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

Awww. I bet the nausea will clear up soon and Spiderman will still be there.

Yeah Ellen, I'm really hoping your nausea's just an initial reaction & will subside quickly enough that you'll be able to see Spiderman 2. It certainly has done well at the box office!

Hi everyone, I finally felt well enough to see Spiderman 2, and I loved it. It was great, and had especially good acting, all the way round. I loved some of the plot developments, which I shall keep mum on lest I spoil it. Oh, heck, I can't keep mum, close your eyes if you haven't seen it...

SPOILER









My favorite part was on the train when Spiderman has collapsed in exhaustion, and all the people stare at him in wonder since his mask has come off. One of the commuters says, "Look how young he is" Tobey looked so vulnerable in this scene, it really got to me!

MORE SPOILER
I also loved that Peter Parker and Mary Jane wind up together at the end of this one. How perfect, how romantic, I loved it. She finally knows that Peter is her hero!

Lastly, I thought the villain was terrific, because he is very complex, and his motives are at least partially altruistic. Played very well by, um, I think, Alfred Molina? Must go IMDB what else he has been in. The creepy metal arms were most effective - very dramatic.

Hi JEllen. Glad you finally got to see Spidey 2! Alfred Molina was also in Coffee& Cigarettes, which I think you'd enjoy. I've also seen him in Identity, Chocolat, The Impostors, Boogie Nights, and the TV miniseries "A Year In Provence".

I posted in our other ongoing convo, I went last night to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I thought it was really great! Now we can talk about that one, too!

Excellent, can't wait to talk to you about Farenheit, either in posts or on IM.

I went to go see it again tonight, as part of a church group (not my church, another one) and afterwards attended a discussion by church members and met several campaigners for the Democrat party. It was very invigorating, seeing it with a group and being able to talk about it afterwards. More than 40 people were crammed into the host's living room.

The film made me cry this time. I really want my brother to go see it - he dislikes Bush as much as I do.

Well, I've seen Harry Potter. FAhrenheit doesn't seem to be out in Germany yet.

I don't like the new Hogwarts - not because it's different from the Columbus version, but because it's so Scottish, and wild and out in the open and rough. The Hogwarts of the first two films was so eerily close to how I had imagined it myself when reading the books.

Robbie Coltrane is brilliant (I was an avid Fitz fan), but I can't fathom why he had to have a West Country accent - in the books he's Cockney and that plays a relevant part in the plot. I'm sure he didn't sound like that in the first two films.

Gary Oldham was OK, but I had so set my heart on James Purefoy being Sirius, I couldn't really fully accept him, but that's personal.

The kids were fantastic and I think J K Rowling can be pleased that they again caught the right mixture of magicness, the way kids are at that age, the way they're developing - individually and in their relationships .... And by using so many serious actors who really enjoy what they're doing and are absolutely convinced by the whole idea, it really is a good all round film.

The divergences from the book were unsettling, as the first two films had kept to the stories and dialogues almost verbatim.

Hi Trillian's Child,

I need to see the latest Potter sequel before it goes off the big screen.

Having not read the Potter books, I don't have to worry about how closely they follow the original.



PCandy had a rather mixed review of King Arthur on another thread, tell us PC, is it worth a full price admission?

Has anyone seen Chronicles of Riddick? Thought I should catch that too before it leaves.

I saw the third Harry Potter a few weeks ago. I've read all the books, they're one of my "guilty pleasures". I noticed the divergences from the book as well, but that didn't bother me too much. I just didn't feel the same... I'm not sure how to put it... "emotional" level in the magic-ness, if that makes any sense? But the special effects were really cool!



"King Arthur" was an entertaining film, don't get me wrong. Arthur, Tristan and Lancelot were real hotties, so that made it even more enjoyable! But unless I'm watching a really cheesy flick (of which I watch plenty), I like a bit more character development. It took me a while to figure out who all of the knights were, aside from the obvious ones, until they were called by name. Maybe they tried cramming too much into too short a film, but unless you'd read up on Arthurial legend, or seen "Excalibur" or something else before, you might not follow what it was all about. It is certainly better than that Richard Gere debacle, or "A Knight's Tale", but it isn't anything I'd run out and buy. Maybe I'll watch it again when it hits cable. As for being worth the admission price, definitely, especially if you can catch it in the second run.



