idea for the episode this week,
because I have had some friends read the book and
(19:10):
said it was one of the best books they've ever read.
Watched the movie and they said it was all right.
But I wanted to go in and just watch the
movie on its own, and I actually kind of wanted
to try to bring in somebody who watched both the
movie and read the book and maybe we'll kind of
do an episode on that later down the line. But
I saw it and I kind of wanted to get
my thoughts on it because I wasn't expecting to like
(19:32):
it as much as I did, not because what it
was based on, just because when it came out, it
didn't really make a whole lot of waves and it
didn't really get a whole lot of just kind of
buzz around it that I was like, Okay, maybe it
wasn't that good. But I watched it, and I gotta
say it had my attention pretty dialed in, unlike any
other movie I've kind of seen recently. And I think
(19:53):
it's because of the law drama that it kind of portrays.
But um, before I get into it, here's just a
little bit of just mercy. I can't believe you talk
to all my people say you want to fight from me?
I mean a lot. Keep going digging in those wounds.
They're gonna be making a lot of people very unhappy
(20:13):
when people care about We find that much day mainland
anything to get what they want. When I first learned
about all this, it was like looking at a river
full of drowning people and not having any way of
helping him. So the movie is based on the young
lawyer named Brian Stevenson. He is going to Harvard and
then he has this internship where he has to go
(20:35):
and visit an inmate on death row, and he's kind
of taken back when he goes because he realizes that
this guy on death row is basically his same age
and grew up in a neighborhood just like him. So
after that he goes back and the movie Kick starts
about two years later where he graduates and then seeks
out to basically fight and give legal representation for free
(20:56):
to people who are on death row who have basically
just kind of been put there without any evidence, without
any proof, and they're just falsely imprisoned. So that's where
the movie kind of takes place. He meets Bree Larson's character,
who helps him start this law firm in this organization,
and they worked together and basically he has all these
(21:19):
cases that he's working with. But the one that really
follows is Jamie Fox's character, which he plays Walter McMillan,
who was accused of killing an eighteen year old girl
in a small town in Alabama, and he is accused
even though there was no real proof ever. It was
basically just a testimony given by another guy who was
(21:42):
formerly convicted of a crime. And he has placed there
and he's there for about six years. So what Michael B.
Jordan's character does is he meets with his family and
then just kind of starts drilling out and digging into
evidence to clear his name. So that's kind of where
I'll even on what the movie is based about. I
think if that sounds interesting enough to you to kind
(22:04):
of watch this movie, I don't want to explain and
give away what happens throughout the movie. I'll just kind
of give my reaction to it because it is a
legal drama, and I think for that reason, you're kind
of watching the whole time, anticipating what's gonna happen next,
and there's a lot of ups and downs and their
side character stories, and it's very emotional. And I think
(22:25):
the reason it kind of got my attention so dialed
into it because of how kind of powerful the story was,
and I feel like it's pretty close to what actually
happened in the book and also what happened in real life.
I kind of did some research afterwards, just kind of
trying to see what the characters look like. I always
(22:46):
kind of do that when I watch a movie based
on a true story, and I feel like it was
done pretty well in that regard, and everybody kind of
says and the consensus is that it does hold true
to what actually happened, even from like the news stories
that's placed inside the movie and all that is kind
of cool to see. And I think the cast is
really great. I like Michael b Jordan's and this Jamie
(23:06):
Foxx is great, even Brie Larson, who is a great
supporting cast in this. And there's even one scene that
kind of had me taken back because it's Michael b
Jordan's and Brie Larson sitting at a dinner table together,
and I can only think of, like, oh, it's Keptain
Marvel and kill Bonger from Black Panther having a beer together. Um.
But I just think it's a really well done movie
and a movie that I felt didn't get enough kind
(23:27):
of critical acclaim, which I guess I could kind of
see because it's not so much a novel of a movie.
