Best Film adaptations of PA Literature

After reading a book that I enjoyed I like to watch the film adaptation, obviously with mixed results. Last night I watched the film adaptation of Children of Men. I love both the Book and the film, I think they complement each other well.

Also recently read On the Beach, noticed that there are two film versions of this book. I'm interested to see both versions as one is quite recent and the other not so. The book is quite stuffy, everything was terribly terribly awful, I wouldn't be surprised if the early adaptation is similar.

I am also a big fan of I Am Legend both the book and film, I haven't seen Last Man on Earth yet. Hopefully it's on DVD.

I also rented The Handmaids Tail after reading the book. OK, but so very 1980's. Worth watching just for the hair do's!

Any other recommendations?

I read Children of Men right before the movie came out and I have to admit that the voice/tone of the book was a little stuffy--almost like a 19th century novel--although I liked the ending to it much better than the movie. On the other hand, that photography in the movie was just killer . . . especially those 3-4 extended shots.

I always thought the movie of The Handmaid's Tale was a bit out of whack as the book showed in the flashbacks the slow, inexorable rise of the religious control of the government--something that seemed pretty believable in its incremental nature--while the movie skipped most of that back story so that it became just a wacky society of religious nuts.

A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison was made into a pretty good movie in the '70s--a cult classic, at least--directed by veteran character actor L.Q. Jones. The above ground scenes work better than the crazy underground scenes where people are wearing bizarre makeup, but overall it hangs together pretty well after 35 or so years.

>1 redroc: The original film of On the Beach is very, very similar to the book. When I reread the book a year or two ago I was surprised at how so much of the dialogue is directly from the book, and in my head I just followed along with images of the actors. It's worth seeing just for Gregory Peck, of course, and Fred Astaire has a change of pace part playing the rich race car driver who deliberately crashes at the end.

>1 redroc: redroc, have you seen The Omega Man, the Charlton Heston-powered adaptation of I Am Legend. It kicks ass, in a scenery chewing Hestonian way. Nice interracial romance, too, which was a little unusual for the times.

Yes BeckyJG, seen (& Love) the Omega Man. Along with Planet of the Apes Charlton is in two of my fave dystopian/PA films. Suppose one day I should read Pierre Boule's original book.

Recently enjoyed Book of Eli, as far as I know that was from an original script, it reminded me of UK film from the 80's called Hardware.

Ooh, good--I've got Book of Eli queued up on Netflix.

I was not a big fan of The Book of Eli as some of the twists at the end--plus Milas Kunis in her Rodeo Drive getup--were just a bit much. Then again, I think it was still much better than the movie of The Road.

BeckyJG, I don't think this contains any spoilers but you may wish to look away! I agree that Book of Eli went a bit "Mad Max" in some aspects. What I enjoyed from it were Danzil's performance and the atmosphere created. It did fail in addressing a lot of essential PA issues, e.g there seemed to be a lot of people around and very little in the way of food etc. Also, I wonder whether it was product placement with the iPod?! But overall I "enjoyed" the post ap mood.

I enjoyed the book version of The Road, also watched the film once. I had to watch it in instalments over several nights so I don't know whether there is an emotional punch to it. Needs a second viewing when there are no disturbances!

Can I add stuff that wasn't necessarily based on a book but makes great post-apocalyptic viewing nevertheless?

If I can, I have to mention The Matrix.

If I can't, I'll start another thread.

I think it's cool if it's not based on a book...as long as it's good PA viewing fun.

Since I found The Matrix to be neat-looking, but nearly indecipherable, however, I'll have to sit this particular one out.

I did like those long leather dusters, though.

I love the Matrix, but I could have done without the sequels. Saying that, the Blu ray box is cheap so I might give them another go.

I've just ordered The Stand, along with 1984 I think the seeds of my Dystopian/PA fascination were sown with those two books. The film version of 1984 isn't bad considering it's attempting to adapt one of the greatest books written (in any genre). Has anyone seen the film version of the Stand? It doesn't look good from the DVD cover.

Stretching this thread further, does anyone rate Jericho the TV series? I watched the pilot and that's it. I have them on DVD (somewhere).

It's iffy. I think that Flagg was horribly miscast. Everyone else was pretty good - not great, not awful.

You're talking about the mini-series of The Stand, right, with Gary Sinise and Ray Walston and Molly Ringwald? I can't not watch it whenever I see that Syfy (or whatever they're calling themselves now that Sci Fi Channel is too mundane for them) is running it. It's not great, but compulsively watchable.

I haven't read OR watched The Postman, but they're both on my list.

Has anyone been to the EMP in Seattle? Half the museum is devoted to music, the other half to sci fi movie props. There's a whole PA section. They have the ear-piercing gun from Tank Girl. I'm not going to lie -- it was my favorite part.

>13 BeckyJG: I've just checked Amazon and yes it's a mini series. The reviews aren't bad so will give it a go after finishing the book.

