Best King Movies

[jester05jk]

I know it's a forum on a book publishers website, but it seems that a few threads have been derailed to movie talk. Might as well make an official thread for it.

In no particular order;
IT
The Green Mile
Silver Bullet (I miss sane Gary Busey)
Maximum Overdrive (actually watching it right now)
Creepshow
Pet Semetary
Dreamcatcher
The Mist

[jester05jk]

Honorable mention goes the that Family Guy episode, think it was called "Three Kings"?

[jmcraven]

Shawshank Redemption is the #1 rated movie on imdb's top 250 of all-time.

Rank Rating Title Votes
1. 9.2 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 596,215
2. 9.2 The Godfather (1972) 460,634
3. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 281,519

http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?tt0111161

I think that's pretty amazing. Easily my fave SK film adaptation, but I also like Creepshow and The Green Mile.

[jmcraven]

Heck! How did I forget Stand By Me?! That's my #2.

[frik51]

The Green Mile
The Shawshank Redemption

sk

[RJK1981]

Green Mile, Shawshank, Stand By Me, The Mist, 1408, and Desperation are at the top for me and in no particular order

[srboone]

1. The Shining with Jack Nicholson. The first King movie I ever saw. Gargantuan, unrelenting and just devestating. A haunted house movie that really haunts. Not the book, but based on the book.

2. Misery. Scary, funny and touching--often at the same time.
3. The Shawshank Redemption. A great movie--no doubt. Touching and uplifting.
4. Stand by Me. The relationships of these kids gets me every time.
5. Creepshow. Just plain crazy fun. And The Crate scared the crap outta me.

The Mist, The Green Mile, Silver Bullet, Cujo, The Running Man, Carrie and The Dead Zone all get honorable mention.

[Tree705]

Shawshank redemtion, Misery, Carrie

[bsaenz24]

Green Mile,
Shawshank,
Stand By Me
Creepshow
The Shining (original)
Misery
Pet Sematary

[cdfan]

My list starts with the usual suspects: IT, Green Mile, Shawshank, Stand By Me, Carrie, Misery, Shining, but one that I really do like that hasn't been mentioned yet is Dolores Claiborne. Am I alone on that one?

[theenormityofitall]

The Shining
Pet Semetary
Shawsank
The Green Mile
Silver Bullet

[jmcraven]

Interesting timing with this thread recently popping up: Today at Books-a-Million I found a book on clearance for $2.97 entitled Stephen King Goes to the Movies. I had not seen this before; it is a collection of selected stories that were translated to the screen. Each is the original SK story with a short introductory comment by The Man re his thoughts on the film adaptation. The stories included are: 1408, The Mangler, Hearts in Atlantis/Low Men in Yellow Coats, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and Children of the Corn. The stories are followed by The Man's list enitled "My 10 Favorite Adaptaions."

Needless to say, for $2.97 I bought it.

[Dave1442397]

My favorite has to be The Shawshank Redemption, followed by the original mini-series of 'Salem's Lot.

After that, I loved The Dead Zone and Stand by Me.

The Shining is a great movie, but so different from the book, which I much preferred. Jack Nicholson always looks nuts, even at the beginning of the movie when he was supposed to be your average teacher writing a novel in his spare time.

How about some forgettable ones? I can't remember anything about Maximum Overdrive and The Lawnmower Man except that I once paid money to see them in a movie theater.

[jmcraven]

I don't think of The Lawnmower Man as a King adaptation. I found this online about that: "Early versions of the film claimed that they were related to a Stephen King work. King did write a short story called "The Lawnmower Man", but it was completely different to the movie. King sued the film makers, and had his name removed from the film."

But yes, a horrible movie, either way.

[Blu Gilliand]

Well, there are the usual suspects, of course: The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me, Carrie and The Shining. I love The Mist also. I actually think parts of Pet Sematary are pretty frightening, although it doesn't come close to the book.

You know what I'd like to see? A ban on adapting King books to network television. His work is too visceral, to raw, to be watered down for network TV. Now, if a channel like FX or HBO were to try its hand at something, I'd pay attention.