Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Book to Movie Adaptations

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

It’s been forever since I did a TTT, but I finally carved out some time to put this together!

This week’s prompt is Top Ten Book To Movie Adaptations I’m Looking Forward To or Ten Book To Movie Adaptations I Still Need To Watch. I’ve tweaked it slightly, so I’m doing Ten Book to Movie Adaptations I Own.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Yes, I know, a lot of stuff was missing from the movies, and I’ll never get over how Ginny’s character was treated, but they were still enjoyable and rank among my favourite films ever!
2. The Princess Bride: “Hello, my name is Inigio Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Enough said.
3. Northanger Abbey: My friends and I swooned over Henry Tilney when we watched this for our Austen course in university. And it’s my favourite Austen novel (sorry, Pride & Prejudice, you’re a close third – after Persuasion).
4. Stardust: Mostly, I just remember Robert de Niro as a gay pirate, but as a Neil Gaiman fan, I love everything about this.
5. Coraline: Ditto (minus the gay pirate, of course).
6. A Series of Unfortunate Events: Again, there’s a lot missing from this adaptation and they gave it a whole different ending, but visually, it’s so much fun.
7. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: While I didn’t love the sequel (because it skipped the middle books and changed the story lines a lot), this first one is girly fun at its best!
8. The Princess Diaries: One of the rare times I saw a movie before reading the books, the only thing that makes me sad is how Grandmere is not nearly as sweet as Julie Andrews makes her out to be (also the fact that it took THREE BOOKS for Mia and Michael to get together!!).
9. Beautiful Creatures: I enjoyed the books (though after hating the sequel series, I’m not sure if I can re-read them), and while the movie deviated somewhat, it was still cute.
10. The Great Gatsby: Visually gorgeous. Plus who can resist the always-charming Leo DiCaprio??

BONUS:

• 10 Things I Hate About You: Based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, this teen romcom is one of the greatest things to exist. Come for a young Joseph-Gordon Levitt, stay for Heath Ledger-with-his-Australia-accent (RIP, Heath).
• Easy A: Based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. I’ve said it before: the only unbelievable aspect is the idea that someone as gorgeous as Emma Stone could be invisible to her classmates.
• She’s the Man: Also based on Shakespeare (Twelfth Night), this was Amanda Bynes at her funniest. Also a then relatively unknown chap by the name of Channing Tatum who sticks a tampon up his nose. Hilarious.

All three of these bonus movies are high on my list of favourites; I’ve always loved retellings!

What adaptations made your list? Are there any I should check out immediately?

Top 10 Movies

Once more, I’ve decided to tackle a “top ten” list, and this time, I’m going with favourite movies.

For previous top ten lists, please see books, albums, and songs.

Thus, in no particular order:

1) The Nightmare Before Christmas

I’m pretty sure I’ve explained my love for Jack Skellington before.

2) 10 Things I Hate About You

Forget that time he played the Joker – Heath Ledger as Patrick Verona is one of the best things to ever exist. I should also note that the first time I watched this, I was going through a  3rd Rock from the Sun phase, and I loved seeing Tommy and Alissa (aka Cameron and Bianca) together again.

3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Of course I have to put a Harry Potter movie on this list. I chose Prisoner of Azkaban because it was my favourite book for the longest time (it’s slowly being replaced by Deathly Hallows, but still holds a special place in my heart). Plus I think this is the one where my love for Daniel Radcliffe reached a whole new level.

4) The Sandlot

Ro and I (and, on occasion, our brother Kevin) quote this movie all the time. It was a summertime staple, and everything I know about baseball, I learned from Benny “the Jet” Rodriguez. Base up, you blockheads!

5) School of Rock

This movie made me want to start a band when I was 13 (it still does). Jack Black is hilarious and I only wish we had had cool substitute teachers like him in school.

6) The Jungle Book

My favourite Disney movie in general. I watched this a million times as a child. My nieces have all, at some point, been obsessed with it, I, for one, never complain about watching it with them.

7) Tangled

My favourite “classic” Disney princess is Belle (because I relate to her on so many levels), but Rapunzel is one of the best recent princesses. I would argue that Tangled is more enjoyable than Frozen (yeah, I said it!).

8) She’s the Man

Remember when Amanda Bynes was a promising young actress? It makes me a little sad to re-watch this, knowing that she has all sorts of problems now, but this was probably the peak of her popularity, and she was so talented.

9) Easy A

Emma Stone is one of my girl crushes. I want to be her (or at least be friends with her). The only unbelievable thing about this movie is trying to convince me that someone who looks like Emma Stone could be invisible in high school. No es posible. Otherwise, it’s flawless (like Emma Stone!).

10) The Princess Bride

Three words: as you wish. Enough said. (Also, I can’t truly hate Prince Humperdinck – even though he’s a tool – because Chris Sarandon was the voice of Jack Skellington – see #1).