The Best And Worst TV-to-Film Adaptations

Sequels aren’t meant to be better than the originals that spawned them, and movies based on television series even less so. But 22 Jump Street (2014) fits the bill on both counts. Without the boring origin-story necessities that would otherwise bog down this sequel to 2012’s 21 Jump Street (yes, there is an address change), Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s college-set sequel hits its marks right from the get-go. It’s funnier than the first, with in-jokes and references making it the most meta sequel since Scream 2 (1997), and featuring a go-for-broke performance by Channing Tatum that should hush the haters once and for all. Plus, it’s the most blatantly homoerotic bro-comedy ever made — quite an achievement after last month’s Bad Neighbours (2014).

22 Jump Street isn’t the first movie spawned from a TV show to succeed where so many, many others have failed. History is littered with TV-to-film adaptations: some inspired, some flawed, some gloriously misguided. Here’s our pick of which adaptations made the cut, which ones didn’t, and which ones should’ve been thrown in a big hole and burned.

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The Good

Addams Family Values (1993)

There’s so much zany, macabre humour going on in Barry Sonnenfeld’s sequel to his 1991 adaptation of the classic sitcom that it’s legitimately hard to keep track. A shift in tone saw this sequel far surpassing expectations, and with one of the best performances of the decade from Christina Ricci — she delivers the movie’s most famous scene, a disturbing twist on Thanksgiving — Addams Family Values should have been the template for Tim Burton’s turgid Dark Shadows (2012) adaptation.

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South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (1999)

From its phallic title to its wicked political satire and infectious showtunes (it really is one of the all-time great musical scores), the leap of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s cult cartoon to the big screen was surprisingly easy. Foul-mouthed and oversized in all the ways that television can’t accommodate, South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut was the beginning of the musical renaissance. Other animated successes include The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), The Simpsons Movie (2007) and the delightfully-named Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres (2007).

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The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

I remember seeing this in theatres while on a family vacation. Mum told my brother and me to go to the movies, but she didn’t want me seeing New Nightmare (1995). The only other film showing at Gosford cinema was this whip-smart reinvention of the daggiest family on TV. Shifting its goody two-shoes characters to the wild modern day allowed for far more laughs and  keenly pointed satire than it had any right to have. Bonus points for the RuPaul cameo. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

Let’s get serious for a moment. David Lynch’s prequel to his landmark television series Twin Peaks (1990-1991) is dark. It’s rated R18+ for a reason. And those reasons include, but are not exclusive to, incest, rape, murder, and perhaps one of the scariest scenes ever put to film. Lending it a typically otherworldly effect is the recasting of Lara Flynn Boyle (who didn’t want to appear nude on screen), the weird dancing woman, and David Bowie as an FBI agent who may be a ghost. Or an alien. Or a shapeshifter. Who can tell?

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The Bad

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

When the only memorable aspect of a movie is Justin Theroux’s 0% body fat then you know there’s a problem. The original Charlie’s Angels (2000) was a fun, cheeky good time, but this brain-dead sequel turns the irksome Ralph sex appeal (remember Demi Moore’s “comeback”?) up as loud as the generic soundtrack. Goofy with none of the pizzazz.

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Bewitched (2005)

This meta twist on the beloved 1960s sitcom utterly wastes the talents of not only a cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Michael Caine and even Stephen Colbert, but also writer/director Nora Ephron who’s responsible for such fresh-faces rom-coms as When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You’ve Got Mail (1998). An absolute waste of a premise as golden as Bewitched all in service of a movie that’s not as smart as it thinks it is.

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Pufnstuf Zaps The World (1970)

A truly surreal so-called kids film spun-off from the cult program that had premiered just one year earlier. In this film, which just happened to be co-financed by Kellogg’s Cereal, the evil Witchiepoo is out to steal a talking flute in order to win the Witch of the Year Award from Witch Hazel, played by The Mamas and the Papas singer Mama Cass. It truly has to be seen to be believed.

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The Ugly

The Avengers (1998)

Long before Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and co. teamed up to battle whatever it was they were battling in Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman were taking up the roles made famous by Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg (now of Game of Thrones fame) in the big screen adaptation of the cult 1960s British spy series of the same name. A colossal misfire that is equal parts misjudged sincerity and hideous camp (the teddy bears – oh Lord, the teddy bears!) Sean Connery has never looked more embarrassed, and that’s saying something.

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Sex and the City 2 (2010)

“I am woman, hear me roar”, sing the four women at the centre of this ungodly sequel to the hit reunion from 2008. Yet despite their feminist Helen Reddy musical number and having successfully spent a decade flipping the middle finger to sexist tools’ concept of what women – and for that matter television – should be, Sex and the City 2 turned on its subjects and fans by offending women and gay men in equal proportion. Can someone explain to me why bitter rivals Stanford and Anthony got married by Liza Minnelli if not to simply reiterate tired stereotypes? And then there was the blatant racism, which had one writer claiming “the film’s portrayal of Arab Muslims is not quite as nuanced as its commentary on shoe brands.” Yikes.

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22 Jump Street is out now.