But I feel it's such a powerful story and something
that we should kind of watch and be like, Wow,
I can't believe this actually happened. And it's so kind
of twisted, and it makes you very angry at parts
of the movie, and it kind of really invests you
in like him wanting to succeed in seeking justice. So
(23:52):
I think it invokes a kind of emotional aspect inside
of you watching this movie, and it really makes you
just kind of open your eyes to like, I mean,
injustice in the world and it's just crazy to see
played out. I think it was done really well. I
think the movie was shot really well. There's some really
great just kind of cinematography in this that you don't
really expect, and it just has a really powerful message.
(24:16):
So I recommend checking it out if you're looking for
something just kind of to take you on that kind
of route. I wouldn't say overall it's a sad movie.
I think it's kind of just like eye opening that
it's a bit gut wrenching at moments. So I guess
that's the only thing I would say. If you're not
looking for something that dramatic, maybe don't watch it right now.
And I would easily give it four out of five
(24:36):
lawyers that thought it was really well done. And it's
one of those movies that I like because you can
go back and look at how accurate it was to
what really happened. And I kind of like watching a
movie and then going back and doing some research online.
So I think for that reason alone, I think it's
worth watching. You can rent it now. I watched it
on Apple and it was like four bucks, so you
(24:57):
can check that out now streaming watch it at home.
All Right, that's gonna do it again for this week.
But before I go, I gotta give some quick movie news,
just because last week a bunch of movies were officially
announced that they are delayed to what kind of run
through these and all the kind of sulked together, mainly
because the Spider Man movies are now pushed back. So
the Third Spider Man was supposed to come out in
July six, Now it's not coming out till November five.
(25:22):
That's November into the Spider Verse two moves from April
two to October seven two, and then once you move
one Marvel movie, you kind of have to push them
all back because they have to sink up in order.
So now Doctor Strange is number two is coming out
on March two, and thor Love and Thunder is now
(25:42):
coming out on February eleven. Two. Let's hope these movies
don't get pushed back anymore. Paramount also announced that both
the Mission Impossible movies seven and eight have been pushed back.
Seven is now coming out on November nineteen and number
eight is coming out on November four two. That's kind
of the last round of the biggest movies being pushed back,
(26:04):
but a good news on that side of it. I
know this whole theme has kind of been movies based
on books. But they did announce that there's a now
a Hunger Games prequel in the works because Suzanne's Collins
is writing a prequel to the Hunger Games and the
movie rights are already written into it, so that would
kind of be interesting to see. I'm not the biggest
fan of prequels, mainly because they over explain origins about things,
(26:30):
and I feel like it's a little bit of like, Okay,
we didn't really need to know how this happened. You
go into so many details explaining like, oh, this is
why this happened. Okay, that's kind of cool, I guess,
but I didn't really need to know that. I think
that's a lot of the reason I didn't like episode one, two,
and three of Star Wars, because they were explaining so
(26:50):
much about Star Wars that you were just kind of
you just kind of took it on, like you watch
Star Wars and we're like, Okay, I'm into this world.
They're talking about things I don't really know about, but
I'm into it. I'm buying into it. And then those
prequels are just like, oh, well, here's the long story
about why this happened. I'm not going to show you what.
I'm gonna tell you exactly why, and that's very boring.
So I hope they don't do that in this case
(27:11):
with these prequels. Again, I'm a big fan of the
Hunger Games, books and movies. I'm probably gonna read the
book now, so I'll be excited to see that one.
Hope it's not that boring anyway. Sorry, I don't like prequels.
I also, I gotta give my Instagram shout out of
the week this week. It is going to the Robert
Herrick Jr. I hope I'm getting that Ryan Robert, but
(27:34):
he actually posted on his main fee that he was
listening to the episode I did with Morgan number two,
which is a pretty popular episode where we reviewed all
twenty three Marvel movies. So if you want to go
back and listen to that one, that's a great one
to check out. Morgan number two also joined me on
the Star Wars episode where we reviewed all those movies,
so two great episodes to go back and listen to.
(27:56):
Thanks Robert for tagging me in that and listening to
the podcast. If you want to shout it out, all
you have to do is post on your Instagram or
tag me in an Instagram story that you're listening to
the podcast. I'll shout you out in the next episode
and try to repost as much of those as I can.
Thanks so much for hanging out and hitting download. On
this episode, remember to tell a friend and until next week,
(28:16):
I will talk to you later
Welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. This week, I
am talking about the best movies based on books. I
asked a lot of you guys online what your favorites were.
