Movies from TV programmes

[Father:_Polley]

With the arrival of the Simpson's movie last year, the Family Guy movie before and the new X-Files movie being released...what are people's thoughts on movies being made from television programmes

For me, I found the Simpsons and Family Guy movies a little overstretched. While I love both programmes, I felt as though the movie felt more like five episodes thrown together and to me, the jokes grew a little stale

X-Files I can't comment on because I never watched the film or the series. But what do you think? Are movies as successful as the series, or do the series make for better viewing in the shorter timeframes

 

[RBH]

I do not think that a show's full integrity and greatness can be captured in a movie and I do not believe that it can attract that many newer audience. I believe that shows that are made to movies are only going to be watched by fans of that show. The Simpsons was just a long overdrawn regular episode pretty much. The X-Files is the same. It pretty much attracts the fans and anyone else is fair game. I do not know the numbers on Sex and the City but I am pretty sure that it did okay but it was mostly an attraction to fans of that show. I know I did not go see it. But basically, the shows into movies can be great if it is marketed well. But most of the time, it only attracts the fans

 

[My$terio_Fan]

I think it depends on how the movie is written. I think movies can be just as sucessful as the television as long as it is a good movie. Personally I agree about the simpson's movie. I found it to be a glorified 1 hour and how many minutes television show. Sex in the City has made over 100 million dollars, which shows that television shows can do well even if it's not written very well, since critics didn't give it a good review. I think the movie will get alot of the regular viewer's to go see it but it needs to be good or hyped in order to make some real money.

 

[Dead Kennedy]

The scope and width of a series is hard to contain within a regular film. That is one of the reasons why I cannot remember ever having seen one good film based on a show, perhaps except Serenity (based on Firefly) which basically was just a better-looking, more condensed episode of the show in my opinion. It had the same feeling and same cast, so it basically was an extended episode. I liked it.

The Simpsons movie, I didn't like. The biggest selling point for the Simpsons, at least for me, has been the supporting characters. They've pretty much done every Homer joke that can be written now, but the supporting characters always come up with something new and fresh. It was just a predictable, slightly-better-looking production with a few laughs here and there, but I've seen better TV episodes to be honest.

It's tricky to make a good film based on a television show. But making a "good film" doesn't always matter, as people are likely to flock to it anyway.

 

[Davi323]

There have been some good movies that were developed out of a TV show, although I will admit, they are few and far between. The ones I can think of are Maverick, The Untouchables, the first Mission Impossible, Wayne's World, not to mention all of the Monty Python movies, and the highly successful Star Trek movies. The first Naked Gun movie, based on Police Squad, was hilarious, as well. Obviously, what I consider as an acceptable movie translation, you might, and stuff you might think was okay I might think utter crap. But, I think there are enough movies out there based on television programs that it is unfair to paint them all as failures.