h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, quite easy. Which movie would you rather had not been made, at all? Let me start it of nice and friendly. I nominate:

STAR WARS

Not just the critically acclaimed Jar-Jar-Binks-laden episodes 1, 2, and 3, but also the original series and everything surrounding the franchise.

Your turn...

We're only allowed one movie? I can think of dozens. [Yes, I'm grumpy. Deal with it! ]

If I can name only one, I'll go with the movie version of a TV series that I loved. The movie *totally* got the characters wrong, and was not a good movie even apart from that:

"Car 54, where are you?"

I could even offer a list of award-nominated movies that I thought were pretty terrible. What were the folks at the Academy thinking? Strangely enough, there were a few redeeming features of much-deplored bombs like "Ishtar"and "Heaven's Gate," and even "Pan."

High Fidelity (from the Nick Hornby book of the same name).

I've just looked at the trailer and it is truly cringeworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P4dXJ_Tvns

It always irks me that the story was located in North London but Moneywood got hold of it, stuck an American actor in the lead role and moved it to Chicago.

Just plain wrong.

Like filming 'To Kill a Mockingbird' with Hugh Grant as Atticus Finch.

PP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P4dXJ_Tvns

Bggr.

PP.

Please tell me that somebody didn't do a remake of "Mockingbird" with Hugh Grant as Finch. Or cast Melissa McCarthy as Peter Pan.

OK, I'll unmake all the films you like.

Is there any point to this other than to be grumpy and miserable.

I prefer it when people tell us what they like, not what that don't like.

Grumpy, yes. Miserable, no, provided that there's some scintillating wit and insight.

But I get your point about talking about we like.

Talking about positive things? Now that's a new concept. I wonder how far the Petty Hates thread would go based on that idea... But hey, I will tell you what I like: Non-STAR WARS movies, for starters

Can I stick up for antimatter in this debate? Star Wars fans will tell you that Jedi Interceptor hyperdrive rings utilise antimatter to provide density for the starship to remain in hyperspace. I never heard one of them describe it as grumpy or miserable.

Film to unmake? Rocky. All of them. Ugh.

But in the interest of negativity and conversation, I'd say a thread about Unrecording Songs would go far.

Oh broelan, don't get me started on songs... I might have to nominate entire genres.

I might want to do that, too, and I'd be making a mistake.

Live and let live.

The most recent Star Wars. The worst one yet...


But other than that, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Always hated it.

But it does have HAL-9000 go crazy and kill everyone...

Any film where you have to read the book to understand what's going on isn't a good film, IMO. (You have to read the book to understand Hal's behaviour.) So I second unmaking 2001.

2001 is a masterpiece. The imagery is unlike anything that's come before or since. Anyone who rejects it because they don't understand what's going on maybe needs to develop a) their curiosity and b) their attention span.

Alternatively, they can relax in the knowledge that they are slap bang in the middle of the Star Wars demographic.

Strangely enough, I didn't care for 2001, either. What does that make me? A STAR WARS rejecting, 2001 disliking, Picard adoring (but only in First Contact) movie non-Buff?

Well, for my money, the Hobbit movies need not have been made, either.

The Alien franchise is fine, though.

"The imagery is unlike anything that's come before or since."

You're right! Everything before and since had at least five entertaining minutes.

Look, I never had trouble understanding it, and 2010 IS worth watching, but 2001 was MIND-NUMBINGLY boring. The actors were freaking robots (which I blame squarely on Stanley Kubrik), and the pacing (or rather lack of it) was at least AN HOUR longer than it should've been.

But the part I hate the MOST is that STUPID and downright PAINFUL sound effect that plays whenever you see the Obelisk. Oh, just talking about it...



"Well, for my money, the Hobbit movies need not have been made, either."

They were a great disappointment.

The first one was good, but after that...



"The Alien franchise is fine, though."

Coulda' done without 3 though.

*Addendum: However, I don't blame anyone for not understanding 2001, because it makes absolutely no attempt to explain itself, and that's also unforgivable.

HAL-9000 is the only good part of the whole thing. And even THAT is only because of how much people have parodied it over the decades. The original HAL-9000 is also boring.

But I do find it amusing that they lost the Academy Award for Best Make-Up to Planet of the Apes because the actors' make-up and performances were TOO CONVINCING. That is legendary.

"But the part I hate the MOST is that STUPID and downright PAINFUL sound effect that plays whenever you see the Obelisk." [Mr. X]

Richard Strauss might be turning over in his grave if he knew that anyone hated his music that much. Not that he had anything to do with selecting "Also Sprach Zarathustra" as part of the soundtrack. Likewise another Strauss whose "Blue Danube" is also used. I liked the scene where the astronaut [Keir Dullea?] is jogging around a circular track using gravity boots so he doesn't float. The end of the movie is psychedelic. The scene where the astronaut stands at the bedside of someone in an 18th-century room, indicating how far apart the two are in their understanding of the universe.

I would unmake "No country for old men," "Django," "The Walk," and the second and third hobbit movies. They should have done the whole hobbit in one movie.

I was reminded this morning that I detest Rambo as well.

Actually, with the possible exception of The Expendables, Sly Stallone should have stayed in adult film.