I loved Trillian lounging around in her underwear, too, but what does Zaphod or the ship have to do with it?
I think my favorite new joke was “It won’t have any effect on me; I’m already a woman”, or possibly at the beginning, “They’re about to destroy my home!” “How did you find out?”. I seem to remember a good new joke from Slartibartfast, too, but I can’t remember what it was. The yarn sequence didn’t do much for me, or most of the audience in my showing.
And I though that Mos Def was absolutely perfect as Ford. Yes, of course he tries to fit in… Thing is, though, he’s just not very good at it. He probably thought that he was inconspicuous.
It was a point of view gun, essentially it made the person the gun was aimed at more sensitive to someone else’s feelings. Her “I’m already a woman” comment meant she was already sensitive and would not feel any effect. Later in the movie when Marvin aims the gun at the Vogons, the female Vice-President was in the group. She did disappear behind some Vogons when Marvin fired but since the gun managed to effect the entire field of Vogons it should have affected her too, but she showed no effects.
Ragiel, it wasn’t making fun of women, but of men. The gun lets you see things from another’s point of view. The point was that women already see things from others’ points of view, and it’s just us insensitive men who need the durned thing. As should have been clear from the explanation of the gun’s origin. Of course, it’s possible that Trillian would have gotten something out of being shot by Zaphod, but her line still did an admirable job of stopping him flat.
OK, that makes more sense, thank you Chronos. Don’t think it’s especially true, but it does fit in better.
I was so relieved when the writers found an excuse for Zaphod to park one of his heads! Unfortunately, he left behind the one with working brain cells in it.
No, the line dates back to the original radio series, and I believe it figures in most, if not all, subsequent versions.
As a fan from the earliest days who has partaken of every version except the record albums (but including the text-based computer game), I found the film a nearly perfect mix of old and new material. I was with one friend who had only seen the TV series and another who had no previous exposure, and we all enjoyed the movie.
An article in Boxoffice magazine explained that the things that hit people in the face on Vogsphere are called “slapsticks” (har!), but I have to admit that I didn’t get until I read the article that they explained why the Vogons are the way they are.
I also didn’t make a connection between Rockwell’s accent and GWB. But he did have a line that I thought was a direct jab at Bush, something along the lines of “You only need half a brain to be president.” Does anyone remember it better?
Finally, Ford offhandedly swears “Belgium” several times.
That was an amusing line. I read part of this thread before I saw it, so I did notice a little bit of GWB in Sam Rockwell’s Zaphod. He tried a some-what Texas accent sometimes which almost sounded dead on.
I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet, so I’d like to give a shout-out to the theme song. Loved some of the lines in it: “If I could have just one more thing; it would be a tasty fish” and especially “If I could have just one wish, it would be to able to sing” (both paraphrased from memory–you know which ones I mean).
IMO, a minor plot advantage of having Trillian (am I the only one who thought Author’s constant use of “Trish” was annoying?) be immune to the POV-gun is that it prevented Zaphod from zapping her and then getting them to bugger the whole thing and slack off for the rest of the movie.
I was afraid that’s exactly what I expected it to do, but then she avoided it by telling him it wouldn’t work.
And yes, rjung, I thought it was pretty clueless of Arthur to forget Trillian’s new name. It would have irritated me, but with all the activity going on she hardly had a chance to say anything about it.
FWIW I never thought this was a particularly funny joke from Adams. Maybe something bad happened to him there once or something?
At least some of my distaste for this joke comes from the Pythonesque way people seem to recycle it every two years or so, proudly, as though they had invented it, and as though it was funny in the first place. Bleh.
I quite like Belgium!
As someone who loved the radio show and the books, and the TV show a lot less, would you say it is a film worth seeing? Overall? I am struggling to decide…
I thought it was great. Certainly different from the first book in that it had a plot. But lots of the funniest stuff was maintained (I would have bet dollars to doughnuts that Oolon Collophid’s name would never be mentioned), and while the characters were all pretty different from the way I had them in my head, they all seemed to fit. Thumbs up.
FWIW, I saw it this weekend. Here’s my data point:
Big fan of the books, saw the mini-series, no exposure to radio, scripts, etc.
Liked it: 8 of 10. Characters were pretty much on, plot was good, the romantic part added-in didn’t detract from anything (and kind of necessary for a movie), and a lot of good lines were kept and done well. The song was a great and surprising addition.
After reading this thread, my only major complaint is dropping the “Mostly Harmless” bit. There were a few others that I would have liked, but a lot of good ones were kept.
I took a four year-old to it - he loved it, but the Vogons were a little scary for him at the beginning, but a little quiet reassuring and explaining why they are funny, and he loved the show. We couldn’t get him to talk about anything else since Friday.
Generally, I liked the movie. I was a little saddened by making the Deep Thought computer so public with hundreds of thousands watching the pronouncement. I love that in the books, the revelation of the ultimate answer was with the two “high priests” who had to go through the whole “what do we do now” moment. I was also disappointed with Zaphod’s portrayal. The Bush angle was cute, but in the books, Zaphod seems more insanely cunning than in the movie, where he was just insane.
In the original what? Radio series? Books? BBC TV series?
I don’t recall any specific mentions of Trillian being American. Can you tell me where to look?
In “Mostly Harmless”, there seem to be some clues that she’s British:
In that book, she (or at least her alternate universe self, Tricia McMillan) was IN New York near the beginning of the book. But she had travelled there looking for a career move and a better news anchor job, at a major network, since she was dissatisfied with the small time ones she’s been doing in Britain. There’s also a it of conversation with a woman named Gail Andrews, who says to her, “What’s that strange thing you British play?”
