Why all the criticism of "Pennies From Heaven"

Why are some people down on the film version of Pennies From Heaven? I've never seen the BBC version (and I don't know when I ever will, unless I buy a bootleg copy) and I haven't seen the Steve Martin version in over 10 years, but I enjoyed it then. I was always under the impression that the lack of success of the PFH movie had much more to do with audiences' expectations and the general weirdness of the story. Anyway, it certainly doesn't discourage me from the notion that it's possible to make a good movie out of a Potter miniseries. Obviously the author's aims and intentions are going to be different when writing for a 100-minute film rather than a six-part TV miniseries, but it doesn't mean that the shorter version is worthless just because it isn't as "dense" or complex as the original.

Also, whoever said Karaoke is "far superior" to Cold Lazarus should give Cold Lazarus another watch (if you can). I enjoyed it far more the second time I watched it and found it to be (in spite of the sci-fi trappings) an extremely personal and moving story about the end of a writer's life. It could even be more personal in some ways than Karaoke (In Karaoke, Daniel Feeld loses control of his words -- his work -- at the hands of a TV director; in Cold Lazarus he's losing control of his entire *life*!). At any rate, they're both sublime, and properly viewed as two parts of a whole anyway (obviously).