Are Movies Based On TV Shows Ever Worth Watching?

In the real world, the spy game may well be dirty, duplicitous and dangerous but onscreen it's cool clandestine fun, all nifty gadgets, exotic locations and seductive individuals with secret agendas. And in no era was it cooler to indulge in a little espionage than the '60s… if we're taking pop culture's word for it, that is. 

Look no further than the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. for proof — the adventures of the urbane Napoleon Solo and enigmatic Illya Kuryakin epitomised cloak-and-dagger chic during the show's four-year run between '64 and '68. 

While The Man from U.N.C.L.E. may not air regularly on TV anymore, its title still has that all-important ring of familiarity, so much so that a big-screen version has been in the works for years.

Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh was attached for a while, but in the end it was Guy Ritchie of Snatch and Sherlock Holmes fame who reunited Solo and Kuryakin — now played by Man Of Steel's Henry Cavill and The Social Network's Armie Hammer — for the reboot.

Of course, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is far from the first TV series to make the transition from small screen to big. And while it's safe to say that an established title can have a slight head-start on an unknown property in the box-office stakes, not every project of this kind is simply an attempt to cash in.

Some have artistic integrity and merit, some take the material in unexpected and worthwhile new directions, some are just plain fun. Want examples? Why, we happen to have a few right here.

Star Trek 

"Before it became a reason for Tom Cruise to dangle from great heights, Mission: Impossible was a hit series between 1966 and 1973. "

The starship Enterprise have been boldly going when no one has gone before on both the big and small screens for so many years now (and in so many different incarnations) that it could be difficult recalling how Star Trek's voyage began. But it all started with Gene Roddenberry's original series, which premiered in 1966 and spawned a string of spinoffs, sequels, relaunches and reboots, the latest of which rocketed into cinemas in 2009 under the command of J.J. Abrams.

Mission: Impossible

Before it became a reason for Tom Cruise to dangle from great heights, Mission: Impossible, which chronicled the adventures of the Impossible Mission Force, was a hit series between 1966 and 1973. Was its success due to one of the catchiest theme tunes in history? Well, that can't be ruled out. The film franchise has become just as popular, with its last two instalments, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, resetting the action-movie bar.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Twin Peaks, the weird-arse murder mystery created by David Lynch and Mark Frost back in the early 1990s, was unlike anything that had previously aired on American network TV. But while the series was cancelled after two seasons, Lynch wasn't done with the denizens of the small town of the title, delving way, way deeper into its dark secrets with a prequel that depicted the harrowing final days of golden girl Laura Palmer. The result is one of the most disturbing films in Lynch's body of work… and that's saying something.

Sex And The City:

Traditionally there's a pretty big gap between the end of a TV series and its rebirth as a movie. But four years after Sex And The City ended its run on HBO, Carrie Bradshaw and her friends took their Manhattan misadventures to the big screen. While the Sex And The City movie was essentially a few episodes smushed together and stretched out, it was a huge hit. The less said about its gaudy monstrosity of a sequel, however, the better. And HBO's attempt to re-catch lightning in a bottle this year with an Entourage movie proved that not every series is suited to the multiplex.

Miami Vice

When you think of the '80s series Miami Vice, two things that instantly spring to mind are Jan Hammer's synth-tastic theme tune and the glorious pastel fashions sported by undercover cops Crockett and Tubbs. To his credit, writer-director Michael Mann decided against bringing these back for his 2006 film version, instead focusing on the compromises and costs of breaking the law in order to enforce it. The result is an edgy, moody armour-piercing bullet of a thriller.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut 

The show is funny. The movie is funniest.

Charlie's Angels

Just as the television series about a foxy team of female crimefighters is a nifty time-capsule of the '70s, the two Charlie's Angels movies, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, contain every stylistic tic of the early 2000s. Speed-ramped martial-arts action! Blink-182! Luke Wilson as a romantic lead!

The Fugitive:

Based on the '60s TV series, 1993's The Fugitive is the gold standard. If you're channel-surfing one night and you happen across the first few minutes of this movie, which has wrongfully accused Harrison Ford displaying incredible ingenuity and tenacity as he tries to track down his wife's murderer while steering clear of wily manhunter Tommy Lee Jones, you will settle in for the duration. This is a law of nature, one that cannot be disputed.

21 Jump Street

"The dream team of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum mercilessly (and cleverly) took the piss out of the concept."

Let's face it, even at the height of 21 Jump Street's popularity, the show about baby-faced undercover cops busting high-school crims was kind of a joke. So it was appropriate that the dream team of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum mercilessly (and cleverly) took the piss out of the concept with their action-comedy adaptation and its equally accomplished sequel, 22 Jump Street.

Jackass

When you're on a good thing, stick to it. So when Johnny Knoxville and his team of demented daredevils got the opportunity to take their hilarious, hazardous and homoerotic stunts and pranks from MTV to the movies, they didn't fuck with the formula too much. They just went a little bigger and a lot more disgusting.

Serenity

The devotion displayed by the fan base of Joss Whedon's sci-fi series belied that fanbase size, so the show only had one short-lived season on the air. But Whedon persuaded Hollywood to give the crew of the starship Serenity a shot at big-screen stardom. Sadly, that didn't pan out either (the movie under-performed at the box office), although Serenity is terrific fun, a cool companion piece to the sorta-similar Guardians Of The Galaxy. And don't feel too bad for Whedon — word is he's doin' okay.