film: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[thinks2much]

I suppose it was inevitable but the movie really disappointed me… If I saw the movie and hadn’t read/loved the books I probably would have just had a giggle and enjoyed it but considering the brilliance of what they had to work from the result was pretty weak…

 

[eltoro]

Regardless of all the criticism of the film, I thought that they pulled it off well overall, as long as you disregard the moments of hollywood bullshit mainly, trillian and arthur's relationship. Sam Rockwell stands out as Zaphod, but all the characters were well acted. The story was very different, they land on the vogons home planet (one of the funniest scenes in the film) and they have to find the point of view gun, all added by Douglas Adams himself, and personnaly apart from how the romance, or lack of, between trillian and arthur has changed from a reserved british cold war approach to a hollywood romance, the additions are good. Basically what is good is great but it is spoiled by a few momentary lapses of judgement.

Also I was very pissed off that they left out:
How the Babel Fish proves god doesn't exist
Zaphod stealing the Heart of Gold (the super intelligent shade of the colour blue)
....well there's more but I can't be fucked.

Hope they make the other books into films aswell.

 

[smart-e]

I sxaw this on Friday. I like it but felt I knew the storyline too well since ive read the books many times and seen the BBC production. It was pretty good though.

 

[everythinginside]

I saw this last night. I have to say it is probably one of my favorite PG movies ever made.

Not to say ratings matter, but this was a really well-developped movie.

thoroughly enjoyable, very fun to watch high.

 

[lostpunk5545]

^ Yeah the fact that it is rated PG is the one of the reasons I'm most dreading seeing it.

Douglas Adams knows just the right times to use swear words to get the most humour value out of them. I'll miss that in this format..

 

[fizzygirl]

I still haven't gotten to see it yet (hopefully tonight) but re: the swearing...I was happy to see it's PG....this is exactly the kind of book I was getting into when I was in my young teenage years, and I think it's great there will (hopefully) be all these younger kids that will be able to go watch it that might not have been able to if it'd been a higher rating. Very few movies that aren't disney or pixar go for anything under PG-13 these days and I think that's a little lame.

 

[lostpunk5545]

^ I generally won't watch a movie if it is rated PG (though I'll make an exception for this). Swearing is an integral part of my daily life, everyone I know and talk to swears. PG movies seem unnatural to me...

 

[everythinginside]

Roll a nice joint and try to catch a later show on a weeknight.

Kick back and just watch it.

It can be fucked up without cursing, trust me.

 

[Blue Footed Booby]

I had never ever heard of HHGG before i met this dude in november who is a hardcore fan. So i'm totally clueless about it besides what he says, we went to see the movie friday. I really enjoyed, thought it had tons of funny parts, i am achingly curious to read the books and find out about all these things i'm missing.
My friend wasn't too disappointed, he said it would be pretty hard to go into the intense detail of the book for the movie of course.
It made me laugh alot and i enjoyed the special effects too, definitley got to own it, and now must read it too!

 

[lostpunk5545]

^ Seriously, don't read it while you're in a public place.

You'll be like that guy in the Mr Bean episode who keeps pissing Bean off by laughing as he is reading on the train

 

[L2R]

That movie was a hell of alot of fun. Much more enjoyable than I expected. I thought the humour would be more dated.

 

[zag0r]

uhh. is it just me or did this really suck (misc comic moments aside) ?

arrived a few minutes late and my first thought was 'haha is that dude supposed to be ford?'

 

[FunkyAlfonzo]

Wasn't very impressed A lot of the jokes seemed like they were being misquoted by someone who couldn't remember the script properly, numerous ommissions of things that made the previous incarnations memorable, the book has just turned into a narrator.... etcetcetc

(minor spoiler in paragraph)
I think the main thing I didn't like was the reversal of choices DNA made in the books/radio about what should be revealed and what should be kept a secret at any time. Like keeping the purpose of building the earth secret for a lot longer, but telling the fate of the crew before having the missiles launched at them with the clever "Stress is now a major problem in all sectors of the galaxy ... it is in respect of this that the following facts shall now be revealed". I always thought that was a bit of a pisstake those bits of films where you know the major characters won't die but try to make them exciting anyway... why not put it in the film?

Ack, what the hell, I kinda enjoyed it and laughed a few times, I guess I was always gonna be disappointed and I certainly am.

At least they tried.

 

[anarky]

I thought that this was utter garbage, I haven't yet read the book. Although that should be a disadvantage in watching what is meant to a fabulous adaption of the book.

The jokes were slow and moronical, almost to the point of being outright annoying. Say, the scene where the fly swatting things are hitting them on the face. Then there are some exageratted oh-to-blase scenes in the movie. And you seem to get an overall feel that its meant to be a spoof of another movie, yet it's not.

Throughout the movie, I seem to get the feeling that the comedy bits are supposed to be funnier - as apparently in the book. I've never seen comedy from the UK so badly written or performed. There is nothing wrong with the acting, although the jokes don't seem to have an obvious flow between them, and there is a lack of build up leading to the jokes. It's like *bang*, *insert joke*, *pray for laughter*, *next scene*.

Although I cannot fathom how hard it must have been to convert book to movie, I can say that it definetely could have been a better job. Say, replace
Martin Freeman with Kevin Eldon, Mos Def was great but imagine wacky guy from the Ribena squeeze packs guy, haha, rubbish......but anyway..

