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Big Trouble, like so many films adapted from books, loses much of the momentum that made the original novel so much fun. First the bits not crucial to the story get chopped out to allow for time, then other bits need to be added, in order to keep the viewer from being confused.

Dave Barry's novel is like a hot pretzel: salty, twisted, and satisfying, whereas this adaptation is like stale popcorn: completely flavorless and without much crunch, but since you started, you might as well finish it off.

I frankly would have preferred a straight translation of book to film, but this is obviously too idealistic, since no one who had not previously read the book would be able to enjoy such a version. My recommendation at this point would normally be that your time will be better served by reading the book, but I have a caveat -- you should see this movie (even if you wait for it to go network) because the opportunity to see Martha Stewart bark like a dog should not be wasted.

It's a good thing.

For factual timelines and a deeper sense of reality, die-hard Def Leppard fans should view VH1's "Behind the Music" documentary about the band rather than this dramatization, in which the real bandmembers had no real input other than contributing their songs. That being said, "Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story" has some interesting points.

This made-for-TV film does manage to convey the hardships and triumphs of Def Leppard in a thought-provoking manner, surmounting the somewhat-less-than-accurate script with fine performances by comparatively unknown (at least in the U.S.) actors. Unfortunately, due to the many artistic liberties that were taken (in order to condense the story to a manageable viewing time and to make the content acceptable for television audiences), quite a bit of crucial information was omitted, and many of the characters received short shrift as well.

The actors' abilities to make something substantial from the two-dimensional parts they were thrust into, let alone using their performances to push this film past mediocrity, is astounding. The most blatant example of this is in Adam MacDonald's portrayal of bass player Rick Savage. MacDonald breathes as much life as possible into the character, but it's plain to see the writers had no interest in its development, evidently because the fact that Savage was one of the founding members of the band -- even before lead singer Joe Elliott --was not as screenworthy as Steve Clark's fear of his father, or Rick Allen's reckless driving. This strikes me as an insult to the real Savage as well as to MacDonald, but more importantly, it suggests that there is probably a great deal more to this story than we are allowed to witness. Whether this is by choice of the bandmembers or the producers is unknown, but the overall feel is that of Cliff's Notes -- we have enough information to pass the quiz, but no more.

See this film as a supplement to, not as a substitute for, "Behind the Music".