heh,
you're having a nooner with some guys

One of the dorks was a pretty attractive woman, I'll have you all know. Just sayin'.

The movie: I'll be generous and give it 3 stars. It's been 10 years since I've read the book, so I'm not married to every detail of the source material (a good thing) but still recognize a lot of the eccentricities and in jokes that neophytes will miss.
You lose a lot of the breezy quirkiness of the book here, and that reveals what a basic/unremarkable space fantasy story is at the heart of it. It's best in the first 30 minutes when we're just meeting Ford and Arthur because there's more of the snappy dialogue that made the book so special. Mos Def especially; his introduction as Arthur's house is about to be demolished is pitch perfect and he's great the whole way through.
Marvin the robot is wonderful - Alan Rickman was the perfect voice choice for him and I liked how they designed him physically. Sam Rockwell is outstanding as always. His portrayal of Galactic President definitely carries traces of George W. Bush's cowboy swagger. The way they handled his second head wasn't too great, though, and newcomers will still wonder "what the...?" even after it's explained.
Martin Freeman kind of disappointed me as Arthur. He was more of a milquetoasty sad sack than a bewildered everyman, especially when Trillian enters the picture. He didn't make his scenes unbearable, just not great. Trillian was just kind of there, fulfilling the female romantic character but not lending anything special.

Lots of stuff gets jettisoned from the book, some stuff gets added and other stuff is there but never explained. The towels, in particular. They're always there, but there's no "a towel is the single most important thing to have with you" discussion.

Overall, fun but a little bit of a letdown given the potential. In many spots it's still smarter than 90% of the movies out there. That's enough for me.

The books: 10/10

The movie: 7/10

It was fun, some inspired stuff. Worth seeing. Will probably like it more on repeat viewing.

The wit and philosophy of the books are a bit jettisoned in favor of broader silliness, and some things are strangely enough played straight that are actually more silly in the first book, but certainly a well-done movie.

It's "Terry Jones directs Erik The Viking" level good. Not "Terry Gilliam directs Brazil" good.

On a Mel Brooks scale, it's a History Of The World, Pt 1, but not a Blazing Saddles.

i'll actually go into detail here...

i have not read the books but i grew up with the British miniseries...
the British miniseries holds a special place in my heart, i was always completely lost no matter which episode i was watching but the hatred or "disliking" of the human race in general always shown through. my favorite was how one of the planets jettisoned their entire middle management.

the movie in comparison to the miniseries at least leaves so much to be desired. i never feel sorry for arthur and the sense of peril that seemed to hang around the characters is also missing, the asides which are still present aren't as jarring or witty and are placed at times that are not as random. all in all i blame disney for sucking the life out of what is supposed to be an anti-mundane masterpiece.

just got back from seeing it with friends from an entirely different webboard, come to think of it.

i loved it, even if it wasn't perfectly satisfying. sorta how the Private Press isn't in the same league as Endtroducing, but damn, it's still DJ Shadow...

the whale bit *completely* reminded me of reading the book. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

KPH

I thought it was really good, but that might have been because I read the book, and was understanding a lot of stuff that they never explained (as mentioned above)

I did notice quite a few people left before the movie was over. I don't know if they just didn't like it, didn't understand what the hell was going on, or they had somewhere else they had to be.

I'm looking forward to "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" I need to read that book first though.

are they going to make a sequel?

i liked the movie - because i read the books

i dis-liked the movie - because i read the books

was that a serious question? They left their options open for doing a sequel, but I guess the box office ticket sales will determine.

yeah, that was a serious question. i know they mentioned the restaurant at the end of the universe at the end of the movie. but in the books, they do not go there on purpose.

Sure they do. They're hungry and Zaphod suggests the Restaurant.

Anyway, I'm seeing the movie this afternoon. Can't wait.

i thought it was terribly disappointing. keep in mind i read the book eight years ago and i barely remember it, but as a standalone movie, it really wasn't very good. the forced love story was uncomfortable, the hitchhiker's guide is barely in the film, and a lot of the potentially funny book to movie transition elements were either forgotten or not used to their full potential.

it was an okay movie. not great. i can see how the book's fanatics would be infuriated over it. case in point, the unabashedly enraged person who wrote this review. (note: before you read it, it's got SPOILERZ)

Meh. Not interested in seeing it. It just doesn't look that intriguing.

Josh is clamoring to see it. In fact he just walked out the door with my son to go see it. So I'll see how they like it later.

Read the books a couple of times over the last 10-15 years, and I loved the movie. I wasn't expecting a literal translation, and it wasn't. The Vogons were hysterical. Loved them. I most decidedly liked the excerpts from the HHGTTG itself. All of the little animations were wonderful.

Two big thumbs up from me.

I never read the books, but I did watch the British series as a lad. And I have to say, that while I enjoyed the movie, I liked the series better.

Some brief thoughts:

* I thought Mos Def was good as Ford Prefect. No quams.

* Marvin was much better in the series. Was it my imagination, or did I see the original Marvin in "queue" on the Vogon planet during the Prisoner Release Form scene?

* Martin Freeman as Arthur = Meh. The original Arthur from the series was much better (great to see him in a cameo as the holographic greeting to Magrathea.) I felt that Freeman brought nothing to the role, and you could have cut 'n' pasted just about any dry british actor in there and gotten the same performance. For example, picture Colin Firth. Exactly. (Actually I wouldn't have minded seeing Firth in this role).

That being said, I enjoyed the movie for what it was. It made me laugh. It also made me want to go back and view the entire British mini-series again.

Saw the movie. Thought it was pretty funny. Books were better. What a fuckign nerdfest it was. I swear the live action version of the comic book guy from The Simpsons.

That's what got me too - that was beautifully, perfectly done, and also got the biggest reaction out of the audience. There were other moments of perfection like that, but they seemed to more want to go for "zany" types of humor than the witty quickness of the novels. That said, I actually did enjoy it - I just hoped for more than what we got.

And the Vogons might be the best puppets I've ever seen. Jim Henson's Creature Shop deserves some serious recognition for thee incredible work they did. This is one of those great examples to use against the glut of ugly CG in films today. The Vogons looked and seemed real - especially the articulation of their mouths. Amazing.

I went to see this on Friday.

I thought it was freakin' fantastic, and I have not read the books.


Dig that, yo.

just saw it a few days ago. i enjoyed it ok. it credited Douglas Admas as a screenwriter...anyone know how that came to be?

also, in the book, Zaphod asks the ship's computer to take them to the nearest restaurant, not the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe specifically....i think that's how it went. they then travel in time, not distance, to get the Restaurant because it's the "closest"

more later, gotta go to music,

Adams finished the intial screenplay draft before he died.



Yes.

watched it tonight and was pretty disappointed in the movie.

it's better if you had read the book first. things make more sense

i've read it and i think that makes it worse. it barely follows the book at all.