Post #202,700
4/10/05 2:12:48 PM
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I think I shall be avoiding the H2G2 film...
...if this review is even 10% accurate:
[link|http://planetmagrathea.com/longreview1.html|http://planetmagrath.../longreview1.html]
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #202,702
4/10/05 2:29:51 PM
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Think I'll skip the review
Ok. So I read the first page, but I don't see anything other than complaints about the lines being different in this movie versus the book (or the radio or the tv series). Movies are first and foremost a visual medium backed by (hopefully) some character development. The strength or failure of the movie will not rest on it's trueness to the literary words.
IMO, the movie will succeed if it is playfully silly with a hint of nihilism. It will fail if it takes the material to literal or serious.
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Post #202,703
4/10/05 2:36:18 PM
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I wouldn't.
He's specific, and if he's right, and there's no reason to think he isn't, then this film is a travesty. If you enjoyed the books, or the radio plays, or the TV series, then I would suggest not destroying your fond memories.
The biggest crime is the fact that nowhere in this film is the Pan-galactic Gargleblaster mentioned. Not once.
Not being hit in the head with a gold brick wrapped in a slice of lemon? Unforgivable.
But then, it's made by Disney. It was always going to be butchered.
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #202,706
4/10/05 2:48:38 PM
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Just saw the trailer yesterday
It was enough to make me want to see it. Sure, Marvin was stupid. And the "thumb" felt wrong. But I'll suspend my critical faculties and go see it.
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Post #202,715
4/10/05 3:28:08 PM
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That's unfortunate
because the trailer looks great. But of course its the dialog that is key and if they've mucked with that then its toast.
"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #229,405
10/12/05 10:17:56 PM
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I don't normally reply to old threads...
I've gotten a copy of it on DVD (yeah, I know, it would have been cheaper to see it in the cinema). Actually, I quite like it. It's not as true to the original works as some people could have wished, but it seems to work. I was prepared to mourn the loss of the witty dialogue, too, but I can see it would have been shortened in the interest of "making the story move along". Shame. They didn't have to cut quite so much of it. The biggest crime is the fact that nowhere in this film is the Pan-galactic Gargleblaster mentioned. Not once. It is, actually. A little while after Ford and Arthur arrive on the Heart of Gold, Zaphod and Ford share a Pan-galactic Gargleblaster. There's even a voice-over describing it. Wade.
"Insert crowbar. Apply force."
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Post #229,414
10/13/05 12:36:49 AM
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I'm with you
While slightly let down that it wasn't better than it was...it wasn't horrible. I found myself rather enjoying it.
One very bad thing, though...the female was a horrid actress.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #202,704
4/10/05 2:37:28 PM
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+5. Well said.
I usually avoid reviews of movies because they're often very good (in a bad way) at influencing my expectations. When I saw that the review Peter linked to was quite long, I only skimmed some of the first page. To do otherwise would spoil the entertainment value for me.
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #202,977
4/12/05 7:23:19 AM
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Thanks - a tour de force
Love this reviewer! He reminds me of my fav (and local) Jon Carroll. Abject admiration for his fluency in selecting the exact nuance and no mistake about it. Such precision that - either s/he's Dead-on or a Masterful Liar; sucked me in. AND.. my (other fav) San Jose Ch 54/KTEH is rebroadcasting original HGTTG of late, so I need not rely on just the little grey cells' refresh-rate. The contrast of the lines "I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them." "But you found the plans, didn't you?" - with the Original - says {not quite, It All}. Lose the fucking humour![Worse - not even notice that you Are doing that! D'Oh...] Lose the raison d'\ufffdtre, Kernel, root-of-the-Eigenfunction, catalyst, leitmotif, Soul! of the essence of the Gzornenplatz. {sigh} {SHITE!} just like that truly-FUCKED Dr. Who "movie" many years past; still reeking. There: 'they' imagined that gratuitous sex-with-Companions would fit the neo lowered sensibilities of the demographic blah blah.--------------------------------- Cutting-to-chase: the perspicuity of Whoever is Magrethea, summarised neatly in this conclusion of the [non-spoiler] Review: The Hitchhiker\ufffds Guide to the Galaxy movie is an abomination. Whereas the radio show, TV show, books and computer game are all recognisably variations on a theme, this is something new and almost entirely unrelated. It\ufffds not even a good film if viewed as an original work: the characters are unsympathetic, the cast exhibit no chemistry, the direction is pedestrian, the pace plodding, the special effects overpowering (lots and lots of special effects, none of them funny mind you) and above all the script is amazingly, mindbogglingly awful. Oh, and they have taken most of the jokes out.
