There's still the Lind L. Tailor scene, Raymond Penber (although now Raymond Roe); but they just cut it after the bus scene. The interpretation of Soichiro/"Captain Murray" is decent although didn't leave quite the same impression as the original from how they handle it. There's still whole LOLpotato chip stuff. L's lines are fairly accurate to the character, there's a few elements that are shoved aside.

The interaction and relationship between Light/Luke and L is almost non-existent, the suspenseful moments where each tried to unmask the other is totally nonexistent in the plot. L doesn't appear to have his trademark mannerisms; which makes his character a lot less quirky and fascinating to the viewer. Dubya tee eff, L eats no sweets! What is this horsepomegranate? Most of the dialogue was dead flat. The character of Luke misses the marks that Light brought in the original: the element of him being a bored genius is hardly done, and he's now a consummate nice guy who gets corrupted by "TEH MAGIKUL EVUL POWAH" of the Death Note and he has a dead mother that pretty much equals Uncle Ben in the Spiderman movies that he has some revenge complex over; rather than him viewing those around him as inferior compared to his intellect and being bored and disgusted by the world around him and his habits with the book leading him to the very end. Also, they really butchered the "L, Did you know Gods of Death love Apples?" scene. Instead, one of the guys just draws a pentagram, and above the body of a dead drug dealer, the message of "Kira was here" is directly written.

However, there's a few changes that do work.
-Ryuk is removed. Adding Ryuk to a live-action would be a massive flop; as the Japanese live-actions proved.
-Misa is taken out.
-No Naomi Misora