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

I'll be leaving in an hour to go see it.

For free. (won 2 cinema tickets "of my choice" on my local radio station)

With a friend, whom I've just discovered likes Hitchhiker's

It's so nice here I might just go change into my h2g2 t-shirt before I go.

"Office moment" - I have no idea what this is

3-D glasses...damn! Do they supply these at the cinema?

Nope they don't supply 3D glasses at the cinema, but you only need them for about 20 seconds anyway!

They mess up on the robot i think he's ment to be square.

I guess it's a case of 'horses for courses'; we all have individual opinions and tastes - wouldn't the world be boring if we didn't!

And Hooloovoo - sorry for getting your nick the wrong way around in my earlier post - I was only on my first of the morning...

No worries Ancrene......

I've just been reading the reviews on the internet movie database.

http://www.uk.imdb.com/title/tt0371724

It seems people either love it or hate it. I seem to agree with all the reviews where people say they hate it.

Interestingly, I'm not the only one who thought the picture and sound quality was terrible. Someone else states that "This movie is lazy, sloppy, badly shot, and grainy - looks like it was shot on digicam.". So it's not just me!

the film was better than i expected, but it was still pretty terrible, whats with the additional storyline????? and zaphods HEAD(1) and arthur and trillian. on a lighter note, it was good when they turned into wool

Hooloovoo, the film quality was not bad at all where I saw it- I think a lot of things vary from theatre to theatre.

I loved the spade scene, and Marvin's voice was perfect, exactly how I thought he'd sound! Zaphod and Trillian took a little getting used to, but I thought Ford and Arthur (especially Arthur) were right on the money.

I kind of missed the bit where the Heart of Gold gets a garden-designed interior, but the yarn ball was pretty funny.

I enjoyed it, I particularly liked the way they got rid of the Vogons at the end The *only* way to use the Point of View gun

It made me laugh, just as a comedy should. Probably could have been done better but then, I can still go back and read the books - the definitive versions for me.

I do agree that they made a poor job of the deep though moments though.

Was I seeing thngs or did Douglas' face appear as one of the improbability things at the end of the film.

Also did anybody stay for the Vl'hurgs and G'Gugvunts as the credits rolled. Almost spot on.

hmmm, no and I suspected they might do something during the credits too

Saw the original Marvin and the orginal Arthur (not a difficult one admittedly) but when did they gratuitously use Belgium?

I'll give you a clue - it was Ford, and it was one of the times when they were running away from the Vogons and their shockingly bad marksmanship

I think the film makers did an excellent job.

They could have taken more time and doe the recreated the books more faithfully or the TV or radio series, but which and what would be the point apart from pleasing just the people who were most fond of whichever version?

The film was a good rendition of the essence of the story and had just enough science hooks to draw in peope who went to see more than just a funny film.

Dent, Prefect and Beeblebrox wer all well represented but I dont think its the actors fault that Trllian didnt come across with the that she had in the books.

What I really liked was the song.

It has upset people here then GOOD that I feel might have been part of the point. The film at length mocks religions but from the start shakes up the sensibilities of people who are getting religious and altogether too earnest about DNAs work.

Id watch it again happily mainy because I kept nodding off.

i will probably go and see it again as there are no doubt many things i missed.

As for missing Marvin, i didn't really like the tv series so i can't remember what he looked like then. Thats my story anyway.

apparently the spades were to show how any piece of creativity had been beaten out of the Vogons.

Good to see the crabs made it into the movie, although not so good from their perspective

I saw the film yesterday, & I liked it but didn't love it. It did seem like they left too much out (and I overheard someone saying the exact same thing when we left the theater). I didn't like the "new" Marvin, but it was nice to see the old one in a cameo. Actually, I liked Freeman as Arthur, but then I thought he was great in The Office. Mos Def was an interesting choice for Ford. Sam Rockwell wasn't too bad as Zaphod, but Zaphod was the character I worried about because from the previews he seemed like he only had one head. Of course he really does have two heads, though. Trillian was dull. And the Dolphin song...uh...no. The film wasn't a total waste of time, but it seemed a bit weak. Maybe the director was the problem. And maybe the death of Adams *did* hurt things a bit. If he had still been alive, maybe the film would have turned out better.

Tammy

how can you say that you didn't love it ? It was an interpretation, and a very good one at that !

I giggled through all of it, and to be honest, have to see it again to catch the jokes I missed.

Just read more of the above (2) entry, and from what I heard on Radio 6, Douglas's wife and daughter were on set for a lot of it, so I think that means a lot. ( If I'm wrong on that quote, then i apologise if I got stuff confused, but I'm sure someone out there has an idea_)

I'll grant you that it was a bit of a disappointment not to hear some of the great punch lines that Adams put in his radio version and books. But think about what it means to succeed in radio and print: you need good writing and dialog. This was a film, which means that quite a bit of the story has to be told visually.

For example, Adams's first book told about the pleasure that the Vogons got from feasting on crabs. In the movie, the crabs had some clever little sight gags. And, the movie lets you *go* to Vogsphere and *see* the fortress-like buildings and the long lines and rows of nooks where the differenbt types of forms are kept. And the Vogons are not just sluglike monstrosities; they have an amusing way of walking, and are really quite likeable in their own blinkered way. I really *liked* the Vogons, in fact.

And I don't think anyone yet has figured out what those spadelike things were. I submit that they are flyswatters.
The Vogons' idea of defense is to plant flyswatters in the sand.

I would like to see the movie at least a few more times, so I can spot other sight gags that I missed the first time around. And what's so terrible about the opening song? Did you not think of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," which has the same first four notes? I thought that was a pretty clever inside joke.

Anyway, writing a successful movie requires following a different set of rules than you would follow in some other media. For instance, economy of effort counts. If you spend the first three-quarters of a movie learning about a man and a woman (both available, both in close proximity), nine times out of ten they're going to end up together or at least heading in that direction by the end. Douglas Adams never really did that with Arthur and Trillian, and by the time he found a soul-mate for Arthur (in book 3 or 4, I think), Trillian was out of the picture. I like it a lot that Arthur and Trillian look a lot more serious about each other this time around. DNA apparently realized where he went wrong originally, and tried to fix it in the movie.

I've repeated most of the above in my journal review of the film, so I won't bother re-pasting it here.

All in all, a good cinematic experience, and easily the funniest film I have seen for yonks.

**tries to remember when he last laughed at a film...**

B

I believe that the fly swatter things are called "slap sticks" and are activated by creative thoughts.

In reply to Starman, Jane Belson was an "uncredited extra" according to IMDB, although I did spot her name in the credits at the end when I was watching the excert from the Guide

Jane was also interviewed for channel 4 for the Hitchhiker's premier, on the red carpet.

Polly Jane Adams (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1135064/) is also listed as an uncredited extra in the film, and I was looking for her, I wish I'd spotted her.

I enjoyed the film immensely.