1. Fight Club
Fight Club was always going to take first place because, above all else, even its author, Chuck Palahniuk, believes that David Fincher's film is a far more streamlined version of his novel's story. The fact that it's one of the best feats in directing in film history, and is girded by magnificent performances from Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, really doesn't hurt either. Palahniuk's brilliantly incendiary prose reads as devilishly funny on the page, but transferring it to the cinematic medium has proven tricky - just observe the uneven Sam Rockwell vehicle, Choke - even if Fincher makes it look completely effortless. Stylistically, the film is faultless; visually stunning, and fully surrendering to the dark, noir-ish tone of the author's novel, realising it in an arresting, entoxicating manner, only enhanced by the knowing, pitch-perfect casting. Though Fincher's ending deviates considerably from the original one, it is in its optimism a more accessible and mainstream offering, but one that still delivers its own share of hilarious irony right to the final shot, as the credit card buildings explode around Jack (Norton) and Marla (Helena Bonham Carter). Novel adaptations don't get any better.