I took all those into consideration when forming my list,
and there's a lot, so I'm not gonna get it
to everybody's don't tweet me and saying, oh, you didn't
(00:20):
get to this movie, like how could you miss this movie? Actually,
when you look and google and search about how many
movies were based on books, and there's a lot, so
there's no way to get to all of them. So
what I did was just kind of talk about my favorites,
and I also took a stab at what movies I
think were actually better than the book. Would you never
hear that Everybody's like, oh, the book was so much better? Well,
(00:43):
I found five were. In this case, the movie was better.
So I'll get to that list too. And this was
all inspired because over the weekend I watched a movie
called Just Mercy, which is based on a book which
a lot of my friends really enjoyed. I actually haven't
read the book yet, but I wanted to watch the movie,
and I will explain why I thought it was a
(01:05):
great movie. I wasn't expecting to like it as much
as I did, but I'll get into that later. I'll
also kind of do a quick news roundup of all
the recent movies that have been pushed back now and delayed,
so a bunch coming up in this episode. It means
still much to me that you guys have been coming
back every single Monday to check this out. If you
don't mind, leave that five star rating and write a
(01:26):
review if you're listening on Apple podcasts, it just helps
me out to kind of get other people who maybe
haven't heard of the podcast before pop up on their
phones when they're searching for podcasts. But what really helps
if you guys just tell a friend. If you know
somebody who's also into movies and enjoys podcast about movies,
tell them, hey, there's a guy named movie Michaels. Is
this podcast where he talks about movies and only movies
(01:48):
every single week. You should check it out. That really
helps me out too. If you don't want to do
any of that, it's fine. Just make sure you're subscribed
so you get brand new episodes every single Monday and
I can talk and hang out with you guys, here,
So without any further ado, let's get right into this episode.
Here we go in a world where everyone and their
mother has a podcast. One man stands to infiltrate the
(02:11):
ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast.
A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like
a walking on MTV with glasses from the Nashville Podcast
Networks Movie Movie Podcast. Alright, so today we are talking
about movies based on books. And I asked you guys
(02:34):
on Twitter and Instagram what were some of your favorites.
And what I realized how plading this is together, is
almost every great movie has been based on a book
or like a short story, you're some kind of literary work.
So what I wanted to do with this talk about
some of my favorite movies based on books, and what
I kind of tried to take was just straight up
interpretations of a book, because a lot of times the
(02:57):
idea maybe comes from a book, but the movie isn't
really based on that. So that's why there's so many
out there. If you just are searching online about movies
based on books, a lot of stuff will come up.
And I also want to do what movies I think
we're better than the book, which is something you never
really hear. You always hear, Oh, the book was so
much better than the movie, And there's a reason for that.
(03:20):
I'll kind of get into that right now and then
explain later why I think some of these movies were
better than the book. So, first of all, when you
watch a movie, you're watching a little segment of what
the amount of time you invested in a book. A
book is able to go into so much more detail
and maybe describe things a lot more vividly than the
(03:43):
movie would. So I think what people think when you
when you read a book, you get a lot more
out of it, You spend more time with it, and
you're gonna feel more invested in it. It lets your
brain kind of go into a whole different like a
creative space, like a whole different imagination. You're using a
whole different part of your brain. We're reading a book,
so you're kind of creating that landscape and creating that
(04:05):
world inside your head. You're seeing characters the way you
think they need to be seen, and that's going to
create something powerful. I'm not denying the power of books.
I'm not denying the patter of literature, But what a
movie does is it takes the director and whoever adapts
the book into a screenplay and it portrays their vision.
And what that's meant to do is kind of provide
(04:27):
a whole different kind of sense. Is because sometimes you
can visually express something that you can't do in a book. Now,
there's some examples. I'm just gonna get into one of mine,
A Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is a great book,
but I feel there's parts of that movie that are
more like you get a different feeling when you watch
(04:49):
them on the screen. When they're like driving in the
truck down the tunnel, you feel something in that moment,
like what mixed with like a soundtrack and the cinematography
and the characters, the moment that that's in. I feel
moments like that are things you don't get in a book. Now,
in a book, you're gonna get a lot more of
the details of the characters, maybe some of their interactions.
