They both took towels to school today

This post brought a tear to my eye.

I didn’t even care whether it would be good, I was just fulfilling the wish I had 27 years ago

I felt pretty much the same way, Harry. It was a lot better than I was expecting, speaking as someone who wasted a considerable period between the ages of 12 and 14 wholly absorbing the stuff — though I never read the last two novels, which is probably just as well.

And it’s not opening in Belgium til $%#@ing August.

Belgium, man! Belgium!

No, the irony is not lost on me.

That the ‘Belgium’ passage in LTU&E was added to satisfy the Americans?

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, fyreflye! Even I heard of that, growing up in the US. Admittedly, that was forever and a day ago, but still. . . .

Forget the movie. Listen to the dramatizations of the fourth and fifth books on Radio 4. With Simon Jones, and also with William Franklyn (much better as a replacement Peter Jones than Stephen Fry).

Sorry, Hitchiker lovers; I do now recall having read somewhere that the whole franchise started as a radio series back during the Ted Heath – or was it the Maggie Thatcher – premiership (or sometime like that.) It hadn’t occurred to me that the movie would open on its own turf weeks later than the U S release. So do your local McD’s serve Hitchiker action figures with fries or is it a bit more muted than the blockbuster frenzy here?

Dare I admit that I couldn’t get into the first book at all despite several tries? But then I couldn’t finish LOTR either. But what can you expect from an…an…American?

I agree–could have been much worse. The Vogons were very good, and there were patches that were brilliant. The opening song left Melissa and I in stitches (I’m still singing it to myself, days later), and the bit where the characters are running across the Vogon plain and keep getting whacked every time they think of an idea–I’m talking about the high and behind shot, after Zaphod screams and bolts–was perverse genius. And the animation with the Guide was superb. Unfortunately, for me the romance did jar, terribly: Arthur’s “confession” of love to a dozing Trillian was awful in dozen different ways. And frankly, I would have preferred they just stick a prosthetic head on Zaphod, rather than the worked-on-paper-but-not-on-film buried head they went with.

Melissa’s favorite bit was the ball-of-yarn Heart of Gold, complete with fabric characters, that appeared after one of their improbability jumps. If they’d just had more of that, and to hell with all the supposed “character development,” they could have had a whimsical masterpiece on their hands. Much like Adams’s books, of course.

Kieran, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish is actually pretty good. The fifth book, Mostly Harmless, is, however, horrible.

Thanks for the suggestions, Harry.

Scott, I think Adams’s publishers forced him to write more sequels. (From what I hear, almost literally forced him–he was such a bad procrastinator that they locked him in a hotel room until he finished, the rumor goes.)

I agree, it was two pure hours of fun. Vogons better done than I could have imagined, ditto Guide animations. I did find the romance jarring though, and I didn’t like Marvin–the book version is so much more interesting.

According to the biographies, he was locked in a hotel room to write #4, not #5. He wrote #5 basically because he’d already spent the advance.

The biographies are an interesting study in the art. Nick Webb’s “authorised” one is a kind of a genial “Douglas was a great bloke, knew him a bit, went to some awesome parties of his” effort. MJ Simpson’s (he was head of the fan club for many years) is more meticulously researched and more critical, to the point where it feels almost cruel, Adams being a comic writer with serious procrastination issues, not, say, lord of the galaxy with a similar affliction.

I liked the movie quite a bit. It seemed like good friendly fun with the books.

Maybe its because I’m an American… but it seems they left out the two best parts: Disaster Area, and that device that tortures folks via showing them how insignificant they “really” are (even though the idea is nonsense). And, the guide gets replaced by the romance as the driving force of the plot. Yeccch! The Vogons, however, were worth the price of admission alone.

When I first read the book, I didn’t catch that Smarty-whats-his-name is technocrat industrialist. Too much Marx can spoil just about anything! The movie wasn’t bad, I just feel the whole thing is clever but unsophisticated – best when not taken seriously, which I’m sure is what Mr. Adams intended.

i loved the books. and the movie was good. it departed at times, but I felt the departures kept largely in the spirit of the HHGG. so i’m happy.

I took my 8 year old and her friend.

I read the first book, watched the entire TV series and listened to some of the radio show so the movie just wasn’t fresh to me. (The HH neophyte I went with found it hit-and-miss. Don’t blame me. I wanted to see Kung Fu Hustle.)

I heard from a mother that her kids – who were completely unfamiliar with HH from other media – loved it. I hope they pick up the books at some point.

As far as the romantic subplot, well, I recently went through the situation that Arthur undergoes in the film, so I’ll indulge it because of the small personal catharsis it provided.

Better and more faithful to the original (both book and radio) than I expected. But then, I felt the same way about Constantine.

I didn’t really think the departures from the original storyline worked very well, though I can see how from a moviemaking perspective they might have seemed sensible on paper. The romance was dreadful, but had Adams put it in his story, it would’ve been (deliberately) dreadful there, too. It was a pity they left out “yellow”.

“As far as the romantic subplot, well, I recently went through the situation that Arthur undergoes in the film, so I’ll indulge it because of the small personal catharsis it provided.”

You met a girl at a party who left with a two-headed alien, and then got back together with her on a spaceship after your planet was destroyed?

Many CT readers have more interesting lives than I, clearly.

and add a dollop of Hollywood-standard sexism

Hmm… wasn’t Trillian a dumb blonde who didn’t say or do much of anything in the book, or does my memory deceive me? From that perspective, I think it was a slight improvement.

Robin: she didn’t spend much time “on stage,” but is instumental to the conclusion of the plot of the third book while Arthur panics, Zaphod looks in the mirror and Ford looks for a party. She also is meant to hold a degree in mathematics and astrophysics, although that’s really only used as a joke about job prospects in those fields. (The parallel universe version in the fifth book is a TV presenter, but with the same qualifications.)

She doesn’t come across as dumb to me: rather the reverse. But she’s just not core to the story, mostly.

I enjoyed the movie even though it wasn’t entirely true to the book (which was my first exposure to the series). We have the original TV production on DVD, and my complaint about that was that it was *too* faithful to the book – I thought it was kind of plodding and I didn’t care for a lot of the actors, particularly Zaphod.

What I liked about the movie: Martin Freeman was less peevish and pissy than Simon Jones. Mos Def seemed more alien than the guy in the TV series – and he really worked the towel, which I enjoyed. I really love Sam Rockwell, so I’m sad to say I was slightly disappointed with Zaphod, but I guess I enjoyed Zaphod so much in the books that it would be hard for anyone to meet my expectations. Zoey Deschanel was about a trillion times better than the blonde Betty Boop who was in the TV series, but something was missing from her performance.

And the Vogons were awesome, but I think they were overused in the movie.

For those of you who (1) have seen this movie and (2) have young children: would this be ok for a five year old boy who has been to movies many times? I’ve read all the books, and seen/heard all other incarnations, so I have some idea going in, but I like to (at least try to) keep him away from overt violence in movies. Slapstick is ok, though. [He’s seen the Shrek movies and the Incredibles, the latter of which was a little past what I’d like him to see at this point.]

Some parts were good, some parts were bad. The romance was indeed dreadful; part of the point of Arthur making a big deal out of being aced out at a party was to highlight what a schnook he was. Marvin was horrific; they made him look like a sports team mascot. Where was the Vogon guard intrigued by Beethoven’s fifth? Where were the sensitive cops? Where was the invasion fleet that was swallowed by a dog?

After deep thought, I believe the next comment will provide the final verdict.

No.