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

Occasionally amusing look at the illusions & facades people put up around them in order to get through life. In particular, one woman's fixation on a certain soap opera.

While it's often funny, there seems to be something of a cruel streak running through the movie which is kind of off-putting.

I can hardly remember the film now, except for Nurse Betty's sweetly dumb expressions.

I saw a couple this weekend, and have to agree with Mark that I am a sad, shallow person.

First up was Enemy At The Gate. Well acted, original story. But too glum and, I have to say, not my idea of 'entertainment'.

Second, another BOATS, Men of Honor. Count the clichés! RdN good, but not on top form. But I enjoyed it far more.

The best bit of MoH (at least while watching the movie), was when CGjr lost his leg. At the time I felt it changed the whole nature of the story, but now looking back it just seems like one more obstacle to overcome. If the film wasn't BOATS, I'd be very cynical about the reasons for including it.

Best line from RdN, when asked why he was helping: "to p**s people off!"

Last night we went to a new cinema. Very good sound; enhances the whole experience even more.

Saw previews for The Hole and Dracula 2001, neither of which I'll be seeing. Saw a longer trailer for Pearl Harbor. Quite a good trailer, I suppose, and the theme is starting to grow on me.

Also saw very intruiging trailer for 'One Night at McCool's' - I recommend the QT versions at the Apple site. Check out Michael Douglas's hair!

The film we watched was '15 Minutes', completing my dose of RdN. A very uneven film, none of the characters at all convincing. Slightly entertaining, but RdN is not putting his considerable talent and charisma to good use.

Dracula 2000/1 isn't really worth anyone's time. There was a minor attempt to be creative with the vampire mythos, but all too little, too late.

Still to come, Shadow of the Vampire and Blade 2.

Blade 2? Hmm, I wasn't overly impressed with Blade.

This morning I'm in a download mood, and have been picking and choosing from the excellent Apple quicktime trailer selection .

AI is a lovely, subdued trailer. Of course, I'll want more 'detail' later.

Also grabbed Planet of the Apes, and am currently waiting for Tomb Raider to finish.

Downloading Apes as I type.

Have to check out Tomb Raider as well.

I was quite taken by the first Blade movie. As one of Marvel Comics' first big forays from comic book-to-movie, it was certainly a respectable offering in terms of box office numbers, the look, the action and especially in terms of the intricate world it created. The different Vampiro-ethnic groups, the hierarchy, the history and the science.

It bade good things for future comic-based movies to come, in particular, the X-Men, and here's hoping, Spider-Man.

*still downloading Tomb Raider - I went for the large version*

The acting in Blade was poor, and the bad young vampire so easily casting aside the oldies just didn't wash.

BTW, some of the quicktime movies (like PotA and TR) don't allow you to save to disk (at least, not on the Mac). But Mark showed me how to copy the cached movie from a temporary folder before it gets deleted.

Promotional use only. Sale, duplication, and other transfer of this material or excerpts thereof, is strictly prohibited. The download of this trailer by website visitors is only only permissable for individual desktop use as long as no further copying, use, or transfer is made. Stay right where you are. The authorities have been alerted and the Fuzz, the Peelers and the Boobies ( ) are currently homing in on your location.

Well, I'm feeling pleasantly happy seeing the Apes trailer - not just guys in suits anymore, are they?

Woh, , feeling a bit crook today.

'Crook' has lots of meanings listed in the thesaurus, but isn't one of them. Perhaps I'll raise this at the BE (Sequel) thread.

I won't be looking over my shoulder for the boobies. That would be the wrong direction.

Crook, in reference to illness, is an Australasian expression, as in the phrase "crook as a dog's hind leg" (which I myself raised recently on the BE 2 sequel - the phrase, not the hind leg )

I'm afraid I'm too to be thinking about boobies - or perhaps I'm not enough.

But I must just add that boobies over the shoulder where the best thing about going to the hairdressers as a youngster (and probably still would be as an adultster if I had my hair cut more often) say no more, say no more!

Perhaps the other researchers at the BE2 thread would have thought, as I did, that "crook as a dog's hind leg" referred to something being crooked, i.e. bent (opp. of straight, not dishonest).

If you're still feeling , I recommened a cappuccino; very therapeutic and medicinal - and it's about time we had another go at getting you in to coffee.

Tell you what, I could go for a nice warm bowl of cornflakes and milk right about now. Mmmmm... Crunchy Nut Cornflakes....

What would be even better if I could get a warm bowl of muesli without those godawful little pieces of dried fruit (with the exception of raisins). They don't taste even remotely fruity and you spend the rest of the morning (or night, if you're like me) picking them out of your teeth.

And no fair, trying your caffeine-addled mind-games with me! I'm an invalid!

And for that "crook as a dog's hind leg" BE 2 reference:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585&thread=100569&skip=240&show=20

Posting 254

Ah, my apologies. My brain is crooked!

Coffee is very good too if you've got bits of breakfast stuck in your teeth. It is the tastiest panacea.

Fortunately, that won't be necessary. Made a mercy dash to the shops and a big bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes shall be mine before I go to bed tonight. Oh yes, it shall be mine!

I prefer those chocolate rice crisps, with a few raisin wheats thrown in to make it all healthy. But you really need to wash it down with coffee. Come on, Mustapha, you know you want to!

Last night we went to see Save the Last Dance. Nothing original there, but I thought they carried it off quite well. I enjoyed it until the 'postmortem'; Sal & Mark got into a real argument about whether the film tackled the issues it raised. (Mark hasn't come in this morning, which is very unusual.) Mark felt strongly the film still pandered to stereotypes by taking the easy and obvious route.

Saw a preview for Sweet November, with a certain Mr Keanu Reeves, who I've had my eye on for a while now. He's something of an enigma.

Goodness, if a film like "Save the Last Dance" can provoke such a reaction among your colleagues, I'd hate to see what goes down after a serious film!

StLD is at the local cinema now, and looks like its the weakest of a pretty p**s-poor lot. The other big name films include Finding Forrester and Dungeons & Dragons. Well, at least D&D has some special effects, which should tide me over until something better comes along.

Nurse Betty and Bagger Vance didn't last too long here in New Plymouth, barely a week for Betty.

Nurse Betty lasted only 1 night at the theater we went to!

StLD was not a heavy film, but perhaps it was controversial because of the issues it touches on. 'Black & White' touched on some of these issues. Let me know what you think (if you get to see it).

I missed Finding Forrester, which I wanted to see. I also missed Dungeons & Dragons, which was slated by the critics!

The target audience for D&D appears to have been set - only on at 10am and 4pm. In other words, it's a kid's movie.

Of course, being thought of as childish has never stopped me before.

Currently downloading the Tomb Raider trailer. Looks vaguely interesting. Good week for fake Brit accents though, with Jolie and Zellweger both pulling off some good ones.