A couple of days late, but I had limited computer time over the weekend. Team Experience has lately published our cumulative list of the Top 10 movies adapted from television series; as is my wont, I shall here include my own ballot, though I’d especially urge you all to check out the post at Film Experience, there’s some really great writing going on.
Anyway, my list, which has so many caveats attached that I won’t even bother listing them: eligibility was a bitch for this one, both officially and in my own head, and some of the more conspicuous missing titles (two of which made the group list) aren’t here simply because I didn’t think they passed the smell test for “based on a TV series”. And there was also a question I never quite resolved in my own mind, of how much the question was “is a great movie” versus “correctly adapts the spirit of the show to a cinematic setting”. I tried to split the difference as much as possible, but the results are, I concede, lumpy, and the rankings beyond #1 a little arbitrary.
1. In the Loop (2009) [#1 on the TFE list]
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
3. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) [on the TFE list]
4. Pennies from Heaven (1981) [on the TFE list]
5. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) [on the TFE list]
6. Traffic (2000) [on the TFE list]
7. Serenity (2005) [on the TFE list]
8. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
9. The Fugitive (1993) [on the TFE list]
10. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
My five runners-up, alphabetically:
21 Jump Street (2012)
Maverick (1994)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) [on the TFE list]