I think I may have committed myself to head down to Grant Park after work Tuesday to meet S. for the next installment in the Outdoor Film Festival. They're showing "His Girl Friday" this week. Argh!! A chick flick! Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for our friends, eh?

No chick flicks, PC? I love out door film things. Recently the ones around here have been themed, tho. Which is no good if you don't care about the theme. Last year one of them was boxing movies all summer. I just don't care about boxing movies. I don't know what the themes are this year. Every summer we say we're going to the drive in too and only make it about 1 in 3 years.

Do you have outdoor film things where you are JEllen? Or do people prefer bug-free and air conditioning?

Well, I have *some* chick flicks in my collection... "Reform School Girls", "Pulp Fiction"... just kidding!

Seriously, I've got a few, but they're few and far between. I suppose "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Dangerous Beauty" and "Serendipity" qualify, but that's about all I've got. I'm a strange girl, I like art films, cheesy movies, and a good old-fashioned bloodbath.

I love the outdoor film festivals, though. Even when it rains. This summer's been rather cool, so it's even better! Last year S and I went to "On the Town", "Rear Window" and "In the Heat of the Night". This year there's not really anything I'm dying to see on the big screen. But I can do a chick flick now and again for S, it's the least I can do after making her watch "Dead Alive" and "Meet the Feebles".

Hello everybody! I've just returned from watching Spiderman 2! It was a good film ... JEllen, I agree with what you said about it! Dr. Octopus was really cool.

As for Arthur ... I'll go and see the movie, since I know a bit about the legends and so on, as well as about the 'facts' supposedly behind them (there aren't that many (facts, I mean ...)). And I will go see the movie for a glimpse of Keira Knightley! I dig her quite a bit.

Let's hear it for cinematic drooling! *wink* I saved a still from Don Juan Demarco as my desktop - a very nice kiss. I love the fact that I can capture stills from my favorite movies.

Hey there, not been around for ages. Life is just always so busy, in a good way though. I even have some work these days.

did try to update a couple of weeks ago, but ran out fo time whilst writing. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Harry Potter - saw this for my birthday, I'll bet I wasn't the oldest birthday treat party to go and see it either! Great fun, darker feel than the others, better story structure - made into a film rather than the book. I know lots of people have complained about their best bits being missing, but I read all the books when they came out and haven't read them since - it works fine and better than the chapter by chapter structure of the earlier films. I'm sure Coltrane has always played Hagrid as West Country in all the films, and I'm not convinced of his being cockney in the books - are you sure?

Troy - interesting, but flawed. There was an anti-war movie in there somewhere, but I suspect production company meddling with the script. ("What? You can't have Brad Pitt as an uncompassionate, glory-seeking, bi-sexual killing machine who dies in the pen-ultimate act! Homer must of got it wrong!") Unfortunately much as I am for adaptations of films diverging from the books structure if it makes a better film that particular divergance doesn't. In the end it seemed a film that wasn't entirely good fun nonsense, but with message hamstrung and befuddled by meddling wasn't a glorious and heavy epic either. Which is a shame as that makes it an excuse for eye-candy and a few good fight scenes. Oh and a film in which Sean Bean actually makes it to the end titles still alive!

Farenheit 911 - well, Michael Moore is getting better as a film maker, pity that such harrowing subjects exisit for him to make films about. THe film is very harrowing, funny too, but that only makes it worse. It is strange however watching a film so clearly designed to get people to vote when you are native and resident of a different country so you have no right or ability to vote in the election in question.

Gak, this world is depressing.

Ho hum, Spiderman on release today so I maybe go and see it next weekend.

Purple Dragon! Hey, hello! Long time no see, great to hear from you.

Fahrenheit was indeed harrowing, wasn't it? That is the perfect word for it. And I totally agree, the humorous bits now and then just made it worse! I've seen it twice now. Cried the second time. I hadn't really thought how it would play to audiences outside the US. Glad I can vote. My mind was already made up to vote for Kerry before seeing it, but I will admit the film made me more passionate about it. I was reading reviews on Netflix about Fahrenheit, and 65 people gave it five stars - not bad at all. Many of them talked about standing ovations in their theaters.

Saw Spidey 2 again today, and loved it again. Fun, fun movie. Watch for the continuity error (SPOILER!) where Peter gets invited to eat chocolate cake, and the crumbs on the plate are clearly vanilla.

Purple Dragon, I loved your remark about Sean Bean surviving up till the closing credits! It will really be his day if they decide to actually make the sequel ...

