The movie only covers events in the first book, pretty much, but loses a lot of detail, and adds stuff. I'd in no way say having read or remembered the book is required.

Roger Ebert tells how he was going over this movie in a film class once, and I think it was one of the students came up with the theory that Sinatra was another Manchurian Candidate, and that Leigh was his handler. This might explain some of the chemistry and language used in this scene.

I think we all walked out of there discussing this possibility. And we were all quite impressed with everybody's performances. Again, I thought it was very good. It was just not really my cup of tea.

You should take Alibelle. She'd like that.

I actually would. I did say I liked it, I just said it was kind of dumb. But fun. And pretty dancing and pretty boys. I had no complaints.

And then, we;ll go see Groundhog Day!

That's just cruel.

My complaint is that all the characters lost their edge. In the book, Arthur Dent is a whiner; Zaphod is mean and completely wrapped up in himself; Ford is ruthless; and Trillian is snarky. Everybody in this movie is *nice*.

I have no idea how you make a movie half of whose audience have been reciting all the lines to each other for twenty years. The people behind me laughed all through the movie, but then again, they laughed at the fart jokes in the "Bad News Bears" trailer.

My husband and I agreed: "Mostly harmless."

On Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants -- my only worry about the casting is that the actresses playing the girls all seem too old for those roles. It's supposed to be the summer before they turn 16 (they all have birthdays in August or September), and at least one of them (Tibby, Amber Tamblyn's character) is mentioned in the book as looking young for her age. And the characters almost all seem to be a sort of young 15 -- like, most of them are just starting to date. The three actress who I've seen in anything before (Tamblyn, Bledel, and Ferrera) all could play 17 or 18, I think, but they just seem too old for these roles.

I thought Zaphod was at least as pricky in this as in the books. As mentioned before, Arthur is very much the entry point into the movie, so he's been altered thusly (the book doesn't need so much of an entry point, but I agree the movie does). Trillian -- hmmph. Already said that.

I thought Ford was more dismissively flip than the book Ford, so it didn't occur to me to think of him as watered down.

I thought the Bad News Bears trailer was funny, so take my post with a grain of salt.

Guess which trailer aired first today when I went to see H2G2?

Seeeerrrrrreeeennnnittttyyyy!

I bounced and mini-clapped all the way through it, grinning as wide as anyone is physically capable.

My friend J (the same friend I'd tried to get to watch Firefly when it aired and then tried to get to watch my dvds, to no avail) turned to me at the end of the trailer and said, "Okay, I need to borrow your Serenity dvds."

"Firefly."

"Whatever."

Yay!

Oh, H2G2? Definitely fun. Loved Mos Def and Sam Rockwell.

So if I only read the first book, and that only once a really long time ago, so I don't remember most of it, am I going to like H2G2?

Yes. I mean, assuming you're not one of the people that hates it anyway. I went with several people who hadn't read it. I lent out the books after the movie.

On Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants -- my only worry about the casting is that the actresses playing the girls all seem too old for those roles.

You're right, of course, but that's so common for movies based on YA novels that I just sort of accept it. Consider The Princess Diaries, where Mia is a high school senior instead of a freshmen (in the books, she just started her sophomore year in the sixth one). Or Tuck Everlasting where updating from the 12-year-old Winnie to the 16-year-old Winnie actually did kind of ruin the point of the novel in a lot of ways. In the original Ella Enchanted, too, Ella was about 14, not the 19 that is the youngest I can imagine Anne Hathaway playing.

(Shrug) I have other, much more worrisome worries about the movie, based on the trailer (specifically, I'm terrified that they're going to let Bridget get with Eric with no bad consequences, rather than make it scary and life-changing) so am perfectly willing to let the age change go. I mean, how old was Nick Brendon when he played a 15-year-old on Buffy?

I am soooo jealous of Nicole. We went hoping we would see the trailer, but no such luck.

One question about H2G2: why did Arthur steal Marvin's arm?

It was cute, I guess, but I was more meh than Yay on it.

To pretend it was a gun, I think, Perkins.

Was anyone else as enchanted as I by the visuals they chose for the infinite improbability drive in action ?