The Eclectic state of book adaptations... A list

Last Saturday night the kids and I threw caution to the culinary wind, jettisoned any pretence of heathy eating, and made sausage sandwiches for dinner before deciding to eat them in the living room while watching a film.

The usual order of these things is that we spend about 30 minutes arguing about what to watch before settling on something we've all seen at least three times before... usually a Marvel film. This time, though, they were both quick to pick The Electric State.

I decided to compile my five favourite films that were adapted from great books, and five great books that became cinematic stinkers.

I was vaguely aware of the new Netflix film via social media and the pile-on it was subjected to from a variety of reviewers: The Times called is "a turgid eyesore" and "top-dollar tedium"; "slick but dismally soulless", said The Hollywood Reporter. On the review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has a critics score of 15% (though a much better audience score of 70%). Did it look slick? Yes (it reportedly cost around $300m, so you'd hope so). Was it a turgid eyesore? I'm not sure I'd go that far. Did the kids like it? Yes, but then they raved about Red One, so what so they know? Did I think it was good? No. No, I did not.

But then I found out that it was based on a book. Published in 2018 by author Simon Stålenhag The Electric State currently has a very respectable 4.39 (out of five) on Good Reads from over 7,500 ratings. On Amazon it has 4.7 out of five from more than 3,000 reviews. People like it. A lot. Now, it's as much an art book as a novel, and while the imagery is gorgeous the story is also – obviously – important. This got me wondering how a critically acclaimed, successful and popular book could become such a lacklustre film.

The choices below are only my personal opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions, but I'd be very pleased to hear your thoughts on the films I've missed out.

So, because I love a list (come on, who doesn't?), I decided to compile my five favourite films that were adapted from great books, and five great books that became cinematic stinkers. Of course, there are loads of great books I've not read, and tonnes of brilliant (and terrible) films I've not seen, so my only – self-imposed – rule is that I need to have seen the film and read the book in each case. The choices below are only my personal opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions, but I'd be very pleased to hear your thoughts on the films I've missed out, whichever category they sit in. I've also not included TV shows... that's a whole other list!

Great Books/Great Films

1. Trainspotting

Might not be a surprise that I pick this as it's on the list on My Favourite Books page. It's a culturally significant novel that smashed onto the scene, Scottish colloquialisms and all, at the height of the 90s UK-mania, making Irvine Welsh one of the stars of the decade, and rightly so, It was matched by Danny Boyle's brilliant, pulsating, gritty and sometimes gruesome film that also catapulted Ewan McGregor to stardom, with the film's poster also being the wallpaper of choice for student walls up and down the land (me included).

2. Goodfellas

I read Nicholas Pileggi's book, called Wiseguy, a long time ago but remember being immediately fascinated by the bravado and brutality of Henry Hill and his mobster friends. We've all seen countless films and TV shows depicting the mafia, but this book gets under the hood to look at something we were never supposed to see. Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the book shines a brilliant, scary but equally fascinating light on that world. From the opening line – “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” – Ray Liota as Henry Hill sets the tone for a film that highlights the dangerous charisma and cold-blooded morality of mobster life.

3. Watchmen

Some of you might be thinking, 'A comic!?' – but Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel is so much more than a super-hero story. It is a super-hero story – about a group of misfit characters, most of whom have no actual powers to speak of but who take on the mantle of vigilante protectors – but it's also a story of power, warped personalities and politics, sexual and otherwise. Some of you might also be thinking, 'What, Zack Synder's Watchmen?!', but though the film was criticised by many on it's release, I found that the supposedly 'unfilmable story' was true to the source material, visually striking, darkly resonant, and even the tweak to the final denouement made more real-world sense.

4. American Psycho

Another book I read a long time ago, but one that has stayed with me. I still don't know – and am not sure I want to – whether the actions of Bret Easton Ellis's pitch dark main character Patrick Bateman are, within the realms of the novel, real or imagined, but whichever it is they are at times striking, occasionally blackly funny, but almost always controversial. There was a huge backlash at the release of the novel, which was banned in some countries, and much like Watchmen, it seemed to be a book that would not be able to make the transition to the screen. But Mary Harron took on the challenge, with Christian Bale playing Bateman, and created a film that perfectly recreated the surface-level obsession of Bateman and his business card fixated colleagues.

