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

It wasn't the worst movie I saw last year -- "Pan" probably had that dubious honor. Who really knows why movies with talented actors, scriptwriters, and directors go off the tracks? My theory is that no one, no matter how talented, can predict the outcome when they sign up for a film. I've seen Meryl Streep in roles for which she was totally unsuited -- the chain-smoking divorcee in"Marvin's Room, " for instance.

Why do people do remakes of perfectly good films? My cynical side says that it's a bid for lazy money: viewers already know the characters and plot, so there's a built-in audience, and less expense for developing a script.

My even more cynical side says that Hollywood preys on the teenage male demographic, which has not yet developed much sophistication, but has leisure time and money for seeing movies. The ones who really like a movie will see it again and again, and tell all their friends about it. It doesn't always work as planned. A movie like "Golden compass" can have worldwide grosses of $320 million and recoup the costs of production, but be more popular with over-25's than with the teen audience.

"Mad Max: Fury road" cost $150 million to make, and grossed $377 million. If the studio wants to do a sequel, it may conclude that it will make a profit...

Perhaps Cate Blanchett would have been more suited for that role in Marvin's Room, based on her performance in Blue Jasmine, etc? If she'd been the right age.

All I remember about that film is being totally bowled over by Leonardo di Caprio's performance and thinking "He'll go far".

For what it's worth, "Mad Max: Fury Road" got five Oscars at last night's awards.

Saw a really good DVD at the weekend: 'Departures' in Japanese with subtitles.

The subject matter sounded a bit odd - encoffinment - but it was handled so delicately and was in turns sad and uplifting.

Six in fact paulh - for costume and editing and such though, not a good film do those make.

But hey, it takes all sorts, clearly it appealed to many, just not me

I wasn't trying to argue that it was a great movie.

Any movie that's got Tom Hardy in it is likely to be worth watching, somehow. He was also in "Revenant," "Inception," "The Drop," and some other worthy films.

On a DVD I watched recently, one of the trailers was for that film where he plays a lorry driver and is the centre of the entire film. "No return" or something. I heard a lot about it at the time. It seemed rather odd but the critics were delighted with it. Wonder if it's worth watching......

Ah. It's not a lorry, it's a car, and the film is called Locke. That's what you get for buying DVd's in Germany. They give the films unsuitable titles and confuse everyone.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2692904/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_11

Has anyone seen it? Or did just the critics watch it because they had to anyway?

Chill Paulh, I wasn't suggesting you were

Last night I saw "Eddie the Eagle," about an athlete of limited ability who decided to represent Britain at the 1988 Olympics as a ski jumper because he wouldn't have to compete with anyone else for a spot on the team -- no one from Britain had competed as a ski jumper since 1929, and look what happened to the country that year!

I remember Eddie the Eagle well. I'd forgotten there was a film in the offing. Was it any good?

Mol

Eddie is by all accounts of those in the know one of the most accomplished skiers the UK has ever produced, he just wasn't built for downhill and stuff so went for the jump. I remember it very very well. I was laid up at the time with a very severely injured ankle and was forced (unless thumb twiddling ) was an alternative to watch the entirety of the 1988 winter olympics.

He was a highlight for me where Torville and Dean were not.

Just a shame he looked like a nerd really or he might have been taken more seriously.

I liked the movie. There are two kinds of skiing: cross-country, and Alpine. Most of then Olympic attention is focused on the latter, which includes ski jumping. Britain currently fields athletes as cross-country skiers, but when I try to identify specific athletes, all of them seem to have been born *after* 1988 [Musgrave, for instance].

If Eddie was an accomplished cross-country skier, he might not have had the chance to compete in that type of event. Or might he?

I give him a lot of credit for pursuing his dream. If he has inspired many others since then, so much the better.

I liked the movie.

He wasn't that type of skier - further reading tells me (the film may of course show this so sorry if this is grandmothers sucking eggs) that he was actually very good at downhill but switched for financial reasons.

I'd be interested in watching that -I'll look out for it

The film was *loosely* based on his life, so you might to take it with a grain of salt. The fans who go t see everything that Hugh Jackman does will, of course, want to see this. To be honest, I am one of those Jackman fans, though I shuddered at what the directors of "Pan" had him doing .

I could not get over his singing range in "Les Misrables." All his early songs were in a low range, then the tessituras gradually rose. He made everything seem easy, from the bottom of the scale t the top.

Making the difficult sound easy is one of the marks of a true artist.

I saw The Propaganda Game last night. A documentary about North Korea. (It felt odd seeing a documentary at the cinema).

I have been interested in the possibility of visiting for years. I want to go even more now.

It is a country where the average citizen's clothes just don't fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGir3buLI8c

PP.

Oh, great!

I try not to think about North Korea, and now the subject has come up.

We do have an EGE on Eddie the Eagle: A47629353



Today we saw "Room" - harrowing stuff. Had us squirming in our seats and nitpicking afterwards as usual... I wanted to hang the creep by his nether regions and whip him to death with nettles and rose stem cuttings. The Oscar for Best Actress was very well deserved. Why isn't there a Best Child Oscar? Should've gone to Jack...

GB

" I wanted to hang the creep by his nether regions and whip him to death with nettles and rose stem cuttings." [Galaxy babe]

You would not be the only one. I can't help thinking that the boy is fortunate to have such a great mother. If anyone can bring him through this unscathed, she can.

I have just had a Hunger Games fest, finishing with Mockingjay 2, which I was seeing for the first time. I'd heard unenthusiastic reviews of this along the lines of 'a bit meh', and I did feel it dragged a bit as they were working their way through the outskirts of the Capitol. But I think I felt that because I wasn't looking forward to what I knew they were about to face.

And overall I thought it was really good. They included all the bits that needed including, left out the bits that didn't, and told the story well. It's somewhat harrowing, but not on the scale of Titanic - I'll watch it again.

19yo watched it with me, and 13yo and husband joined us for the final half hour. The offspring saw it in the cinema, and have read the books, but still kept saying 'oh yeah I forgot this bit' and 'was that in the book?' (it was, every time they asked; clearly the book had a bigger impact on me than it did on them.) Husband has read none of the books and seen only the first film, just once. He was reasonably impressed but not at all surprised by, erm, that really surprising thing Katniss does towards the end.

Anyway... I wasn't disappointed, and that's the main thing so far as I'm concerned.

Mol