Review of John Dies at the End (2013) by Miguel S — 17 Jan 2013

The best adaptation I could have hoped for such a large and varied story. As is the case of nearly every movie adaptation ever, it pales in comparison to the source material; yet I found myself marveling at how true to the book it managed to stay. Most of the dialogue seemed to be directly ported, but much of the story had to be compacted to fit within the 1h39m runtime. Amy's role is quite diminished, with almost none of the back story from the original. Big Jim is nowhere to be found, nor Jennifer Lopez or many of the other ancillary characters. Korrok seems to come out of left field, and the resolution of that plot line strays a bit much for my taste; regardless, the spirit of JDatE is well-represented in the film. I had a smile a mile wide watching Paul Giamatti as Arnie in denial: "I got a vacation comin' this June, I'm goin' to Atlantic City. I got tickets!".

Long story short: great, GREAT, adaptation of a truly awesome book. Read the book first to get hooked, then watch the movie, then pick up the NYT Bestseller sequel when you're done. So good.