5. TO Kill a Mockingbird

Another of my favourite books. Actually, my favourite book, as it is for countless others. The story of Jem, Scout, Dill and the morally decent and always honourable Atticus Finch is a timeless classic for so many reasons. A story of acceptance and of right versus wrong, it is the cornerstone of many school syllabuses and a deserved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. A tall order for any film to live up to, but director Robert Mulligan perfectly brings the pages of Harper Lee's novel to life, and Gregory Peck's Oscar-winning performance as Atticus is the benchmark for what a real male hero looks like.

Great Books/Terrible Films

1. Dracula

I mean, it's Dracula. He's one of the most enduring literary characters ever created. A character who almost transcends the novel in which he is the eponymous... well, not hero. Misunderstood villain? Bram Stoker's creation is the essence of what a vampire story is and Dracula, both in the novel and in the real world, is someone who will live forever. Though it's a shame that the script for Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, wasn't forced into the sunlight before it was green-lit (though in the novel, Dracula isn't actually allergic to sunlight). Now, I love Keanu as much as the next man, or indeed woman... Point Break, Bill and Ted, John Wick... but as Jonathan Harker Reeves seems woefully miscast, and the accent doesn't help. The film seems unable to make up its mind whether it's a darkly sinister adaptation or a high-camp conversion. And we all love a bit of Gary Oldman overacting... Leon, The Fifth Element... but it all seems a bit... much!

2. The Hobbit

Yes, I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. OK, The Return of the King had about three too many endings, but that aside, Gandalf shouting "you shall not pass", Andy Serkis nailing a fully CGI character before that was a thing, and Sauron looking like a lighthouse from hell was all cool. But – unpopular opinion, maybe – I couldn't get into the books. Too long. Too dense. Too, well, boring. The Hobbit, though, was an early, mainlined novel that super-charged my love for reading. Maybe I'm mis-remembering (though I don't think so) but, in my head, as an 11-year-old child, the book was like a portal to a world I had never even imagined could exist. It was scary, funny, fast-paced and action-packed. All the things, coincidentally, I thought Peter Jackson's film was not. Martin Freeman was perfectly cast, but holy hell was it looooong. And then, finally, the end came and... hang on... three films? Out of one book?

3. The Bonfire of the Vanities

I love Tom Wolfe. Like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Wolfe's books are dense and intricate, but where I found TLotR to be full of meaningless history and arcane lore that, once read, was immediately forgotten, Wolfe's stories are full of tiny details – of place or of person – that add layers to the book and its inhabitants, creating characters that feel incredibly real, living lives that seem wholly natural. The Bonfire of the Vanities is an incisive satirical stab at the greed and social and class disparity of the 80s, but the film, from Brian De Palma, completely misses out on the satire, making it a vapid adaptation that is also miscast (Tom Hanks in a rare misfire). It's ultimately a toothless tale that lacks the courage of the book's conviction.

4. The Da Vinci Code

Ok, now, is there where I lose you? If you've read this far you're maybe thinking that this is some sort of a joke; The Da Vinci Code? A 'great book'? No chance! But bear with me. Ok, is it a novel that will live long in literature's memory? I would say it's not. Is it, you're asking, even literature? I'm aware it's the airport novel to end all airport novels, but my question to you would be; what's so bad about that? When it was released I (along with millions of others) devoured it. It's not great prose. It's not even historically accurate, but I (along with millions of others) raced through it, getting lost in Dan Brown's plot, wondering how much of it might be real, looking up images of The Last Supper, checking on Christian secret societies. I don't believe in guilty pleasures; if a book/film/album/whatever is enjoyable then I'm all for it, and I thought The Da Vinci Code was enjoyable. Ron Howard's film, however, was not enjoyable. You can sometimes get away with a lot of plot exposition in a book, but watching a mullet-laden Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou stand around chatting in art galleries does not a good film make. I don't think even Ian McKellan could've save this one if he'd had a long white beard and a wooden staff.

5. One Shot

A weird one, this... Lee Child's mega-hit series of books about a former officer in the Military Police, Jack Reacher, are punchy, dramatic and sparsely written tales of revenge, redemption and righting wrongs. You can't step on the Tube, or lie on beach without seeing at least one person engrossed in Reacher's exploits. But the film adaptations - initially One Shot (though titled simply Jack Reacher), then Never Go Back ,suffer less for being particularly bad films, and more for the fact that Tom Cruise, who is 5'7", plays Reacher, who is listed as being 6'5". It's a disparity that's hard to get past, because the character is so centred around how large and physically intimidating he is. I don't think the Tom Cruise adaptations are that bad, but it's such a odd casting choice that, if you know anything about the character of the books, it's all you can focus on.