Worst film adaptations of excellent books

[LB]

The first film I think of when asked this question is Simon Birch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124879/ .

This was "loosely" based (in my opinion) on John Irving's wonderful novel A Prayer for Owen Meany . I was actually offended by this film because it was not even close to the book. And the movie was barely watchable.
Simon Birch and Owen Meany should not even be mentioned in the same sentence after this one.

Any film adaptations you didn't like?

[Jenno]

Eat Pray Love. I'm a big fan of Julia Roberts, and if this film had not been based on a book, I probably would've loved it. But there is too much great, necessary detail in the book that cannot be captured in a 2 hour film.

[Corey]

I was really angry with the film of Nick Hornby's About a Boy the first time I saw it, because the title is a Nirvana reference; the book takes place in 1994 and Kurt Cobain's death figures heavily in the plot. So I was kind of furious that the movie was moved to the present day and every bit of the Nirvana material was taken right out. I have since relaxed about this and learned to enjoy the movie as its own thing. :)