(05:09):
But I also feel sometimes just because something is written
in a book doesn't mean it's it's always better, doesn't
mean that it was told in a better way. So
that's why I think you go and you watch a
movie and sometimes you let down because yes, you did
invest so much, and yes they were able to get
into every little thing in the book. But I I
want to start with just some of my favorite movies
(05:31):
based on books, and I gotta hit some of the
big ones, which are you know, I mean some of
the biggest franchises in the last twenty years have been
based on books. So starting off with one of my
favorites that I read every single book before I watched
the movie. It was The Hunger Games, and I remember
these books coming out and I was so invested in
(05:54):
I think I read every book in The Hunger Games,
maybe in a day or two, just because I I
one of the books that I couldn't put down. I
just kept reading it and kept reading it, and I
created this vision of what Catniss Everdeen looked like in
my head, and I remember that, and I wasn't let
down by the movie. But I also felt that the movie,
(06:15):
the first movie they didn't invest as much money as
I would want them to put into a movie like that.
I felt it got. It wasn't anything with the way
it was portrayed on the screen, like it was pretty
close to the book. It just I felt like it
was a little rushed through, and the movie production wasn't
quite there because they didn't know if it was going
to be as big a hit as it was. I
(06:37):
felt like there was just something missing in the quality
of the movie, which they got a lot better in
the second third. And then they broke up the third
book because it's a trilogy, but they broke up the
last one in the two movies, and I kind of
hate when they do that, and I know why they
do that. They do it to make more money. But
that's the kind of thing that Harry Potter started in
a bunch of other movie franchises based on books that afterwards,
(06:59):
and I don't like that at all. But the first
one I thought was fine, and then Catching Fire and
Mocking j I thought were a lot better because they
invested more money into it. And then you have Jennifer
Lawrence as Catnets, And when I read the book, I
had a whole different kind of vision of what Catnets
Everydeen looked like. I didn't really picture of Jennifer Lawrence
(07:20):
because in the book she's described as being a lot
more frail, and they don't really kind of portrayed that
in the movie. Of how like scarce Food was and
how like skinny she was, and how that was a
part of the book, like the whole actual like hunger
wasn't in the Hunger Game, which is a little weird.
It was kind of more just in the whole battle
(07:41):
and everything around that. I think that was a big
part of the book that was not portrayed in the movie.
But I get it because you can only tell so
much story. And not only that is a book can
go in a bunch of different directions and kind of
put them together and place things in the parts where
reading it it makes little more sense. But if you
try to put all that in a movie, it doesn't
(08:03):
make sense. You kind of get lost in it. So
they have to streamline it no matter what. So that's
why it's gonna be a little bit kind of not
as descriptive. But I thought the Hungry Games overall did
a pretty good job in the movies as far as
sticking to what happened in the book, because that's a
big part of like I think the bigger movie franchises
they pretty much stick to exactly what they did in
(08:25):
the books. So that's probably my favorite interpretation. Um, of course,
you got the Harry Potter books, which are a whole
different other category, and I think in in that whole world,
I mean, I feel like the books and the movies
are kind of their own separate whole thing, just because
the movies are just so iconic on their own without
(08:46):
the books, it's harder to compare. I don't know, I
feel like it's hard to compare them both as two
separate things because the movies. Now you go back and
you kind of just talk about the movies, I feel like,
and then the books are just kind of this whole other,
different in segment. But I remember as the kid, you
know that's coming down and being such a big cultural
impact of like people waiting in line and like a
(09:09):
midnight release for a book and then waiting in line
for the midnight release of the movies. So I feel
like both of those were just so huge. So I
feel like The Hungry Games was probably my favorite movie
franchise based on a book. I think it got me
at a time when that was kind of the last
book series I really got into and really invested my
(09:30):
time into reading every book and then watching every movie,
And I think before that it was probably Harry Potter,
and then I would kind of get into and put
into this category of all the other kind of big
movie franchises based on books, which I would also throw
in Twilight, which I really wasn't a paid of the books.
