I would also submit Silence of the Lambs as a movie which quite exceeded the book in quality. Anthony Hopkin’s performance as Lecter was so amazing that it changed the way the author wrote him in future books.
Another movie that is an excellent rendition of a book is “The Leopard”, the changes made from book to movie actually improve the story I think. And....Burt Lancaster....Alain Delon....Claudia Cardinale!
And here’s one that I thought was just not good enough at all: The Hunger Games.
Hubby & I listened to the audio book and finally watched the movie on pay-per-view. There was just so much that was left out, the details, the back story. I felt that if I hadn’t “read” the book I wouldn’t have understood what was going on at all, and you shouldn’t HAVE to read the book to watch the movie.
I wish they would bring back the mini-series, it was a great format for longer stories, the hunger games would have been a great story for a mini-series.