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[AugustWest]

I rented Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and watched it tonight.

I knew better than to expect it to be good.  My expectations weren't high. 

But FUCK!  That was a foul insult to the memory of Douglas Adams. 

Normally I don't react this way to Hollywood dreck.  So it's bad.  So what.  But the egregious level of suckitude in that movie was just insulting.  Good lord, the story was adapted for radio, TV and novels without being butchered and hacked and the addition of cheesy love-story subplots.

I'm PISSED, I tell you, PISSED!

[CortJstr]

By what specifically? Besides the # of arms on Zaphod?

[Mr. Gary]

I just haven't watched it. I mean, I'm just not really interested.

Douglas Adams wrote some really amazing, bizarre plots, but his real strength was as a wordsmith. You can't film ships that hang in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. It just won't happen. Well, not without constant narration. The problem lies in the difference between mediums, I guess.

The butchering of the plot and splicing of dialogue is just insult to injury.

[jough]

I was just minorly disappointed, not really pissed.

I couldn't believe that it was worse than the TV series, although having said that I actually enjoyed the cheesy production values of the TV series, and the acting was really good.

Anyway, yeah.  Old news for me but a disappointment nonetheless.

[acoxcae]

I just watched it recently too - I think the key is that I approached it with the lowest possible expectations.  As long as the DVD didn't melt in the player and then the player explode and break my TV, I was determined to be happy.

Still, not that great - my least favorite thing ever is when they tack on cheesy love stories because they're marketable.  Also, wasn't the Heart of Gold supposed to look something like a sleek running shoe, not a big eye?  Not a major deal or anything, but, you know.

[slink]

I was just minorly disappointed, not really pissed.

I couldn't believe that it was worse than the TV series, although having said that I actually enjoyed the cheesy production values of the TV series, and the acting was really good.

Anyway, yeah.  Old news for me but a disappointment nonetheless.

Likewise, I kind of enjoy the TV series still. It's not a patch on the radio series or book of course but...
The movie did, well... I can't say disappoint, as I wasn't expecting that much. I knew Rockwell was going to play Zaphod over the top. I knew there was no way Mos Def could work as Ford. I think it's just thr wrong time to try to make it. Maybe if they'd tried twenty years ago it would have turned out to be a better movie, despite the awful special effects it would have had.

*shrug*

[wombat]

I saw this only a month or so ago but it made so little impression I don't even remember the cheesy love story.  Was this the movie where Zaphod Beeblebrox should have had two heads and didn't? And Slartibartfast was pretty OK?  That's about all I'm left with.

[AugustWest]

I agree with pretty much everything said.

I entered this with very low expectations and was (obviously) still disappointed.

Slartibardfast was pretty good.

I liked the TV series.  Sure the production values were bad, but that kind of fit with the spirit of the piece.  Note to movie-makers (and video-game makers too) -- Slicker does not always equal better.

The grafted on love story was abominable, as was the trip to the Vogon planet to save Trillian.

Also, the way that Adams-isms were randomly sprinkled in without relation to the story or coherence.

I dunno, I'm feeling better today but I'm still left with the distinct impression that the movie was something DNA would have been more likely to make fun of rather than embrace.

[Drygioni]

The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy was the first movie I ever fell asleep in the cinema watching, and I have had to endure Pokemon, Digimon and many chick flicks. I guess that says a lot about how good it was for me.

[AlohaDawg]

The best thing about this movie is that, in moments of consternation, my six year old would run around the house yelling "Humma Kavula! Humma Kavula! Humma Kavula!"

[AugustWest]

That's another thing.  They introduced a new, completely useless character.   There were already dozens of pre-existing completely useless characters they could have used, but NOOOOOO.

[Golfhaus]

Huh. What do you know. I rather, uh, liked it.

Went out and bought it, in fact. It's sitting in my computer's DVD drive.

[V-Adore]

I'm also on the side of "not really interested, because I don't think DNA's work translates well to film." The reviews I heard were extremely mixed, and it seems the same way in the thread; right now my life is in a continual state of emergency, so this one can wait for a few years, I think.

[side_show]

You know, when I heard the movie was coming out, I finally sat down and read the entire series before I would see a movie that could possibly ruin the books for me. The plan was to read the books and have them fresh in my mind when I went to see the film.  I have to say, as I read, I became less and less interested in even seeing the movie, and by the time it came out, I was already done the first three books, and I really didn't want to see it at all anymore.  Now, I just don't care.  I'm so blah about it.  I toy with the idea of renting it, but I know that it would be impossible to be anything but critical about it now...

Also, I finally did see Sideways, and I was "meh" about it too.  Meh.

[lprkn]

Also, I finally did see Sideways, and I was "meh" about it too.  Meh.

You are so right. And I could have done without (spoiler warning) Thomas Hayden Church's ass.