Movie better than the book...

The only one I can think of is "Fight Club", maybe "A Clockwork Orange".

Grisham's The Client...the book bored me...but I enjoyed the movie.

I really liked te Silence of the Lambs book more then the movie. I read it in highschool my senior year (1990) and its still one of the best books I've read.

The problem with this is that the book and the movie had completely different main characters. In the movie everyone loved him in the book he was an idiot that even his son hated. Personally I LOVED the movie and since I am madly completely and just shy of stalkingly in love with Gary Senise, I might be just slightly biased. :P

I'm going to strongly disagree. The last chapter of the book, which wasn't included in the movie, really made a huge difference to me.

Jurassic Park. I blazed through the book and was completely unimpressed. The movie wasn't very good, but I think it's better than the book.

The Godfather. Book was very good, movie was perfection.

Ditto Gone with the Wind.

Jaws

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The Chamber both the book and movie sucked out loud. 

You sir, are correct.  Loved both but the Movie was perfect.  Did you ever see the made for TV movie called The Godfather Saga?

It splices the movie into the correct timeline with all the deleted scenes (as seen on the DVD).  So the opening scene is the funeral where Vito Corleone's brother was killed.  

Agreed...I always found Mario Puzo's writing to be pretty bland, but FF Coppola translated it beautifully to the screen.

I hate the "Godfather Saga" version though...anytime it shows up on TV I know my afternoon's productivity is SHOT!

+1 to both

I'd say "Princess Bride" is close. The book is very good but something about the perfect choice of actors makes the movie a bit closer to perfect IMO.

The Green Mile. Pretty sure even Steven King said he liked the movie better. 

Shawshank Redemption. Book has more detail, takes more time, but the acting in the movie just works for me.

good call on princess bride.  the book...well...i never read the morgenstern original, but i read the abridgement and was SO IRRITATED at the author's commentary.  but never irritated by the grandfather's interjections in the movie....

Well, I recognize that the movie is Zemeckis/Hanks confection, and the book is a lot edgier and more absurdist.  But I found the book a little too absurd for my taste, and the movie more engaging.

I also kind of think that a more direct adaptation of the book would not have been a very good movie--but maybe I'm wrong...

The first two that always come to my mind are really great books.  However, the movies just really do it.

The Shining

and Cuckoo's Nest.

Nicholson is the man!  As well as Foreman and especially Kubrick. 

Going to disagree with this one, while it is one my favorite movies of all time, the book was a masterpiece.

I also liked the book more than the movie - there was just so much left out of the movie.  Same with Cape Fear which I read about the same time.  I don't think I've read a book where I thought the movie was better.  I never have read some of the ones listed here though - Godfather, Cuckoos Nest, Princess Bride.  My 5th grader's teacher read the Princess Bride to them this year - I'll ask her which she liked better.

The most recent one that comes to mind is The Help - I loved the book and didn't like the movie very much.  In fact I couldn't figure out why everybody loved the movie so much - I though I would have been very confused on the whole story line if I hadn't read the book first.

My 3rd grade daughter learned that books are usually better than movies in school this year.  The teacher had them read Stone Fox and then watch the movie.  She came home so upset at how different the movie was - I was glad the teacher did that so now I can convince her to read the books first!

EVERY MOVIE IS BETTER THAN THE BOOK.  NO READING AND YOU GET THE WHOLE STORY IN 90 MINUTES, WITH POPCORN.

While the Hunger Games book was much better the the movie, the character played by Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy) was MUCH better in the movie then the book.

The role was just... him.