Of course the sequel will be messed up by 'Troy's own continuity errors ... for instance Menelaus getting killed by Hector, when he still has a role to play in 'The Oddyssey'... hell and Helen actually went back to him in the book...!!! Oh well.

And the sequel will also be buggered up by their decision to eliminate all the 'X-files' stuff (I mean the gods and goddesses and the divine interventions and such)... if they decide to carry it over for the sake of consistency. I mean, imagine 'The Odyssey' without Poseidon, without Athena, without Calypso, without Circe, without the Cyclops, et cetera ...

That's just me being a 'greek geek'.

JEllen, you know, the more I hear about 'Fahrenheit 911' the more I actually do feel I'd like to see it. I don't think I'd be upset much by it. I already know much too much about the horriffic sh*t going on all over the world. 'Depressing' is much too mild a term (and concept) for it.

Thank God most movies offer an escape into fantasy! I do feel we have to try and face reality, too, every now and then. As for Moore's movie ... I will be very critical of it in terms of its 'realism' ... I feel that much too frequently, extremely important issues (and the war in Iraq in particular, and the War on Terror in general, are extremely important issues) get distorted when viewed through *any* sort of specific political lens. I've developed some very sensitive 'bullsh*t sensors' after many years involvement in cockeye bullsh*t politics. So I'll be as critical of Moore as I'm critical of Bush, if I ever get to view the movie.

Heya Ellen! I just wanted to add, I think Tobey Maguire makes the 'Spiderman' character very convincing, interesting and more sympathetic than any comic book hero portrayed in a movie so far. I mean, Peter Parker is just a teenager - sometimes confused, sometimes insecure, struggling and trying to cope with his superhero-hood as best as he can. He's not an alien like Clark Kent, or an eccentric billionaire like Bruce Wayne. He's just a kid, but he really tries hard and does his best and ends up being quite a superhero as far as superheroes go. If I were a superhero, I'd be Spiderman!

Hi Willem, I think your finely tuned "bullsh*t sensors" would make the parts of Fahrenheit which are funny (in a sad, sick way) all the more so. It's exactly that, the bullsh*t that's been force-fed to the American public by the government and media spin doctors for so long that they can't accept anything else as being possibly true. Some parts of the movie made me cry too, the horrible things that human beings do to each other. The way the American people have swallowed lies the way a patient might blindly swallow a pill given by a docotr, without questioning for a single moment, is frightening. Blind hatred, and the use of scare tactics to keep people in check. It's sickening.

Wondering what movie I ought to go see next. I still have to go with S to see one of the outdoor flicks, we missed "His Girl Friday" last week because it was so humid out and my joints were all sore- I was afraid if I tried to sit on the ground for so long, I'd wind up in such bad shape I'd miss work the next day. I also missed the matinee of "Lady From Shanghai" at the Music Box yesterday because I was up till 4:30 on Friday and couldn't get out of bed till noon.

Well Psychocandy, I will say more only when I've actually watched the movie! I *do* hope I can somehow get to see it. It seems to me, based on what so many people are saying about it, to be a very important movie about America and the state of the world.

As for movies over here ... right now there's truly nothing worth watching at the local cinema ... maybe there will be some good old films on TV though ... I've seen some interesting films on satellite these last few weeks.

Fellow Greek geek here, I wrote a film about statues of Penelope and Odysseus on the run from their museum. All the research I did for that merely backed up all the reading I'd done as a kid.

You're right about doing The Odessy without gods, could be kinda tricky. Although the Coens did a pretty good job with O Brother Where Art Thou? I thought that probably a better focus for Troy would have been to balance Hector's dilema between knowing that the war is a bad idea and wanting to protect hsi family with Odysseus' wish to be with his family but keeping to his word to fight in the war.

Menelaus dying early on was passable I felt, but given the punishment awaiting Agememnon when he gets home, he probably should have stayed alive. But I think that unlike a lot of films being made in Hollywood at the moment this one wasn't made with a sequel in mind. So many possibilites though, The Oddessy, The Aneaid, The Whatever-it-is cycle about Agamemnon's family.

Everyone else bored yet? Thought so, sorry.

Also a bit of an Arthur geek as well......
anyone seen that film yet?

Hi Willem, I agree with what you said about Tobey Maguire - his vulnerability adds a great deal to the Spidey films; I don't think the film would have worked nearly as well if they had cast someone else.