The Postman is on my TBR as well, haven't seen the film either but it doesn't seem to be that well respected! Perhaps another Costner PA classic like Waterworld!

>15 redroc: You have perfectly pegged the quality of the film version of The Postman...and it's particularly egregious when placed against the truly fine work that Brin's book is. Does Waterworld have its source in a book as well?

If it was a book, I bet the book was better :)

That being said, I'm sure I'm not the only person here to admit that I like just about any PA movie, good or bad. There's always something about the PA setting that keeps me interested.

If you ever get the chance to see the BBC mini-series Day of the Triffids it's well worth watching. (My wife and I got it via Netflix.) It's much better than the earlier B&W movie where salt water magically kills the triffids at the end . . . one of those bizarro, lame deux ex machina Signs endings.

Was that early 80s, Cold-War-fear-mongering cheese, The Day After, starring Jason Robards, based on a book? Anybody know?

I enjoyed Jericho when it was on, but it barely lasted two seasons.

15,16,17> The origin of Waterworld?

Check out the cover from Analog: Science Fiction And Fact, March, 1994:


I grabbed 22 installments of the periodical today at sixteen cents apiece. Yes, I'm a dork.

Waterworld was a novella written by Lee Goodloe and Jerry Oltion.

Nice!

On the subject of the BBC, they ran a series in the 1970's here in the UK called Survivors. It focuses on a handful of survivors following a flu like epidemic. It hasn't aged well and the acting is as wooden as it gets, but as >17 sonyagreen: above, if it's PA I’ll watch it, whether good or bad!

It was recently remade, again by the BBC, season 2 finished earlier this year. Unlike the original it's excellent.

Also in the 1970's (I think, could be early 1980's) the BBC made a film called Threads. It's a (very) bleak account of before, during and after a nuclear war. What makes it different is that it's set in a northern English town. No Hollywood glamour. If it's available in the US it's well worth digging out, don’t expect any laughs though! (Read the imdb user review for a full review)

Okay folks, I'm just going to say it. No shame here, right?

I saw 2012 on cable on Saturday night and I thought it was awesome! Not great, not even good, but seeing my city and state crumble back into the earth, well...that was the best. Fabulous effects, and very, very loud.

I guess it's more apocalyptic than post, but still.

>23 BeckyJG: I JUST added 2012 to my netflix queue, and thought "no shame!"

Tee hee.

Then might I say, since there is no shame, recommending Damnation Alley. Saw it when I was eight, and it was awesome! Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard travel across a nuclearized American wasteland through a corridor strangely free of terminal radiation, but not free from giant scorpions and killer cockroaches! The special effects of the sky and sunset are impressive, the rest is dated, late '70s cheese.

I've yet read the book, btw.

24> Please do not take the opportunity to see the alternate ending. Just . . . don't.

It was an interesting movie. The alternate ending destroyed whatever good there was to be found with the film.

Are you saying it's worse than the alternate ending of Blade with an "eight-story blood beast"?

I do not know, I've never seen the alternate ending of Blade.

I thought about how I could note the difference without accidently or intentionally rolling over to spoilers and I couldn't think of any way to do that.

I've never actually tried this in Talk, but if text colors are allowed, you can use white text on white background, with the instructions that you can read it if you highlight it.

I don't really care about spoilers (they've always kind of heightened the anticipation for me), but I ADORE the thought of secret writing in here. Messages must be important if you have to do something special to read them.

; )

The last time I tried to set colors in talk, I couldn't. I also remember Tim's discussion, since then, of what HTML he would enable in Talk, and I don't remember colors as being included.

Robert

I tried
*span style="color:green"
*style type="text/css">
.different-text-color { color: green; }
*font color="red"

None of them worked. I can't remember where the discussion of what is and is not allowed in Talk posts is, but colors don't seem to be an option. Now, if only the blink tag worked...

So, watched Book of Eli last night. A bit on the portentous side (but ah, isn't so much in our beloved genre?), but still--I loved it. I mean, in the end it was all about the books. How can that not be wonderful? They should've done more with that aspect of it, though, and they definitely should've used Malcolm McDowell more.

You're right, though...Mila Kunis was a bit Rodeo in her get-ups.

Book of Eli was beautifully filmed I thought; I also loved Mad Max: The Road Warrior. I have not seen The Road although I have read the book by Cormac McCarthy and the stills look very good.

I can't tell you how many times as a teenager I watched those Mad Max movies. I think I have the scenes and dialogue still memorized!

I just finished watching 2012 w/my kids, and they loved it, except the parts when "people were just talking" -- instead of being killed in tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, epic enormo crust slippages of 1,500 miles-plus (Wisconsin is the new South Pole!), airplane crashes, mass hysteria, et cetera -- because those scenes "were kind of boring." I thought it hokey (but fun fun fun hokey). Not nearly as godawful as Armageddon.

I loved watching the White House and the Vatican get demolished by Mother Nature.