It was fun. Also, cute.
I'm a big girl. Just tell me.
Inara ,'Objects In Space'
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
§ ita § - Apr 29, 2005 7:19:56 pm PDT #2345 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Frankenbuddha - Apr 29, 2005 7:32:18 pm PDT #2346 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Oh ita, you coy thing. That's your review? Sheesh.
Polter-Cow - Apr 29, 2005 7:55:56 pm PDT #2347 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Here, Frank, I have a longer review of H2G2.
§ ita § - Apr 29, 2005 8:00:35 pm PDT #2348 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I was on a mobile device. Bandwidth doesn't grow on trees, you know.
Admittedly, the divergence from the book was the weakest part, I felt. But it had me laughing out loud from the very beginning, and clapping at the end. Mos Def was brilliant, and Martin Freeman couldn't really have been more Everyman than he was. Stealth charismatic. I'm not much of a Sam Rockwell fan, but he was kinda born to be Zaphod. Zooey didn't do much for me either way -- Trillian was the most disappointing character. In the books, I was much more about her than about Dent. Not here. Dent is the only eye into the story.
Irritatingly, all the trailers were for kids movies, or simple comedies. It's almost fair to say this felt younger than the books too -- they do make time for a couple of digressions, but you don't get the same biting effect as the books can sustain.
Gris - Apr 29, 2005 10:27:46 pm PDT #2349 of 10002
Hey. New board.
I hear that it's a lot closer to the radio show than the book. Though I haven't heard the radio show because I'm a bad bad person.
I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also liked movie!Trillian, though she was definitely changed. I think the eyes might have sold me more than anything else. The best part was the opening sequence with the dolphins.
And now I'm off to download pictures of Zooey Deschanel or however you spell it...
Scrappy - Apr 29, 2005 10:55:34 pm PDT #2350 of 10002
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Also just got home. Really enjoyed it. Martin Freeman was perfect and Bill Nighy killed me with wonderfulness. Zoey did a terrific hoba nd what a lovely expressive face she has. The whole film was very well cast and much fun to watch.
Jessica - Apr 30, 2005 5:24:36 am PDT #2351 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Zooey didn't do much for me either way -- Trillian was the most disappointing character. In the books, I was much more about her than about Dent.
I always felt that Trillian was the least-developed character in the books/radio/tv series, and so I was impressed with Zooey for filling her out as much as she did. Of the four, she's the most divergent from other versions, but since she had less to work with than any of them, I thought she did a really good job. (Not sure I like this Trillian more than previous versions -- except for the TV series Trillian, who was just irritating -- but every time I've seen the film, I like her more. Which surprises me, because I'm not inherently a ZD fan.)
[eta:
Bill Nighy killed me with wonderfulness.
Oh god, he's so good in this. Just dead-on delivery of every line.]
§ ita § - Apr 30, 2005 5:33:40 am PDT #2352 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Given that they decided to give us a love story with Trillian in, I guess they did what they had to. But I adore book!Trillian. She was ... sharper.
Did you catch the TV!Marvin in the lineup at the Vogon office? Cute.
Oh, and I thought the expressiveness of the Vogon Prostetnic Jeltz was marvellous. I liked the character design -- it's amazing what careful nose placement can do for your ugliness.
Even though I've been harshing on Trill, she had my favourite original line: That won't work on me. I'm already a woman.
Jessica - Apr 30, 2005 5:56:46 am PDT #2353 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Did you catch the
Oh, you bet. Funny story about that -- when they found the original Marvin suit, they could only find the top half. Nobody has any idea where the pants ended up. The suit is also smaller than they were expecting, so TV!Marvin in the film is being played by a woman with no pants on.
That line's gotten the biggest laughs in both the screenings I've been to.
The Vogon design was terrific. Props to the producers for deciding to go Creature Shop instead of CGI. (Even the whale is a model.)
Polter-Cow - Apr 30, 2005 6:15:17 am PDT #2354 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Even though I've been harshing on Trill, she had my favourite original line:
That scene bugged me. While I really liked the execution, I felt it was a blatantly obtrusive method of letting the audience know everyone's feelings even though they were already nicely apparent in the subtext. Still, Trillian was great in it.
Another thing I loved was how often the towel was physically useful.
I don't know the composition of our audience and how many people unfamiliar with the source material were there, but everyone was laughing a whole lot, as a group. Never had that "I'm the only one who gets it" feeling.