I didn't read those books, but the movies I felt
get some pretty harsh criticism when it comes to people
(09:53):
saying that the love story isn't quite there. I just
feel like those movies were so big and so huge
and so very kind of mid to late two thousands
that you can't deny that's one of the best ones.
Whether you agree with the movies or not, that's that's
got to be up there. And then I feel like
one of my other really favorite ones was a book
(10:14):
and a movie by the same title called Holes. Now.
The book is one of those you read pretty early
on in elementary school, and I felt like the movie
came out and it was starring Chila buff at a
time where he was coming off even Stevens, and I
like this movie so much because it feels like the book,
and it feels The thing I love about movies based
(10:36):
on books is the dialogue in it is so much
better than a normal movie because when you take that
adaptation from a book, it's already so much more well written,
and the dialogue is going to be so much better.
I think you can kind of tell, Like even when
I watched go into a movie not knowing it's based
on a book, I can kind of tell after a
(10:56):
while like, oh, just the storyline is so much more
or like okay, it goes from here to here to here,
and it's just told in such a better way where
it has a different feel. Like even earlier this year,
I watched a movie called The Invisible Man Storry Elizabeth Moss,
and I wasn't really familiar with that movie so much
as far what it was about, and I could kind
of tell that it just had a different feel to it,
(11:18):
and it was actually, yeah, I found out later it
was based on a book. So I think when you
go into it, you kind of have a different expectation
of a movie based on a book, because either the
book was like a best selling novel where it's already
well established and it's gonna be like, Okay, we are
going to take a story that's already been proven on
paper and turn it into a movie, and that's kind
(11:41):
of where you get movies like this. But holes, I
just thought it was kind of a classic and it's
kind of an underrated movie too, because came out in
two thousand and three. You can watch it now on
Disney Plus. And I think it's one of those books
that you read as a kid and it's just all
this kind of imagery that you're like realizing what it's about.
And I feel like back in the day as a
kid when you read a book and then you're kind
(12:04):
of so excited to see the movie because you've already
spent so much time with it. At this time, I
think I took like a test over it, maybe even
wrote a report about this book. And then the movie
comes out and you're just kind of watching scene for scene,
first scene of like, oh, this is how they're gonna
do this, Oh, this is this character, and you're like, oh,
this is how I pictured them in my head. And
then you're like, oh, this character makes no sense and
(12:24):
now in the book, and I just really like it
in this movie. It's funny as a great cast and
I think even now still holds up. And then another
one of my favorites, which I actually didn't know was
based on a book when I saw the movie. I'm
not that culturally inclined, but Gone Girl it's a really
great movie, and it's one of those movies that just
so kind of sick and twisted and takes you on
(12:45):
so many turns that I think it maybe one if
I were to go back and read a book and
then once the movie again, that would be one for sure.
And I know last week I was talking about actors
who are considered bad actors, and Ben Affleck is in
this movie and he does a really great job been
that so may motivate me to go back and read
the book and then rewatch it and maybe even rejudge
(13:05):
Ben Affleck's performance in that one. But all right, so
that's gonna do it. For what my favorite movies based
on books are what I want to get into next
and go through real quick. Are actually movies that I
thought were better than the book, which you don't hear
about often. But I'm gonna list mine and then I'm
gonna wait for the backlash. But anyway, I'll do that
(13:26):
after this, alright, alright, alright, so I went on Twitter
and Instagram and asked all you guys, what are your
favorite movies based on books? And I read through all those,
So thanks for everybody for sending this in and then
I also compiled this list of movies that I think
we're actually better than the books, and I have some
reasoning for this, so I'll explain why. And some of
(13:49):
these I'm gonna say that I haven't read the book.
But the reason I think that they are better movie
than they are a book is because you didn't even
know that it was based on a book, and nobody's
talking about the book. There's really no indication in any
way when they present a movie like, oh, this is
based on a novel. Note they are just great movies
(14:10):
and probably really iconic movies without even the book being
attached to them. So at number five, I'm gonna put Jaws. Now,
like I said, I've never read Jaws. I didn't even
know it was based on a book written by Peter Benchley.
