When Bad Books Are Made Into Even Worse Movies

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We’ve talked about great books that were turned into terrible movies, and others that have been made into great movies. Now we’ve chosen to highlight a few books so bad that they shouldn’t have ever seen the light of day. Despite their weak characters, cliched plot lines and boring romance, these films managed to impress some studio head enough to green light the film adaptation. The chances of the movie version being better than the book are pretty slim. Here are some of the worst books ever written and their even worse film version:

  1. Twilight

Yes, the book sold millions of copies and the film made millions of dollars, but that doesn’t mean either of them pass the “great work” test. While author Stephanie Meyer is a good storyteller, her books would have benefited from better writing. Unfortunately, the books were made into pretty terrible movies, so whether you were on Team Edward (we picked him!) or not, this movie series shouldn’t be on any list of great films.

  1. 50 Shades of Grey

Who could have imagined a movie about sex could be so boring? Well, not only was the film awful and full of bad intentions, the literature counterpart it spawned from was full of the same terrible messages. Apparently treating women like pets and pretending men are power-hungry tyrants passes for romance these days.

  1. One for the Money

The first in a series of terrible books written about a bond collector named Stephanie Plum. While the books are a light and mindless read, the movie manages to make us feel like paying our bills would be more fun than watching it. It doesn’t get much more dull, generic or amateur than this.

4. I Am Number Four

For those of you that don’t know this story, it’s about a group of alien kids sent to Earth from a dying planet called Lorien. As they become teenagers, they are mysteriously being killed off in chronological order. The book is penned by someone named Pittacus Lore, who claims to be a ten thousand year old space alien seeking to warn us of hostile other aliens currently lurking in our midst. Wait, what? The movie didn’t exactly thrill us or make sense either.

5. Eragon

The fantasy novel by 16-year-old Christopher Paolini is about a teenage boy who finds a blue stone in the forest that’s actually a dragon egg which hatches and changes his life. The book’s writing was poor while the plot was cliché as it seemed like a bad knockoff of the “Lord of the Rings” books, with similarities to other fantasy novels as well. As far as the movie goes, the experienced actors in it (Irons, Malkovich, Carlyle, Hounsou, and Sienna Guillory) earn the big bucks just for keeping a straight face throughout this laughable mess.

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