CaptainFreedom

A little while after the movie Aliens came out, I read the book adaptation from the movie. I don't remember if it was good or not because that was ages ago, and until I started writing, I wouldn't analyze books as I was reading them.

Anyway, there was a part in the book that wasn't in the movie. Which I thought was kind of strange at the time because I didn't think the author was just allowed to change shit however they wanted. Then about four years ago, the movie came on German TV. Sure enough, the part that was in the book, but not in the movie had been added to it.

Weird, huh? I guess for the movie release they had edited it out, then it made its way back in for a different foreign-for-TV cut.

CF

Malone

Was it the scene with the turret guns? I think there was another scene at the beginning showing more of the settlers before the aliens come.
Those scenes were cut from the original, but they're in the new Director's Cut DVD that came out a couple years ago.

CaptainFreedom

Yeah, that was it.

There were a couple of other little changes in the version I saw too - a couple of scenes where the special effects weren't quite on par with the rest of the movie. One I remember was a panning view of the interior of the Marine's spaceship that looked a little cheesy. I think Ripley found Paul Reiser again after he mugged too. I forget why, but I thought that scene was a little bit dumb too.

CF

lin

Such as?

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lin

Reason I ask, there are a lot of sort of mythical beliefs about Hollywood in the common mind, much of it stoked by film critics (i.e. bitter, sexless idiots) and screenwriter wannabes.

One is that spending a lot of money on a film will make it a bad film. So will special effects, big stars, or voice-overs. Another is that Hollywood always ruins books. Not really all that true.

And a lot of movies were made from books nobody ever heard of, sometimes popularizing the book. Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump to name two. (Yes Virginia, Roger Rabbit was originally a novel. I read it and was dumbfounded when I heard they were making it into a movie. What was the point???? OK, I was wrong.)
Forrest Gump film has almost nothing to do with the WInston Groom novel. I liked the novel better, but few would agree. Much of what was cool about the movie--sticking Hanks in with Nixon and Mao and all--was only possible on film and really genius.
Another example of Hollywood pretty much throwing away the book and building a new movie around it (I won't give Bonfire of the Vanities as an example of the same thing since it really did suck) was Terms of Endearment. For one tiny example, Jack Nicholson's character didn't exist in the book. But know what, people seemed to like the flick.

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ClancyBoy

Flaming Truth Teller is never random and always appropriate.

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

ClancyBoy

Fight Club was a much much MUCH better movie than it was a book. The movie was actually somewhat coherent.

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Malone

Yeah the Forest Gump novel was totally different from the movie. I didn't really like the movie, but both the Forest Gump novels kicked ass. I think there are only two...he may have written a third.
The Fight Club movie was better than the book, in my opinion, and it's an example of popularizing the literature like you mentioned. There are tons of those. I know No Country for Old Men was a short story or a novella. Princess Bride is another one. Although it's somewhat different from the book. Cuckoo's Nest.

I could sit down and make a list of bad movies (which I still think would exceed good), but you make a pretty good argument and I really don't feel like wasting my time compiling lists.

I've never thought budgets ruin movies, but I have heard others say that.

Malone

Haha. I think we posted about Fight Club within 30 seconds of each other. Your post wasn't there when I started typing.

Grits

Forrest Gump novels? I love the movie, I'll have to check that out.

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Malone

Just rewatched the Kubrick movie. After reading the book, this movie really sucks balls. So much is cut. Now I see why it was so confusing the first time I saw it. In retrospect, I can't believe I watched them whole movie the first time through. I guess it was just Kurbrick's always enjoyable style that held me.
The character seems to be in his mid twenties too, not fifteen like in the book. That really threw me off.