'The book was better': Movies that didn't measure up

Entertainment Weekly lists movies that don't measure up to the books from which they were made. Some of these are so glaringly obvious that you could immediately list them off the top of your head.

In other cases, however, the movies were so unsuccessful that you've probably already forgotten they even existed. To refresh your memory, here they are. (To see full EW commentary and pictures, click here.)

1. "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman (film version, 2007)

2.  "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown (film version, 2006)

3. "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby (film version, 2005)

4. "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden (film version, 2005)

5. "A Sound of Thunder" from a Ray Bradbury short story (film version, 2005)

6. "Troy" from Homer's "Illiad" (film version, 2004)

7. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" by Helen Fielding (film version, 2004)

8. "Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray ( film version, 2004)

9. "The Human Stain" by Philip Roth (film version, 2003)

10. "The Cat in the Hat" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss (film versions in 2003 and 2000)

11. "The Rules of Attraction" by Bret Easton Ellis (film version, 2002)

12. "Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle (film version, 2001)

13. "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel (film version, 2001)

14. "The Musketeer" from "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas (film version,  2001)

15.  "Eyes Wide Shut" from  the Arthur Schnitzler novella "Dream Story" (film version, 1999)

16. "Bicentennial Man"  by Isaac Asimov (film version, 1999)

17. "Simon Birch" by John Irving (film version, 1998)

18. "Sphere" by Michael Crichton (film version, 1998)

19. "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (film version, 1995)

20. "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe (film version, 1990)

21. "The Running Man" by Stephen King (film version, 1987)

22. "The Cotton Club" by Jim Haskins (film version, 1984)