 

[jpgrdnr]

Finally saw it and wasn't disappointed in the least. I thought they did a great job. It felt rushed. Sort of... The editing felt really off...a lot of the gags were sort of quick...that was my only problem with the film. Other than that a great PG film. No swearing. If they do a longer DVD version I definitely will be on the look out. There won't be a sequel...haha...

Those poor crabs...

I think I even gained insight into ? well...whatever nevermind...

As an addition a lot of the jokes seemed very tied into the book. I would have been disappointed if I didn't love the book or know of it.

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

Although I loved the books and do find the film to be a bit of a misrepresentation at best, I still enjoyed the movie. It was funny and made me laugh. I mean, ball's of wool. Can't go wrong

Martin Freeman is a champ and I wouldn't see him replaced for love or money.

Other than that, I was a little disappointed, but I think they did a good job at taking the genius of Douglas Adams, and turning it into an entertaining movie. It is always difficult to take the brilliant descriptive ability of text and turn it into brilliant cinema while still maintaining the same sense of stuff. All in all this was an entertaining film that I think could maybe have been better, but they fought enough against the useless hollywoodesque crap to produce something that isn't totally un-Adams worthy.

CB

 

[silverwheel]

Hmmmm...

I thought it was a pretty average movie. The sheer brilliance of the source material meant that some genius was going to come through, but I'm not sure anybody (certainly not the director) knew how to make it work in a film. The peripheral details were wonderful - the sighing doors, the chipper on-board computer ("I'm pleased as punch to report two missiles heading for us!") - but I don't think any of the actors meshed with each other. They weren't bad performances, per se, but as an ensemble it was pretty flat.

Most of my criticism, though, goes to the director. He captured the whimsy of Adams, but none of the wit.

 

[cydonorb]

Last Saturday after a brunch that included 3 Bloody Mary's, a pint of
Guiness & 2 large Grey Goose Martinis with olives (my favorite drink)
I decided to join some friends on a subway trip to 42nd St to see a
matinee of the film version of the fun & quirky Douglas Adams book
that I read on the beach one stoned afternoon back in the 1980s, THE
HITCHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. Hey it was pouring rain, we were
smashed so...

I still feel an odd sensation when I walk down the Deuce. Unless you
work there or are attending the theatre most NYers NEVER go anywhere
near Times Sq/42nd St. There's just no reason to—the restaurants are
pricey & awful, the clubs are crap & the streets packed.

Since I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been there in
the past decade I still gaze at the strip & remember the old days. In
many cases the very same theatres that unspooled B, horror, action,
martial arts & porno flicks are now showing legit movies, live
theatre, bad blues (BB King's) & Madame Tussauds. It's really a full
circle as the Deuce was once the home of legit theatre, sumptious
movie palaces & vaudeville & fell into disrepute from the 1960s to the
late 1980s. Once great concert halls with incredible acoustics, grand
staircases, beautiful frescos & intricate woodworking were divided
up, plastered over & reduced to showing either porn or grindhouse
material. I remember sitting in the balcony of the New Amsterdam
watching DRILLER KILLER, passing a joint with my buddies (we weren't
the only tokers in the balcony), drinking a six pack of Schlitz &
noticing the mice that scurried near my seat every time I dropped
anything. The walls were grey & filthy, the dropped ceiling was really
dropping & the mensroom reeked of unwashed wino. Yeah, I loved that
era of the Deuce & all of its lawlessness & bwallowed in the squalor &
all of the freedom it allowed BUT I am NOT one of those cranks who
romanticize it. 42nd St & Times Sq is exactly as it should be right
now. A city that depends on tourism needs a centrally located place
for various forms of live & filmed entertainment, tacky tchochkes,
dumbass arcades & cheap eats. Its bright, its garish & the tourists
love it & that's all that matters. I was also lucky enough to never
have been the victim of the criminals who infested the area. Had I
been I probobly wouldn't have found their antics quite so amusing.

And the movie? It was fine...that's about it. It's a pretty good
translation of the book with good performances all around. Kudos
especially for the depiction of Marvin the Paranoid Android (voiced by
Alan Rifkin). This is EXACTLY how I imagined the character. The movie
feels like latter day Monty Python (the not that funny era) crossed
with DR WHO. Still it's a nice breezy lark & there are worse ways to
spend an afternoon. I was really irritated though that so much of the smart comedy from the book was missing such as Shooty and Bang-Bang and their incredibly silly dialogue. The role of the mice is cut, which leaves out one of the best gags in the book -"To Business!". The explanation of Ford's real name is gone. So are the unionized philosophers, Vroomfondel and Majikthise, one of the best bits in the original ("We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"). One BIG quibble:


*******************SPOILER ALERT*********************





The sappy ending. Unlike in the book the film ends with the Planet
Builders reconstituting Earth just as it was before its destruction,
with Arthur deciding to stay with Trillian & Zaphrod just for the
adventure. Phooey! The Arthur Dent of the book would've stayed on
earth had it been brought back from annihilation whichn is why in the
book it STAYS that way.

 

[atri]

i enjoyed it. zaphod had me laughing throughout. when he finally gets slapped, his reaction is priceless. i didnt go into the film with high expectations because thats just planning for failure, but i liked every minute of it. the opening song was great.
atri

 

[Belisarius]

I thought the movie was a lot of fun, and thought-provoking to boot, with amazing visuals; I'd be lying though, if I said I wasn't totally lost and puzzled at times. I think it's a movie a fan of the books would get a lot more out of. For what it's worth, I'm now keenly interested in reading them.