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

Name a movie, book, music cd etc that everybody completely raved about...but just didn't seem to live up to the hype. For Example...several years ago I read the Celestine Prophesy, which came highly recommended....but just did not amount to anything but self help, hippy psycho babble. I also just finished reading the Davinci Code...and can't figure for the life of me why it was so popular and controversial. I thought that Angels and Demons was much better. OK GO!!

Breakfast at Tiffany's. The book, not the film. I read it in a compilation with other short stories by Truman Capote, and I liked the other stories much more! I've never seen the film though, maybe it's much better, but the story didn't do a whole lot for me.

Oh, also The Great Gatsby. Another book that didn't do much for me. It was OK, but I couldn't see why it was such a classic.

Anything by Dickens Same thing as Cyzaki, don't understand why anything he's written is considered a classic (but then, I liked The Great Gatsby a great deal). I recently read a newish book which a literary reviewer I (used to) trust was absolutely raving about. It was awful... predictable, trite, preachy... Several times through I wanted to just put it down and give up, but the reviewer had said that the ending was incredible.

The ending was the most awful, predictable, trite, preachy part of the book! Also, the book form of Lord of the Rings, which I finally read after I'd seen the movies, was maybe a bit too much for me. I think that's a rare example of a movie that's better than the book.

I've heard it said that the Grand Canyon is the only thing that truly lives up to expectations (I guess you could say that about lots of things), so that just shows you the problem with getting your expectations up

Lost in Translation, and the film of Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Oh yes, Lost in Translation. I fell asleep a little bit in that. Might have had something to do with it being the second film I'd seen in the cinema that day, but really, nothing happened in it!

Lost in Translation was such a non-story! It gets my vote

God these threads seem to die quickly here. (1st disappointment)

Movies:- The last two Harry Potter ones, not a patch on Alfonso Cuarón Orozco's rather dark third movie in the series. Considered a bit too dark by Potter purists yet J.K.Rowlings fav movie of the series, the next two installments were bland to the point of ennui in comparison.

Movies: Nearly the entire output of Hollywood these days. Thank god for indie films and British and European cinema. Note I didn't include Australian cinema in that, we suck worse than Hollywood...unwatchable tripe most of it.

T.V. : Nearly all Australian commercial output bar the few diamonds to be found in our version of the Beeb, 'Aunty' or the A.B.C. if you prefer.

Books: Jack Vance's penultimate book.
Henry Thoreu's 'Walden', a load of tosh really.
Kerouac's On the Road. (see above)
I'm sure I could name more but these are just three that come to mind that I've forced myself to finish after being deflated by their reality.

I agree there. It was rough to read and not very entertaining!!!

yeah I watched the movie and waited for something to happen that never did. I think that is what the plot is really about.

I find myself very disappointed when someone says "yeah I watched the movie and waited for something to happen that never did. I think that is what the plot is really about. "

In order to have a frame of reference, particularly referring to a previous comment, it always help to mention the TITLE of the book/film/etc. you're commenting on when more than one is previously mentioned.

Just sayin'.

Angels and Demons: Forgetting the dodgy physics of dark matter, there was a ruddy great error/hole in the plot in the second chapter, which I noticed straight away (you'd get it if you new anything about radios), and, if it hadn't been ignored, would have ended the story in about 20 pages.

The film "I am Legend", they missed the entire point of the book.

Thanks, the previous two comments were a tad vague, and I couldn't make out which comment went to which book or which film.

The ending of any Clive Barker novel. I like the way he writes, the stories are engaging but...when it finishes I think 'Oi, who's ripped the last chapter out of me novel'

I'm thinking specifically of 'Cabal', 'Weaveworld', 'The Great and Secret Show', 'Imajica' there are others (you'd think I'd learned by now ).

C'mon, Clive what's the problem?

Mulholland Dr.

This has to be the most over-rated, most award nominated but least deserving film I've ever watched. I didn't watch it right away because I had already become disillusioned by David Lynch. I claimed to like him when I was young, but I think that was only the rebellion of youth. He offered something "different" but as I grew older I learned that "different" doesn't always mean "good". The more I watched Wild At Heart the more I could see how Lynch had taken some fine actors and made them chew the scenery. Blue Velvet? Same thing and even more pointless.

But Mulholland Dr. was touted as one of the best films in decades, so after hearing someone personally recommend it I gave it a chance.

Yep, more of the same. Don't get me wrong, David Lynch can make a visually stunning film but I don't care how many flowers you stick in a pile of dog crap, it still stinks.

Seriously, David Lynch's films are the cinematic equivalent of the Emperor's New Clothes. No one understands what his movies are about (because they're not 'about' anything... they're just a series of weird scenes and random characters) but they don't want anyone else to think that they don't get it so they rave about his films so they don't seem like the only one who doesn't when in fact NO ONE gets David Lynch films. And don't tell me it's a "metaphor" unless you can specifically tell me what metaphor it is.

Here's an exercise assignment for you. Tell me why the Little Person in the film? ...I don't care which film, pick one and you'll find the random Little Person in it sooner or later.*




*This may not be actually true but it seems like it.

The re-makes of The Italian Job and Alfie.

The originals were in colour. They had Michael Caine in them. What were they thinking?

I'd like to add the remake of Get Carter to that as well.

Sylvester Stallone? Hello?

The American versions of "Life on Mars" and 'Eleventh Hour". Meh.

Kath + Kim got the American treatment as well and bombed horribly.

But to be fair the UK remake of The Golden Girls, Brighton Belles, was a disgrace.