Eragon I'm torn between.  I don't like all the stuff they skipped over in the beginning of the book but there were parts of the book that dragged to me.  And the ending battle is like 20 min in the book and only two chapters and part of a third in the book.

Yes! Queen of the Damned. I love Anne Rice and I enjoyed the book but the movie cut out so much of the pointless history it was just awesome!

test, please ignore

test again

Edith Wharton is a bit too subtle for me sometimes.  I love her writing, but I have to admit that some of it is too oblique, and goes right over my head.  I thought the movie was much more enjoyable, and did a better job of explaining what was going on. 

There were two movies that came out about the same time in the 90's - Rising Sun and Remains of the Day.  They were both made into moderately good movies, and they both suffered the same fate when the Hollywood screenwriters took over.  They totally removed the politics from the books, and greatly diminished the power of the story.

In fact, in Rising Sun, the whole point of the book was the danger to the US economy that Asia presented, and also talked about the changes that would happen when the Japanese took over Hollywood studios.  When the movie was made, all references to the core theme of the book were removed, and the killer's nationality was changed from Japanese to American!

Two movies I really liked that have little in common with books of the same name:  "Cocoon" and "Ella Enchanted".  I liked both the books and the movies, as long as I didn't think too much about how it was supposedly the same story, because it wasn't.

No way was Tom Cruise brilliant enough to be the hero in my mind's version of "The Firm".  Casting IS everything.

I loved the movie "Stardust" but heard that the book was very different.  Now I'm reluctant to read it.

Generally, book first, movie sometimes.... maybe.

I just saw a movie that I liked better than the book.  The Ruins.  Good book but better movie even including the changed ending.  I have to agree though, books take you places that movies often fail to.

gibby

Cold Mountain - loved the movie, in fact, my all time favorite; did not like the book.

Intensity by Dean Koontz was a better movie then book.

I think that I liked Interview with the Vampire movie better than the book.  Anne Rice, l love most of her stories, but after you read one you feel like you have trudged through the snow for a few days because she uses SO many words.

I've almost always preferred the book over the movie, and prefer to read the book before seeing the movie.

The only exception I can think of is Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter.  Not at all a fan of that book.  I remember watching the movie in one of my high school English classes and I really enjoyed it.

Bridget M.:  I did get through the book version of House of Sand and Fog and subsequently went to see the film version.  Well, the ending of the book was somehow anti-climactic, for me, while the film version, by leaving out that "coda"  in the book, came to a really dramatic conclusion.  So, there were things I liked better about the book (seeing inside the characters' heads and hearts) and things the movie did BETTER (understanding when to end the story).   Ben Kingsley and the Iranian woman actress (name?) were superb . . . .

I have to agree with Beth Y. about "Where the Heart is", that movie came out (I think) 7 or 8 years ago, and I'm STILL ticked off about them changing the number!! (Btw, it was 7 in the book, 5 in the movie.) The only reason I can come up with is that they didn't want to make things go on for 7 years, so they changed it to 5. But that totally ruined the movie for me!

To get back to the question at hand - Movies that I liked BETTER than the book - not many. The LOTR series, which has also been mentioned. I tried, really tried, to get into the books before the movies came out. I couldn't even get through the first one. It started out like the "begats" in the Bible. It was just page after page of their family trees! But I agreed to see the first movie with friends anyway, and am I glad! I LOVED the movies.

The only other movie that I liked better than the book was "Girl, Interrupted". Okay book, good movie.

Memoirs of a Geisha.... great book, fantastic movie!!!

I didnt like p.s I love you the movie version, and the book version was tooo long.

I like the notebook, and message in a bottle, where the heart its, anywhere but here, and bridget jones. both versions movie and book.

the devil wears prada, i liked the movie better... i dont know why but i just did.

ok shutting up now

I much prefer the movie version of About a Boy.  The book was good but I liked the ending of the movie better.  :)

I thought The Notebook" movie was actually better, though like everyone else, I normally always like the books better.

Books to me are almost always superior to the films based on them.  One exception was Under the Tuscan Sun, a book which I know EVERYONE but me loved and adored and thought was the Best. Book. Ever.  I found it dull, despite usually liking travel essays.  Anyway, since the film bore no resemblance to the book and had an actual plot and great actors, I enjoyed the film better. 

I think both of the first two Jurassic Park films improved on the novels they were based on. The part of the second film in which a T. Rex runs amok in San Diego is great fun, and that doesn't happen in the book at all!

I also thought the movie Contact did an excellent job of streamlining and tightening up the story. I found the novel to be wordy, meandering, and in places tedious.

I can't think of anything, but I can say that I loved reading the DeVinci Code, but the movie was awful!

I know this is old but I just saw a movie I was telling someone was better than the book yesterday. "P.S. I Love You." MUCH better movie than book. Really well acted and teh characters came to life. Gnerally though if a movie was first a book and I have read it, I never see the movie. 

I haven't seen a movie that has been better than the book.

I think books are better because you use your imagination and the movie doesn't live up. However, so classic movies are better than reading the book - Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Jaws, Poseidon Adventure, etc.

as much as ive tried i can not read the notebook but i loved the movie.

and there was another but i can think of it at all right now

Movies That Were Better Than The Books They Were Based Upon

1. Must Love Dogs
2. LOTR
3. Coraline
4. True Blood (HBO series, not a movie, but still better then the Sookie Stackhouse Series)
5. Chronicles Of Narnia
6. Pride and Prejudice
7. Midnight Bayou
8. Jurassic Park

interview with the vampire and stardust by neil gaiman