Best Movies Based on Books + 5 Movies That Were Better Than the Book + Just Mercy Movie Review

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Speaker 1: 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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. 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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. 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, I will talk to you later