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The Movie Was Better

I need to confirm this, but I have a very, very strong suspicion that the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is superior to the novel that inspired it a year earlier, in no small part to Walther Matthau and Jerry Stiller's stellar performances. Of course, that film is kind of unique in that it was held as pretty great when it first came out (if not necessarily better than its novel)...and in the subsequent 40 years, more and more people agree it's a masterpiece, until it hit 100% on RT and has stayed there.

"Wait a minute, I think I just figured out how they're going to get away."

"I'm listening."

"They're going to fly the train to Cuba."

"...you're a sick man, Rico."
 
Starship Troopers. It knew the book was a crypto-fascist military-worshipping political pamphlet for Heinlein's kooky ideology masquerading as a science fiction book.
 
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Vinegrape said:
Wicked the Musical is better than Wicked the Book in just about every respect.

I didn't need to know what snuff films in the Land of Oz would look like, but that's what I got.
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ugh, yeah, the Wicked book (or at least what I remember from it) was pretty...it didn't feel like the Wizard of Oz. Then again I haven't watched the musical ever or rewatched the original oz movie in years, so I don't know how accurate my memory is, but...I remember I really didn't like the book and it put me off the idea of ever seeing the musical for a good while.
Admittedly, I stopped reading about either a third or halfway through, when they went to the strip club (I think it was called the Arithmatic club? Something math related at any rate) because the end of that scene seriously squicked me out. So I don't know if it gets any better than that but my impression of the book was certainly not good enough to finish it.

As for movies that are better than books...the only one I've read the book of that I can recall that I enjoyed the movie of more was HTTYD, if only because the movie was more in line with my tastes than the book was.
 
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