This is a terrible, terrible film and it makes me want to weep. -- does at least bolster the nearly-snuffed hope that -- not Everyone on the planet {yet} has become infected with Neoconman/Jesus/lobotomy neurasthenia: ie just maybe the current retrograde miasma is Not a permanent suppurating boil on the asshole of homo-sap! Weep a l\ufffd Niobe indeed. (And I haven't even read all of the main review, yet) Pity. Cubed. All that wasted $\ufffdM - to produce a garment made of Pure Shit. Not worth the trauma of 'viewing'. As you say. :( moi Let's let Magrathea produce the redeeming-Next version! After we kill all the MBAs. After the lawyers are at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. With the found-out brain-eating Neoconmen of all Nationalities.
Product. Placement. Final proof of MBA-ness, thus irredeemable ... No life-without-parole: death.
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Post #202,981
4/12/05 7:37:30 AM
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Re: Thanks - a tour de force
[link|http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563477024/qid=1113305828/sr=8-5/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i5_xgl/026-7681848-3938840|http://www.amazon.co...6-7681848-3938840]
Job Done.
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #203,149
4/13/05 6:32:30 AM
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..eventually.
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Post #203,254
4/13/05 5:03:29 PM
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Fanboys
I don't trust them. They go apeshit overboard positively and negatively. I've glanced through the first page. That guy sounds like he needs to get a life and a girlfriend. Geez. Even though he says he recognizes that film is a different medium I don't think he really grasps that most of Adams wordiness won't translate well to the big screen nor can everything fit for time. Compromises have to be made. Not knowing what the ending entails, maybe they're saving stuff for a sequel or two.
I'll likely revisit that page after I see the movie to see what he nitpicks. I'd find it quite amusing if most of the screenplay that Adams wrote was preserved.
This isn't unlike the Red Dwarf novels and the TV series. I read the first two novels ahead of seeing the TV series. I was slightly disappointed that the whole bit up to Lister getting aboard Red Dwarf was skipped in the TV show. Plus there was the change in his motivations for bringing his cat Frankenstein onboard. Depending on what they do, origin or TV continuation, I expect compromises for the movie too.
Another childhood favourite is in the works, Transformers, which already has been announced that it won't be entirely faithful to the old G1 cartoon and comics. Megatron will be a tank, Soundwave not a cassette recorder and others modified from their original forms and characters. A lot of fanboys are going apeshit over that on the producers website. Sad. I will be slightly annoyed if Cullen and Welker don't reprise their voice roles but not kicking, screaming and sulking in the corner like most fanboys.
lister
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Post #203,259
4/13/05 6:05:58 PM
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It's all about the words.
DNA's stuff isn't visual, it isn't character. It's the words. Losing the pan-galactic gargle blaster is an example of the hollywoodification of the book.
And Red Dwarf turned to crap after the first couple of series, because the strong characterisation (Lister the slob, Rimmer the snob, Cat the selfish, Kryten the subservient) was diluted.
And the American version? Heaven help us, that was AWFUL from day 1.
To be honest, I wish the film-makers would stop trying to bring this sort of thing to the big screen. Write something original, ferfook's sake.
The Matrix worked. <-- clue to Hollywood.
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #203,360
4/14/05 12:06:08 PM
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No, THHG can be visual
as in The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; its visuals (both illustrations and text) add to the story.
[link|http://www.mccsc.edu/~kloser/RobPage3.html|http://www.mccsc.edu...ser/RobPage3.html]
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Post #203,461
4/15/05 10:04:43 AM
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Re: It's all about the words.
Have you read any of the other reviews on aint-it-cool? There's reviews from long time fans and some newbies. All have liked it except for the Arthur & Trisha romance which smells of Hollywood suit meddling.
Here's the latest newbie review: [link|http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=19913|http://www.aintitcoo...play.cgi?id=19913]
I realize it's all about the words. I absolutely love books written like Adams style. I wish I could relive the glee I had at first reading (alzheimers may be good for something at least...) But in reading books like HHG, Red Dwarf and Good Omens, I'd really like to see them given the big screen treatment. As long as they get most of the good stuff in there I'll be happy. HHG done on a visual medium probably would work best on TV where the story can be stretched out and everything can get in. Anyways, have fun with your head in the sand. I'm going to have some fun in two weeks time. :-D
I haven't seen all of Red Dwarf yet. I think I still need to see seasons seven and eight. With five and six recently out on DVD I'm starting again from season one. My one criticism of the later episodes I have seen is that the bickering got stale. The dilution is likely due to trying to grow the characters. I downloaded the American pilot several years ago. Hehe, that was terrible.
The Matrix started well and the last third deteriorated. Don't even get me started with the sequels. A fucking mess they were and in no way, shape or form original.
lister
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Post #203,463
4/15/05 10:23:00 AM
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Matrix Advice:
"Avoid the sequels and spend the rest of your life thinking that The Matrix is cool"
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #204,041
4/20/05 10:47:56 AM
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HHGTTG Advice:
[link|http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=7206|http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=7206]
As for The Matrix, it was mostly cool (aside from Reeves wooden acting) until the reveal towards the end that humans were essentially batteries. Lame.
lister
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