Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Giving us one of cinema's most beloved characters, in Hepburn's Holly Golightly, this comedy romance about a cafe socialite had all the hijinks and infectious eccentricity of its source novella of the same name, by Truman Capote
The Blind Side
Launching Sandra Bullock back into the spotlight, this was basically the story of how any poor, uneducated black kid can make it in the world, as long a rich white lady helps them....Okay so it wasn't really but that’s sometimes how it feels. Its the story of Michael Oher being effectively adopted by a Christian woman, and his rise in the world of High school football. It is loosely based on The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, though the book itself features much more information on offensive football strategy with less focus on drama
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
There are a three of these films at the time of writing and I suspect there will be more to come. While they are essentially comedies about a small, wiley kid going through school without any great degree of popularity, and a dorky best friend, I feel the films can never replicate the books, just because of the format. The books are written as fake diaries, coupled with various drawings and doodles, and the combined effect presents a very very funny story, which makes you think back to your own youth. As amusing as scenes from the film may be, the first one in particular, they can never touch the emotional chord of the books. There are 7 in all so far: the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney
Shutter Island
Scorsese reunited with DiCaprio yet again for this psychological drama about a missing person on an island housing a psychiatric facility. The fragmented narrative and multiple contradictions keep the suspense going, even if the eventual 'conspiracy'/'explanation' is fairly routine. The gothic, pulpy atmosphere is in close keeping with the source material, the best-selling novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Incidentally Lehane also wrote Mystic River, which also ended up being made into a film
Drive
This one may come as something of a surprise. The very deliberate nature of the directing and cinematography gives the impression that the entire endeavour is one man's distilled vision. The film tells the story of a mysterious man called The Driver, who lives by a set of precise rules, and takes driving jobs for criminals. Just as he is finding love with his neighbour, he ends up in the middle of a double cross over a bag of money and a bloodbath ensues. The Film is based on the novel Drive by James Sallis, one of two featuring his character The Driver. Short, dark, and gloomy, the novel isn't a linear story and includes many flashbacks and jumps, which in some way helps explain the style of its movie incarnation
Children of Men
Starring Clive Owen and set in a world where infertility is absolute, and there hasn't been a newborn in years, it follows a man trying to protect a pregnant woman, and eventually her baby. The premise is excellent, but the implications seem somewhat blunted by the pedestrian plot. This is in contrast to the novel, The Children of Men by P.D.James, which delves much deeper into the politics of this dystopia and the psychological and social implications
Brewster’s Millions
An underrated Richard Prior movie in my opinion, it may not be as caustic as some of this other works, or feature his great chemistry with Gene Wilder, but it is nonetheless a funny premise, carried off with aplomb. Essentially a man is given 30 million dollars, and told that if he can spend it all and have nothing left to his name in a month, he will inherit 300 million. Hilarity ensues. I was surprised to find that this was based on novel from way back in 1902 by George Barr McCutcheon, and surprised further to find that in all this time, it has been made into not just one, but ten separate films across the globe!
Doc Hollywood
A classic from the Michael J Fox back-catalogue, this is a really charming, enjoyable story of a hotshot young surgeon crashing his car in a rural South Carolina hamlet. Sentenced to community service, he ends up having to stay in the town and adapt to life at a slower pace, developing friendships with the locals and even finding love. If the plot sounds familiar, it may be because the Pixar film Cars used almost exactly the same story years later. Its a pretty faithful adaptation of What? Dead Again? by Neil B. Shulman, who in addition to being an MD, was also a producer for the film
Jaws
Now here's an unexpected one. A Spielberg classic which spawned far far too many sequels [which was nicely spoofed in Back to the Future II], one can only guess how many people have developed a phobia of swimming, oceans and beaches from this motion picture about a Shark terrorising a summer resort. It is considered monumental in the history of cinema, effectively being the first ever 'blockbuster', and it is based on Jaws by Peter Benchley. The novel has a lot of other subplots which were dropped for the film, which instead focused on the shark, and then men hunting it.
The Princess Bride
Another classic story, this one is a fantasy story about a pirate assembling a group to help him rescue a princess who was once his lover. It is based on a novel of the same name by William Goldman. The Book itself is presented as an abridgement of the fictional book ' The Princess Bride' by S. Morgenstern, with a fake forward and Goldman's comments running throughout. This atmosphere of silliness and irony permeates through to the film, which is unsurprising given that he adapted the screenplay for it. Some hold it in as high regard as The Goonies..more or less says it all
The NeverEnding Story
The first of a trilogy of Epic Fantasy films, it was based on a German novel, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, which was later translated into English by Ralph Manheim. The story is of a boy in the real world who is reading a book which effects a fantasy world called Fantasia, which is being destroyed by 'the nothing' which is a lack of imagination in the real world.... it’s not actually as complicated as it sounds. It looks a bit dated now, but fun nonetheless. Incidentally the first film only covers the first half of the novel, and even then with some omissions. The remainder of the novel influences the sequel, to some extent, but other plotlines have been made up and added in too
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a wildly popular film even now, and for many, it shows Tom Hanks at his acting finest. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Wilson Groom, published 8 years before the film was released. The film tried to stay relatively faithful to the book, but some of the plot had to be abridged due to time constraints, leading to the whole 'Ape called Suzie' and 'NASA astronaut' arcs being dropped. The sex was sanitized, as was the retardation angle. Groom was so disappointed with the film, that in Gump and Co, the sequel, he begins with the line, "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story."
