Hitchhiker's Guide
So I finally found some breathing room and watched the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today. As an avowed Douglas Adams afficionado, there's a lot I could quibble with - my main gripe would be that Eddie never tried to make tea - but on the whole it was a pleasant enough amalgam of the first and bits from the other books. (If there really is a sequel, I'm dying to see the talking cow and the Total Perspective Vortex.)
Not much to complain about the acting. Martin Freeman is perfect as Arthur Dent - a sort of reprise of his Tim role from "The Office", always somewhat bemused and bewildered - while Mos Def is a cool Ford Prefect not given enough to do. (They ironed out Ford's occasional prickliness.) Marvin was bigger than I'd imagined him - in my mind, Marvin's about the size of R2D2 - but he was great. Big gripe about Zaphod Beeblebrox - I really wanted his two heads to be side-by-side, which would've been cooler anyway. And I always saw the Babelfish as a huge-ass fish that was flapping in the ear incongruously...
My main gripe would be that while it's "pleasant enough", "pleasant enough" is a far cry from the laugh-out-loud, rolling-on-the-floor-laughing nature of the books. There's a reason H2G2 references permeate the technical world - from "answer to life, the universe, and everything" on Google to Babelfish...
As usual, everyone headed for the exits once the credits appeared, but I figured there'd be more so I sat there and was rewarded by an amusing little bit on how Arthur's final words caused a major intergalactic spat.
That damned "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" song is ringing in my head now.
Not much to complain about the acting. Martin Freeman is perfect as Arthur Dent - a sort of reprise of his Tim role from "The Office", always somewhat bemused and bewildered - while Mos Def is a cool Ford Prefect not given enough to do. (They ironed out Ford's occasional prickliness.) Marvin was bigger than I'd imagined him - in my mind, Marvin's about the size of R2D2 - but he was great. Big gripe about Zaphod Beeblebrox - I really wanted his two heads to be side-by-side, which would've been cooler anyway. And I always saw the Babelfish as a huge-ass fish that was flapping in the ear incongruously...
My main gripe would be that while it's "pleasant enough", "pleasant enough" is a far cry from the laugh-out-loud, rolling-on-the-floor-laughing nature of the books. There's a reason H2G2 references permeate the technical world - from "answer to life, the universe, and everything" on Google to Babelfish...
As usual, everyone headed for the exits once the credits appeared, but I figured there'd be more so I sat there and was rewarded by an amusing little bit on how Arthur's final words caused a major intergalactic spat.
That damned "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" song is ringing in my head now.
Comments
was pleased to see that yours was at least measured and balanced
and personally, the Babelfish always looked like a bulbous eyed goldfish in my head =)
and yeah that song is turning into an earworm.