Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Asa

Asa

Well-known member
So, what did everyone think of the guide? Movies based on books can never live up to the original, but I think it came close...I was laughing for a good five minutes after walking out of the theater. Zaphod especially was played well...highly amusing, with numerous references to other political characters coming to mind. "You can't be president with a whole brain!" :grin:
 
Except in this case, the books were based on a radio play and a TV show based on that radio play. And IMHO, the books didn't "live up" to the radio play. (That's not to say I didn't find them hilarious.)

Going to see the movie tomorrow. I hope (and I suspect this to be the case) that it's based more on the radio plays. But we'll see!
 
IMHO ..it was bah... thats all.. just bah.. left me with nothing. the FX were to be expected and didnt even make me raise an eylid once. i found it to be.. well .. bah. wouldnt reccomend it. story was bah.. rest was bah.. . i dont know.. it just didnt do anything for me. .. thats just me though. the humor was just off base for what i find funny normally. but i can see how for others it could be hilarious if they appreciate the style of humor in play.
 
I liked it. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but I've read the books so that may not be the best opinion. As a movie, it stands on its own pretty firmly
 
I haven't heard the radio plays, but I have read the books. Although there were some great parts in the movie, I found it overall to be a bit disappointing. There weren't enough laughs and the added love story was unnecessary and sappy. Sam Rockwell was great as Zaphod, and Alan Rickman was perfect as Marvin. The movie was okay, but I found the books to be a lot better.
 
I'm seeing it in a couple of hours. I never read the books before but I heard they were really good. The main reason I'm going is because I'm a big fan of Sam Rockwell. "Confessions of a Dangerous Minds" kicked major ass. Plus, Alan Rickman and he rocked in the less than stellar "Galaxy Quest". I'm looking forward to it.
 
The casting is partly good. Rockwell, Freeman, and Rickman are perfect. Deschanel is fine (in more ways than one). But Mos Def?!? I mean, this is THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE. This is serious. Hiring a pop star smacks of bad movie thinking. His acting is actually pretty good; he's just not right for the part, which also happens to be a beloved character. The movie's okay. Not great; not even that good, really. They try to cover too much, and most of what's fun about the book gets lost. There's no traction in this thing, just a constant jumping from one new thing to another.
 
I went and saw it, only from seing the TV series (No books or Radio show for me). I thought it was pretty average, bordering on below.

The TV series kept me interested from start to end (And that's watching them back to back which I still do), but the movie got boring and there was not much to the characters. I liked Trillian, she was interesting, but Arthur was badly cast and so was Ford and Slarty IMO.

And what was it with that sub plot about getting that thing for John M?

Aaron
 
I enjoyed it... but this was my first introduction to it so i couldn't appreciate it on the level of people who know and love the series.

My buddy who followed the tv show thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was a little taken back at the fact it was a G-Rated movie... I haven't watched a G rated movie without my nieces present since i was a child so i wasn't sure what to expect.

The knitting scene kicks ass!!

If I was to be a critic of it I'd say the pacing was a little off. It had a great pace to begin with then slowly tapered off. Got me really into it then slowly made me less and less interested in the outcome.

Apparently the last restaurant on the edge of the universe is a set up for a sequel?

Mos Def is a good actor in my opinion, check out Monsters Ball and The Woodsman.
 
Saw it today.

If you love the series, you're probably terribly disappointed.

If you don't know the series, you're probably hopelessly lost.

Nice tidbits thrown in from the BBC TV series and the radio plays, though. Anyone catch the original Marvin?
 
Yeah, that about sums it up really Jubal. Yeah I did spot original Marvin, and also the original Arthur Dent.

Aaron
 
Original Marvin and Dent? details, please!!!
I've read the books a good dozen times over and still liked the movie. I have yet to meet a movie based on a book that lived up to the original text...yes, even Lord of the Rings. I thought the Guide actually did pretty well, though.
 
Lessons to be learned...

Lessons to be learned...

A major lesson here is that the low budget BBC TV series from the early eighties does a much better job for the original work than the big budget techno schplurp!

ie. In the series, much of the humour in the house demolition revovled around Ford Prefect talking the demolition crew foreman into lying in front of the bulldozer in place of Arthur while they slipped off to the PUB.

Its a lot of these little things that got left out of the movie version in order to sequeeze the material into the 1 hr 49 minute running time that made the movie somewhat more disjointed. Quite frankly the cheezy sets in the series worked a lot better for the humour for me. The cameo of the original Marvin is the best comparison of design over budget! I think good old Marv still looks better than the sterile look of big budget Marv!

So, its not the budget or having lot's of cool gear to fawn over; but using everything together effectively to tell and support a great story.


Cheers
 
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anyone know how the computer graphics on the "guide" might have been created?

looks like flash animation to me.... it was cool. i liked that whole sequence.
 
Yeah, that did look like a Flash animation...but how did they get that to the screen? Export from flash as a .mpg (can Flash do that?) and import to Final Cut or whatever they used? Makes me look at Flash in a whole new light if that's possible.
 
NickMilo said:
I thought Sam Rockwell was trying to do an Owen Wilson impression the whole time.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a George Dubya impression, since he was playing the president and he's an idiot.

I tried reading the book and didn't make it past the destruction of Earth. I enjoyed the movie though. I wouldn't know if it was pitch perfect. Some of the elements I really liked were Marvin, the knit scene with the improbability drive, and the Flash-style animations from the Guide. While I was watching it, I though that this could be one of those movies kids watch three times in a row -- easily a G movie that an adult can watch.

Where was the BBC Marvin cameo?

"So long and thanks for all the fish."
 
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