But I'm just gonna think about the plot of Jaws here.
It's about a big shark that attacks a bunch of
(14:31):
people on a beach and then they go out on
a boat and try to kill Jaws. So I'm just
gonna go out of a limit saying that the book
is probably nowhere near to as iconic as the movie.
And when you think about Jaws, you think about the movie.
Nobody really mentions the book. So I'm putting that at
number five. At number four, I'm gonna go with Forrest Gump. Now,
(14:54):
Forrest Gump one of the biggest, most iconic movies of
our lifetime. Tom Hanks is a man Erican treasure and
this movie just kind of it's the test of time.
It's a movie that is pretty much on a whole
bunch of people's list of their favorite movie. But you
never hear anybody say that I loved the book more
than I love Forrest Coump. And you probably didn't even
(15:15):
know that it was based on a book written by
Winston Groom? Did you? Did you know that? So I'm
gonna say that Forrest come better movie than the book.
And number three, i'm gonna go with the Lord of
the Rings. Now. Lord of the Rings, written by J. R. R. R. Tolkien,
was a book that I was forced to read in
(15:37):
like sixth grade, and I think we were all probably
forced to read The Hobbit and all these books, and
I just felt there was so much I guess the
fact that they were assigned to me and it felt
like homework. I just never really enjoyed these books and
it's mainly because there's just so much description in these books.
They're so long and thick, and there's so much going
(15:58):
on that they're describing, like the way they cooked food
and all this weird stuff about these characters. And maybe
it's more character building, but I feel like it's too
much character building, and it's just so much reading and reading,
and even in the movies, I feel they're not my
favorite movies, Like I like the Lord of the Rings movies,
all right. I know there's some really they won a
(16:19):
lot of awards, you know, and there people love these movies.
I'm not the biggest fan of them. I just feel
like there's not enough action in them, and they're a
little slow. It's a lot of just them walking and
walking and walking. I'm not the biggest Lord of the
Rings fan. So I think what they did here was
take the book and made it more exciting by turning
it into a movie and making it a lot less shorter.
(16:42):
So I'm gonna say Lord of the Rings the movie
series better than the book. At number two, I'm putting
Fight Club now. I remember Fight Club the book probably
also in my middle school days, and it was one
of those books that people kind of passed around as
a cool book because it was like written weird and
had curse words in it, and it was kind of
supposed to be like, oh, we're not assigned to read this,
(17:03):
but here, here's The Fight Club and there's a movie
on it too. But I just think the movie is
so much more iconic than the book and really does
a better job of making it its own kind of
unique kind of vision of the story that's told in
the book. Because in the movie they create the narration
of Edward Norton that's not in the book, and I
think that's just such a big part of why that
(17:25):
movie works so well and why it's so unique. It's
because it is him inside of his head and you
get that whole kind of different perspective and vigidly. I
think the movie is just even more iconic than the story,
and there's so much music in it and the imagery
of the actual fighting and everything inside of the movie.
I just feel it was so visual that the movie
(17:47):
is better than the book. And also it has Brad
Pitt shirtless and ripped, so that's not in the book.
So I'm going to get at number two, Fight Club
better movie than the book, and at number one, I'm
gonna have to go with Jurassic Park, easy one directed
by Steven Spielberg, one of the best directors of all time,
and another one I just feel is so much more
(18:07):
visual than anything could kind of put in a book.
And I just feel like the story of dinosaurs and
the way this whole franchise kind of works is it's
such an action based movie and it's so visually driven
that I think the movie is better. And it's also
kind of one I think you kind of forget that
it's even based on a book. And yes, it has
(18:29):
spawned more sequels that aren't based on a book, but
I guess the first one alone was taken from the
story and it created really one of the biggest franchises.
And as a kid, I'm not going to read Jurassic
Park the book. I want to see the movie. So
I'm gonna put at number one movies better than the book,
I'm going with Jurassic Park. And there's the list. Don't
(18:50):
at me, everybody, all right, you're gonna get into a
movie review now. Over the weekend, I watched a movie
called Just Mercy, which I actually wanted to see in
theaters but never got a round to it. And it's
based on a true story and novel, which kind of
what gave me the idea for the episode this week,
because I have had some friends read the book and
(19:10):
said it was one of the best books they've ever read.
