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

Renee (the flatmate) was unaturally shaped, and Georgia was annoying. I don't know why, she just bugged me.
I'm not sure why I still keep up with it, it's just one of those things. Also there is occassionally Robert Downey Jr, looking very nice for a drug addict.

'Unnaturally shaped'? How so? Okay, so she seemed a bit pneumatic in places, but surely that's down to the right superstructure and clever camerawork?

The only problem with being a drug addict is if you're poor. There was a documentary made many years ago about a group of middle-aged, middle-class friends who were all smack fiends. But because they were wealthy enough to be able to secure a steady supply of high-quality heroin they didn't look like the traditional junkie stereotype. The documentary was never broadcast as it would have undermined the 'drugs are intrinsically bad for you' message the government keeps pumping out.

Unnatural. She just was. Trust me, that is not normal. And it seemed to get worse as time went on.

I wasn't actually commenting on drugs, but obviously we're not allowed to discuss men as well as women.

Heh. I'd've thought you'd be the last person to make distinctions along gender lines (okay, I should let that drop maybe).

Oh, well, if you say Renee looked unnatural I suppose I must bow to your superior wisdom. But it was a fairly bracing kind of unnatural...

I think it's just you asserting your maleness by talking about women lots, but talking about drugs when I bring up a man. (tha latest one in Ally McBeal is Bon Jovi, and I can't comment cos I've been biased in favour of long hair recently)

A bias I share, but that's probably not uncommom on this side of the aisle...

I've been 'asserting my maleness'? I haven't knowingly done that since Halloween 1996! I've been meaning to do it again. Hrrm, I think you may have a point, though, but please bear in mind there is a limit to my ability to discuss how fanciable Robert Downey Jr is. Extensive though they clearly are, there are still limits to my empathy with and ability to come across like a member of the fairer sex...

Dearie me, this thread has taken a torrid turn of late...

"Torrid" now there's a word I wouldn't have thought of.

I'll just stick to talking about women then, you seem to have no difficulties with that.

Ouch.

Put them claws away! Let's change the subject, the realm of amatory has been occupying my thoughts too much of late. My favourite Robert Downey Jr film would probably be Chaplin (not that I've seen many of his films) distinguished by an all-star cast including Anthony Hopkins, John Thaw, Dan Aykroyd, Uma Thurman, Geraldine Chaplin (playing her own grandma) and, er, David Duchovny in pre-raincoat days.

I only saw it by accident as my companion was keen to see The Bodyguard (which isn't nearly as good) but it was full. So we saw Chaplin instead and fully enjoyed it. We bumped into my mate Jai Edu outside (he later wrote a monogram on the political significance of the Afro hairstyle) and gave him a Malcolm X promotional sticker, with which he seemed well pleased...

This would have been late January 1993.

*wonders if he knows how old I was in 1993*

Oh dear. I can just see the hairstyles now. Good cast though.

I think Uma Thruman is great, cos she manages to look/be completely different in all the films I've seen her in. You never watch and go 'that's Uma Thurman' (opposite would be Bruce Willis, where I never know the name of a character, just that it's him)

8 or 9? It did occur to me. There are some books in the house that I've owned for longer than you've been alive.

Well, it was a costume drama, so the haircuts weren't that bad. David Duchovny has only ever had one haircut anyway, it goes with his one facial expression (listen to me dissing him when I've just bought 150+ X-files episodes on video!!! ).

Uma Thurman.... um, indifferent to her as an actress really. Good in Pulp Fiction, naff in Batman 4... I mean, she's been in many good films but not in a very memorable way. Baron Munchausen, Dangerous Liaisons... she's there, but not high profile.

But she's not memorable because you don't sit there going 'look, it's Uma Thurman'.
I'm not a fan, I just don't like it when you watch a film and go 'Mulder!' 'Agent Smith!' etc.

That's possibly only a problem with people who are famous only really cos of one role. I mean, if Hugh Jackman came on you'd go 'Wolverine!' but if it was, um, Jean Reno or Sean Bean you wouldn't (and yes, that's because neither of them played Wolverine, don't be picky!).

Bruce Willis.
I don't say any charcter names (the only one I can remember is Korben Dallas for the 5th element, and only then because of "Leeloo Dallas Multipass!") but you always know it's him.
Prob a bad example, because he is different in films, it's not all the same.

The one film where Bruce Willis was almost unrecognizable was Death Becomes Her.

I have seen that, and yeah, he is a little odd, but who wasn't it that film?

I'm tempted to say 'if he was so unrecognisable, how'd you know it was Bruce Willis?' but that would be slapworthy beyond words.

I don't know, his performances for Night Shyamalan in 6th Sense and Captain Scarlet - sorry, I mean Unbreakable, were both exemplary but a long way from the usual yippi-ki-ay territory.

I liked Unbreakable.

I am learning to do the 'hey look it's that guy who was in that film' thing, without the use of external help.

It's a more common problem than people realise. My friend Marco was a big, big Star Trek TNG fan. He and I and our friends went to see Independence Day (featuring wossname who plays Data bearded-up) and we came out discussing the movie (I loved it - please don't start! - they weren't quite as impressed) and I said in passing, 'Wossname who played Data was good, wasn't he?'

Marco stopped dead in his tracks. 'Vot?' he said (he's Bavarian).

'Data. You know, the beardy guy, got strangled by the alien...'

'Zat vos him!!!???!!'

And so everytime we were watching TV or passing a magazine rack where wossname was to be seen, there was a chorus of 'Hey Marco!!! Who's that?' for about the next four years. Marco took it very well, I have to say.

But there was a big difference with regard to facial hair, head hair, and general snaity. It's not like he didn't notice that the cool computer guy (my favurite, even over Will Smith and Bill 'I've got such a good phone voice' Pullman) was in Jurassic Park.

Independence Day was the first video I bought, with my own money, as opposed to going 'Muuuuuum...'

Hummm. ('Snaity'? Bill Pullman's telephone voice...?) Marco blustered on about that too...

First video I bought for myself... gosh, that's going back a ways... It might well have been a Doctor Who one (surprise surprise) but if you don't count that, then, hmmm... a pirate copy of Reservoir Dogs (only cos it wasn't available legitimately), I think. I'm probably forgetting something very obvious...