I’ve been avoiding reading this thread because I didn’t want any spoilers. So today I’ve only read part of the first page. I saw the film on Friday. I did take my DON’T PANIC towel, but my friend said, ‘Bellingham isn’t like that’ so I left it in the car.
Has anyone ever spent weeks traveling about with Let’s Go: Europe? I did. One of the things I noticed about the book was that it contained several inaccuracies (mostly concerning the location of hostels and their prices). I love Let’s Go. I read THGTTG on the long bus ride from Chicago to L.A. after returning to the States. The similarities were quite enjoyable.
I also have the BBC production on VHS around here somewhere.
I… liked the film. Sort of. Many of the jokes seemed to lack their punchlines. For example: Arthur in front of the bulldozer. Where’s the ‘Beware of the Leopard’ line? I was also waiting for ‘It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.’ ‘What’s wrong with that?’ ‘Ask a glass of water.’ And where was the proof that God doesn’t exist because no one but God could come up with something as amazingly useful as the babelfish? When Arthur saves the ship and Zaphod tells him what a great thing it was, and Arthur says, ‘Oh, it was nothing,’ and Zaphod tells him, ‘Oh, never mind then,’ didn’t happen in the film. And where was the big Tea Joke? ‘You mean you want leaves? Soaked in water? With milk? Out of a cow? I’ll have to think about that.’ That was a great bit in the book, and was important to the plot because it took all of Eddie’s resources to do it and that put the ship in danger. And so on. Really, there were too many instances of missed jokes in the film to list individually.
I didn’t care for Mos Def as Ford Prefect. He just didn’t fit my image of the character. I can’t put my finger on it, but he seemed to be lacking some bit of ‘Fordness’.
Deep Thought. IIRC from the books, Deep Thought had a deep, booming voice. Helen Mirren’s voice reminded me of Hattie McDaniel’s Holly in Red Dwarf. And I seem to remember the revelation of the Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything being drawn out more in the book. They did do the ‘You’re really not going to like it…’ bit, but I thought it played out a couple more beats in the book. Did the ‘Mice’ say ‘We’re going to be lynched’ in the film? If they did, I missed it.
I didn’t care for Marvin. Too cute. I pictured him as much taller. More gaunt. His big round head looked to ‘happy’. That’s funny, since he was so depressed; but it was just too cute. (FWIW, I didn’t care for the Marvin in the original film – who did make an appearance in this one – either.)
Zaphod didn’t do it for me. In the books he was an amoral cad. In this new film he was just an idiot. In the original film, Zaphod had an extra head next to his proper one. Sure, the famous BBC ‘production values’ showed, in that the second head was poorly done; but I liked it better.
And then there’s the ending. That didn’t happen until much later in the series. The ending totally ignored the Golgafrinchams, the cavemen, Arthur learning to fly, and everything else that happened in the meantime.
All in all it seemed as if the film tried to hit the high points, but stopped short of including the best bits in the high points. :smack:
Still… I liked it. Even with all of the flaws and (what I thought was) mis-casting, I liked it. I liked the original film better; but I still liked this one. Aside from the things I mentioned, it really did look better.
The chick playing Trillian was really cute. I’d definitely go to Madagascar with her! Not too skinny, pretty face, nice hair. Find her, and bring her to me!
I’ll find time to read the rest of the comments later, and maybe comment on them.
(It’s been a few years since the last time I read the series, so I don’t remember exactly where HG ended and Restaurant began.)