Watched the movie and they said it was all right.
But I wanted to go in and just watch the
movie on its own, and I actually kind of wanted
to try to bring in somebody who watched both the
movie and read the book and maybe we'll kind of
do an episode on that later down the line. But
I saw it and I kind of wanted to get
my thoughts on it because I wasn't expecting to like
(19:32):
it as much as I did, not because what it
was based on, just because when it came out, it
didn't really make a whole lot of waves and it
didn't really get a whole lot of just kind of
buzz around it that I was like, Okay, maybe it
wasn't that good. But I watched it, and I gotta
say it had my attention pretty dialed in, unlike any
other movie I've kind of seen recently. And I think
(19:53):
it's because of the law drama that it kind of portrays.
But um, before I get into it, here's just a
little bit of just mercy. I can't believe you talk
to all my people say you want to fight from me?
I mean a lot. Keep going digging in those wounds.
They're gonna be making a lot of people very unhappy
(20:13):
when people care about We find that much day mainland
anything to get what they want. When I first learned
about all this, it was like looking at a river
full of drowning people and not having any way of
helping him. So the movie is based on the young
lawyer named Brian Stevenson. He is going to Harvard and
then he has this internship where he has to go
(20:35):
and visit an inmate on death row, and he's kind
of taken back when he goes because he realizes that
this guy on death row is basically his same age
and grew up in a neighborhood just like him. So
after that he goes back and the movie Kick starts
about two years later where he graduates and then seeks
out to basically fight and give legal representation for free
(20:56):
to people who are on death row who have basically
just kind of been put there without any evidence, without
any proof, and they're just falsely imprisoned. So that's where
the movie kind of takes place. He meets Bree Larson's character,
who helps him start this law firm in this organization,
and they worked together and basically he has all these
(21:19):
cases that he's working with. But the one that really
follows is Jamie Fox's character, which he plays Walter McMillan,
who was accused of killing an eighteen year old girl
in a small town in Alabama, and he is accused
even though there was no real proof ever. It was
basically just a testimony given by another guy who was
(21:42):
formerly convicted of a crime. And he has placed there
and he's there for about six years. So what Michael B.
Jordan's character does is he meets with his family and
then just kind of starts drilling out and digging into
evidence to clear his name. So that's kind of where
I'll even on what the movie is based about. I
think if that sounds interesting enough to you to kind
(22:04):
of watch this movie, I don't want to explain and
give away what happens throughout the movie. I'll just kind
of give my reaction to it because it is a
legal drama, and I think for that reason, you're kind
of watching the whole time, anticipating what's gonna happen next,
and there's a lot of ups and downs and their
side character stories, and it's very emotional. And I think
(22:25):
the reason it kind of got my attention so dialed
into it because of how kind of powerful the story was,
and I feel like it's pretty close to what actually
happened in the book and also what happened in real life.
I kind of did some research afterwards, just kind of
trying to see what the characters look like. I always
(22:46):
kind of do that when I watch a movie based
on a true story, and I feel like it was
done pretty well in that regard, and everybody kind of
says and the consensus is that it does hold true
to what actually happened, even from like the news stories
that's placed inside the movie and all that is kind
of cool to see. And I think the cast is
really great. I like Michael b Jordan's and this Jamie
(23:06):
Foxx is great, even Brie Larson, who is a great
supporting cast in this. And there's even one scene that
kind of had me taken back because it's Michael b
Jordan's and Brie Larson sitting at a dinner table together,
and I can only think of, like, oh, it's Keptain
Marvel and kill Bonger from Black Panther having a beer together. Um.
But I just think it's a really well done movie
and a movie that I felt didn't get enough kind
(23:27):
of critical acclaim, which I guess I could kind of
see because it's not so much a novel of a movie.
