10 Really Good Movies Based on TV Shows

by Patrick Bromley

From the small screen to the big screen to my heart.

Hollywood has been pillaging the small screen for movie ideas for decades. More often than not, something is lost in the translation: the casting just isn't right (or not who we are used to seeing in a role) or the story simply isn't there for a two-hour runtime. Here are 10 times I feel like filmmakers got TV adaptations right and made movies that are (in many cases) even better than the show that inspired them.

Remember that these are just 10 and not the only 10, so don't freak out when you don't see The Untouchables or Addams Family Values on the list. Those are great too!

1. Miami Vice (2006, dir. Michael Mann)

My favorite big screen TV adaptation of the bunch (this list is not ranked). Michael Mann adapts his own series into the Ultimate Michael Mann Movie, a bullet-ridden Tone Poem about the Loneliness of the Job and men who live by a code. There's doomed romance, platonic love between men, incredible shootouts, inscrutable dialogue -- all the things that make Mann movies the best. Not just my favorite movie based on a show, but my favorite Michael Mann movie full stop.

2. The Little Rascals (1994, dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Yes, I know they were theatrical shorts, but that's SOME ANTICS. I grew up with The Little Rascals as a TV series and I'm including it here. I really didn't like this movie when I saw it in 1994 and then I rewatched it a few years ago in the run up to our 1994 F This Movie Fest and discovered it's charming and joyful and I was a miserable bastard back then. Penelope Spheeris (who would also bring both Wayne's World and The Beverly Hillbillies to the big screen) is wise in not really trying to adapt The Little Rascals for the times; save for a few dumb jokes and even worse cameos, this is basically just the classic Little Rascals in feature form. The Farrelly Brothers tried a similar approach years later with The Three Stooges, a movie that sometimes works and maybe could have made this list but The Little Rascals is better.

3. Mission: Impossible (1996, dir. Brian De Palma)

Not my favorite Brian De Palma movie and not my favorite Mission: Impossible movie but credit where it's due: this is a high-water mark for TV adaptations in the 1990s and launched the very best action franchise of the last 30 years (except for you, Final Reckoning, never you). There are choices made my David Koepp and Robert Towne's script that I don't love, but man oh man does my boy Brian De Palma know how to stage a set piece. This is the rare smart blockbuster, something which is in short supply these days.

4. Charlie's Angels (2000, dir. McG)

Terrific, sugary pop art -- the kind of movie we're told we should feel shame for liking but for which I refuse to be shamed. In updating the often silly 1970s action series, director McG leans pretty hard into the "silly" part but makes sure that everyone is hot and funny and having a good time being hot and funny and kicking ass. (Hot Take: Bill Murray is weirdly gives the least funny performance in the movie.) Again, the plot is inconsequential -- bad guy has to be stopped -- but the getting there is fun. It's all in the attitude, and Charlie's Angels offers a lot of attitude.

5. The Fugitive (1993, dir. Andrew Davis)

I don't really need to explain that The Fugitive is good. It was nominated for Best Picture, was a massive box office success, and continues to enjoy a reputation as a beloved '90s action thriller -- maybe the best of its kind. While it's never been one of my movies, it's practically impossible to deny the incredible craftsmanship of Andrew Davis and his team, as well as the performances of Harrison Ford as the Innocent Doctor Wrongly Accused and Tommy Lee Jones in his Oscar-winning turn as the U.S. Marshal hunting him down. A great use of Chicago (a button that's easily pushed for me), breakneck pacing, and an intelligent script all pull their weight to make this a legitimate classic.

6. The A-Team (2011, dir. Joe Carnahan)

I know that Joe Carnahan's swing at becoming a mainstream blockbuster guy isn't beloved by everyone, but it certainly is by me. This is a movie that goes big and over the top in every imaginable way and is the better for it. Save for the casting of MMA Fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the Mr. T role (stunt casting that does make sense), the ensemble is pretty perfect -- especially Bradley Cooper as his most punchably smarmy as Face. America kind of failed this movie and we missed out on more big-budget Carnahan, a loss I feel every time I skip watching Boss Level on Hulu.

7. Maverick (1994, dir. Richard Donner)

I've never seen an episode Maverick, the (I think?) comic western series that inspired Richard Donner's 1994 adaptation written by no less than William Goldman. That's ok. I know it starred James Garner, who shows up here as the third lead opposite Mel Gibson and a sparkling Jodie Foster (who has been accused of being miscast; I don't agree) in a story about a gambler trying to win a huge card tournament in the Old West. This movie is all charm, with Gibson (who, it is mandatory to point out at the mere mention of his name, is a garbage person) at the peak of his powers in the title role and Donner finding just the right balance of action and comedy. It's winning all around.

8. The Brady Bunch Movie (1995, dir. Betty Thomas)

The '90s were lousy with TV adaptations, most of which just transplanted the characters and plots from well-known series into feature form, but The Brady Bunch Movie did something much more meta and clever, using the leap to the big screen to comment on the show itself, as well as how much times had changed since it originally aired. The cast is almost entirely funny (Shelly Long, the biggest star at the time, doesn't appear to have a take on Carol Brady), but special attention must be paid to Christine Taylor as Marcia and (especially) Gary Cole as patriarch Mike Brady. Both are doing more than just perfect imitations; their performances have a point of view and something to say about who they're playing. Brilliant.

9. Widows (2018, dir. Steve McQueen)

Here's the movie that inspired this list. It's probably a little unfair since it's based on a British mini-series from the early '80s (as opposed to a long-running show) but I'm keeping it in because a recent rewatch reminded me that Widows rules. A first-rate ensemble that rarely does this kind of genre fare stars in some kickass genre fare about a group of women who scheme to pull off a massive heist when their criminal husbands are killed. There's also stuff about politics and corruption that I eat up because I miss The Wire. 

10. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015, dir. Guy Ritchie)

Another movie based on another show I've never seen makes for one of Guy Ritchie's three best movies. The cast includes Henry Cavill, Alicia Vikander, a now-canceled Armie Hammer (boy it's hard to talk about movies these days), the great Elizabeth Debicki, and Hugh Grant in a bouncy 1960s-set spy caper that's more about vibes than plot. It gets by a lot on cool, which is hard to come by honestly and now feel manufactured, but somehow Guy Ritchie and this ensemble pull off.