Top Ten Favorite Movie Adaptations

 Today's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl was listed as "Freebie." I've chosen to list my Top Ten Favorite Movie Adaptations.

 1. A Time to Kill by Josh Grisham. A terrible crime is committed by White Supremacists and followed by a swift act of vengeance by a grieving father. This is one of the rare occurrences where the movie is better than the book.

 2. Jaws by Peter Benchley. A monster shark is terrorizing the beach just in time for 4th of July. Probably the only shark movie that isn't B-rated. Peter Benchley was good, but Steven Spielberg was better.

3. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Two kids with dark secrets and a serial killer terrorizing the suburbs. There were two movie adaptations of this, Let the Right One In was the Swedish version, and later the US produced one called Let Me In. I've seen the both. If you're going to watch one, pick the Swedish version (with English subtitles). It was true to the novel, and slow-chill-up-your-spine creepy.

 4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda is left isolated, alone, and afraid to ask for help, after a high school party gets out of hand. I'm not really a Kristen Stewart fan but she absolutely nailed the it, and the subject matter is so important to get out to kids.

5. War of the Worlds by HG Wells. HG Wells proved to be a bit ahead of his time when he wrote this sci-fi thriller in 1895. A story designed to be a metaphor for British Colonization and social Darwinism was quickly elevated to classic literature. In 1938 a radio broadcast incited public panic, as listeners believed a martian invasion was truly underway. Since then, it's been remade "like a million times," according to my dad. Its been made into movies, tv shows, comic books and video games, and served as inspiration for other works. I know the ending of the 2005 version wasn't as strong as it could have been, and its far away from 1895, but I liked it.

6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Daniel Craig and Roony Mara gave haunting performances as a pair of troubled souls digging into a missing girl and a serial killer. I was so disappointed when they weren't able to continue this franchise with these two. I read this book I found it was a ridiculous amount of work to read. I don't know if it lost suspense in translation, but the movie was spectacular.

7. A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. This was the an enchanting love story about an Irish immigrant destined walk the streets of New York eternally caught in a war between Heaven and Hell. The book had a ton of content and it was charming and tragic. The movie cuts a lot out, but I think it moves a little soother.

8. Holes by Louis Sachar. Shia Lebeouf was not true to the character description set forth in the novel, but he was super cute in this...The cast is half of what made the movie so good, the other half was its source material was strong. I felt like largely this ran true to the novel and was entertaining from beginning to end.

9. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I was 5 in 1993, and I still remember being scared shitless when the utility worker got pulled inside the cage. I still remember feeling a sense of wonder as brachiosaurus walked across the screen. Now as an adult, when I watch the movie, I still marvel at the work that went into bringing Michael Crichton's dream alive. I've since read the book, and the characters are very different and the adventure is longer, I'd say in another 30 years, the movie would still be on my top ten list...or maybe that's my nostalgia speaking.

10. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. The special effects, the costumes, the make-up, the choreography, the cast...what was not to love about these movies? And if you've ever read the books you know it had more content and characters than was strictly necessary to tell the story...The movie cut a lot of that out. 

Have you seen/read any of these? What's your favorite movie adaptation?