But I feel it's such a powerful story and something
that we should kind of watch and be like, Wow,
I can't believe this actually happened. And it's so kind
of twisted, and it makes you very angry at parts
of the movie, and it kind of really invests you
in like him wanting to succeed in seeking justice. So
(23:52):
I think it invokes a kind of emotional aspect inside
of you watching this movie, and it really makes you
just kind of open your eyes to like, I mean,
injustice in the world and it's just crazy to see
played out. I think it was done really well. I
think the movie was shot really well. There's some really
great just kind of cinematography in this that you don't
really expect, and it just has a really powerful message.
(24:16):
So I recommend checking it out if you're looking for
something just kind of to take you on that kind
of route. I wouldn't say overall it's a sad movie.
I think it's kind of just like eye opening that
it's a bit gut wrenching at moments. So I guess
that's the only thing I would say. If you're not
looking for something that dramatic, maybe don't watch it right now.
And I would easily give it four out of five
(24:36):
lawyers that thought it was really well done. And it's
one of those movies that I like because you can
go back and look at how accurate it was to
what really happened. And I kind of like watching a
movie and then going back and doing some research online.
So I think for that reason alone, I think it's
worth watching. You can rent it now. I watched it
on Apple and it was like four bucks, so you
(24:57):
can check that out now streaming watch it at home.
All Right, that's gonna do it again for this week.
But before I go, I gotta give some quick movie news,
just because last week a bunch of movies were officially
announced that they are delayed to what kind of run
through these and all the kind of sulked together, mainly
because the Spider Man movies are now pushed back. So
the Third Spider Man was supposed to come out in
July six, Now it's not coming out till November five.
(25:22):
That's November into the Spider Verse two moves from April
two to October seven two, and then once you move
one Marvel movie, you kind of have to push them
all back because they have to sink up in order.
So now Doctor Strange is number two is coming out
on March two, and thor Love and Thunder is now
(25:42):
coming out on February eleven. Two. Let's hope these movies
don't get pushed back anymore. Paramount also announced that both
the Mission Impossible movies seven and eight have been pushed back.
Seven is now coming out on November nineteen and number
eight is coming out on November four two. That's kind
of the last round of the biggest movies being pushed back,
(26:04):
but a good news on that side of it. I
know this whole theme has kind of been movies based
on books. But they did announce that there's a now
a Hunger Games prequel in the works because Suzanne's Collins
is writing a prequel to the Hunger Games and the
movie rights are already written into it, so that would
kind of be interesting to see. I'm not the biggest
fan of prequels, mainly because they over explain origins about things,
(26:30):
and I feel like it's a little bit of like, Okay,
we didn't really need to know how this happened. You
go into so many details explaining like, oh, this is
why this happened. Okay, that's kind of cool, I guess,
but I didn't really need to know that. I think
that's a lot of the reason I didn't like episode one, two,
and three of Star Wars, because they were explaining so
(26:50):
much about Star Wars that you were just kind of
you just kind of took it on, like you watch
Star Wars and we're like, Okay, I'm into this world.
They're talking about things I don't really know about, but
I'm into it. I'm buying into it. And then those
prequels are just like, oh, well, here's the long story
about why this happened. I'm not going to show you what.
I'm gonna tell you exactly why, and that's very boring.
So I hope they don't do that in this case
(27:11):
with these prequels. Again, I'm a big fan of the
Hunger Games, books and movies. I'm probably gonna read the
book now, so I'll be excited to see that one.
Hope it's not that boring anyway. Sorry, I don't like prequels.
I also, I gotta give my Instagram shout out of
the week this week. It is going to the Robert
Herrick Jr. I hope I'm getting that Ryan Robert, but
(27:34):
he actually posted on his main fee that he was
listening to the episode I did with Morgan number two,
which is a pretty popular episode where we reviewed all
twenty three Marvel movies. So if you want to go
back and listen to that one, that's a great one
to check out. Morgan number two also joined me on
the Star Wars episode where we reviewed all those movies,
so two great episodes to go back and listen to.
(27:56):
Thanks Robert for tagging me in that and listening to
the podcast. If you want to shout it out, all
you have to do is post on your Instagram or
tag me in an Instagram story that you're listening to
the podcast. I'll shout you out in the next episode
and try to repost as much of those as I can.
Thanks so much for hanging out and hitting download. On
this episode, remember to tell a friend and until next week,
(28:16):
I will talk to you later
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