The BookThe book is a 400+ page mix of sci-fi hokum, schlock horror and Farrelly brothers type humor. Certainly easy to read but frustrating in that much of it seemed so random and disjointed. For example - John and David are in a deserted Mall. They are attacked by a large mutant deer which explodes and inside the creature was a box with a key. The key to a room. They pick it up and its never mentioned again. You'll find various exploding animals and people throughout the story.
There was an over-arching storyline (all-seeing evil god-like being that exists in other dimensions trying to invade ours) that got to a sort of conclusion, but by the end it seemed that even the main characters didn't care about what would happen next, let alone the reader.
There were some neat ideas and premises within the hotchpotch - X-Box and Playstation games training children to be cold-hearted killers, waiting for an alien trigger - but maybe these could have been used in their own right rather than added to the brewing pot of slights of hand, misdirection and twists that left me unphased and bored.
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The Film
If the book seemed all over the place, then the film is even worse. The plot makes some sort of sense, but it doesn't know whether to be a horror film, comedy or buddy movie. It mixes Dude, Where's My Car with Evil Dead.
Don Coscarelli, the same director and screenwriter as the excellent Bubba Ho-Tep, where Elvis and JFK battle a mummy in an old people's home, would seem a good choice to adapt the book for screen. He is overwhelmed by the mess of ideas and aims to bring some sort of sense to it all, but fails.
There are some misjudged attempts at surreal humour - a man's moustache rips itself off, flies around the room and then attacks David - which aren't funny.
The parallel world where a scientist has created intelligent animal life is quite creepy - people half naked and in masks subservient to a many tentacled monster - but it descends into humour and schlock.
If the book seemed all over the place, then the film is even worse. The plot makes some sort of sense, but it doesn't know whether to be a horror film, comedy or buddy movie. It mixes Dude, Where's My Car with Evil Dead.
Don Coscarelli, the same director and screenwriter as the excellent Bubba Ho-Tep, where Elvis and JFK battle a mummy in an old people's home, would seem a good choice to adapt the book for screen. He is overwhelmed by the mess of ideas and aims to bring some sort of sense to it all, but fails.
There are some misjudged attempts at surreal humour - a man's moustache rips itself off, flies around the room and then attacks David - which aren't funny.
The parallel world where a scientist has created intelligent animal life is quite creepy - people half naked and in masks subservient to a many tentacled monster - but it descends into humour and schlock.
If you haven't seen Bubba Ho-Tep, give that a watch
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