In the nature of the beast, the process of adapting the book has meant that a little tightening up was needed, and when I say a little, I mean like the Wicked Queen tightened Snow White's corset*. The result misses a great deal of the anarchic nature of the original and pulls the rambling plot into a fairly coherent form which... feels like a bit of a shame to me. I get it, I just liked the original.
On its own terms, however, the film is a blast. The effects are discount - seriously though, a family killed by giant spiders are played by the costume lady and her family; that's where the budget is coming from - but the film eschews CGI and cheap practical effects are so much better than cheap CG that it just isn't funny, and the film still works with them. Chase Williamson (Dave) is a little wooden, but that can honestly be put down to the fact that Dave is pretty stoned throughout most of the film, especially given the quality of the rest of the cast. Paul Giamatti is the big name, but Rob Mayes carries the ludicrous glee of John, and Clancy Brown as Marconi is wonderfully weird (he was the fucking Kurgan; what the fuck?)
There are some slightly bizarre changes (the fact that the dog is called Bark Lee, not Molly, weirds me out, although apparently that's just because that's the dog actor's name and I guess it's easier to get it to respond to Bark Lee), but overall the film's story is pretty tight for something distilled from such craziness, without losing the craziness altogether.
It's also pretty funny, so yay!
* For those who don't know that version, before going the poisoned apple route, the Queen disguised herself to sell Snow White new corset laces and tightened them until Snow White choked.
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