Comments on: Monday Review of Stuff

By: yami

yami — Sat, 07 May 2005 23:27:00 +0000

They clearly needed some kind of unifying feature/story in the film, and it almost makes sense from that perspective. It’s just that adding a new theme is never a good substitute for ruthlessly excising distractions. Or comic timing.
Really, if they’d just gotten a cast/director/script-polisher with more experience in comedy, it might’ve all worked out, love story and all - but they kept missing the funny!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sat, 07 May 2005 16:37:00 +0000

I once appeared (in two or three very, very small roles) in a low-budget college-student production of the radio series version of Hitchhiker’s Guide. It was awesome. We even got an actual British guy to play Arthur (he was a grad student in something or other), and he did so in a properly understated manner. When I saw the movie last weekend, I kept mentally comparing it with that production and being disappointed. Why does every big mainstream movie have to have a love story in it?
But at least the movie had Alan Rickman, which always helps.

By: des von bladet

des von bladet — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:37:00 +0000

We are usually grumpy all the week long, but the coffee pot review reads like a Tuesday Trashning, such as which are also entitled to appear on Mondays.

By: yami

yami — Mon, 02 May 2005 21:15:00 +0000

Do some people take issue with the words zany and wacky? That’s like finding out that “crap” is a swear word…
I would actually recommend a bargain matinee in a second-run theater; the visual effects are worth seeing on a proper screen - Magrathea was incredible. There were some other good things about it, too: I didn’t agree with the direction they took Arthur Dent in (he’s supposed to be passive and confused, not a chivalrous knight!) but he was given more depth than in other versions, and I liked the extra Vogon stuff (the bit with the towel and the gate, and then Marvin shooting the gun, was priceless). It’s just that the humor was either not set up (too much stuff to cram in one script, but they were still trying to please all the fans in their focus groups) or badly timed.
You should try to find the radio series; if it’s not quite as good as the books, it’s very very close.

By: Rana

Rana — Mon, 02 May 2005 20:32:00 +0000

Yep, it’s a grumpy Monday, alright.
Does the coffeemaker have a serial number on the bottom?

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 02 May 2005 20:29:00 +0000

Man, I’m dissapointed in that Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy movie.
I’ve only read the book, and its great. it’s zany and whacky (if its cool to use terms like that…) and is still, clever, intelligent, and fill of great insight.
Of course they say that movies are NEVER as good as the book, but I was hopeful that this adaptation would be wel done (it had that guy from “the office” in it, so I had high hopes!)
Its been getting mixed reviews, and after your summary, it looks like I need to wait and try and find a torrent of it rather than go see it.