Okay, i caught this movie on bbc1 with 40 mins left to go, from it i picked up the following:
Toad causing hallucinations; teenagers and waterpistols.
Well, when i was younger i remember reading a book which was BLOODY FUNNY AS HECK! and upon watching the remaineder of this movie, i pissed myself in laughter. So i'm wondering, is this movie based on a book at all? If so, sweet, need to find the book again.
Dave barry is one of the funniest people alive...or dead. the movie had its moments, but DEFINITELY did not do the book justice, either because it was a PG-13 attempt to adapt an rated R book or beacuse it's difficult to repeat barry's ingenious voice that narrates throughout the book with Tim "the tool man" Taylor.
but whatever. right-o, funny as hell.
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i love this movie, especially the part when leonard drops the golf bag, and the gun pops out, and he's like "we're playing with a guy that cheats."
Is Puggy in the book?
Agreed the book is great, much better than the movie, though the movie isn't bad.
Yes, Pugey is in the book. the movie pretty accurately follows the book.
I like both--this is one book that NEEDED a movie because it's so much fun. Puggy is my favorite character in the movie-in the book it's pretty much divided between all of them.
sharemoviefanatic91, next time you post don't rip off a line from jim gaffigan's stand up.
shareThe book was better, but the movie was more enjoyable on a different level. If it hadn't been based on an already loved book, it would have gotten a lot more respect. They could have ruined that movie a hundred different ways, but they really only made a few small changes for the worse.
The main problem was trying to make Puggy the narrator...in the book he is a minor character. Also, Puggy was supposed to be short and ugly.
Best joke ruined- "Get Hooked On Fish-Hook Ale." In the book, it's "Get Hammered On Hammerhead Beer". Unfortunately, it was a legal issue- turns out there IS a Hammerhead Beer.
Also, the name of the airline in the book was "Air Impact." I can't even remember what they changed it to, but it wasn't funny.
Best joke improved- Changing Elizabeth Dole to Martha Stewart. Dole was probably funnier on paper, but they would have never got her to do it.
GET HAMMERED WITH HAMMERHEEEEEEAD!
Do you know the difference between this concept and the other one?
YOU GOT TITS! INSTEAD OF A FISH!
to put in my two cents, i just finished the book about 5 minutes ago. I really really loved the book, and i really really loved the movie. The ending is a little different and for what its worth, I like the ending of the film better. More Tim Allen! If i had to make a choice, I'd choose to film over to the movie, mainly because i saw it first, and because they trimmed up the book and made it tighter and much more compact and easier to understand..
Now I want to go re-read Dave Barry's other book, Tricky Bussiness. I really enjoyed that years ago when i read it. (I went to the bookstore to get Big Trouble but it was sold out. So i settled, and it was great!!)
I thought that both the book and the movie were great, but the trouble was, the book got a bit dark at the end, and I'm guessing that the filmakers wanted to make it a comedy, so they tried to trim out the darker parts. And I thought that the acting was good. They really changed the ending, but what they did change I felt that they handled well.
I liked them changing Dole to Stewert much better because A: Anna and Jenny were watching Martha Stewert earlier, so it ties in better and B: There's the added bonus of making the dog bark things such as "Arugula".
It was just bad luck that they were releasing it around 9/11. If it were sooner, then it probably would have gotten much more publicity.b
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I had never heard about the movie, saw it more or less by accident a few years ago and knew right from the start it would be good. I was right, very underrated movie. And I'm not even a fan of Allen or Russo, although they were both good in this one. But what makes the movie a winner for me are the secondary characters: the hitmen, Herk, Ivan, the FBI guys feat. Heavy D, the Beerguy. And some really funny dialogues, of course.
I then picked up the book and it was fun to read, but all in all the movie sticks very close to it. Still I thought it was actually better than the book, partly due to the cast and partly due to some excellent improvements (mostly in the details, like the scene with the hitman and the phone or the russians watching fitness competitions all the time or the automatic saftey belts in the rental car).