Adventures in Movies »
Not too terribly long ago, Denise and I went to see National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. A bit on the eccentric side, and amazing how quickly some of the clues came to them after the first one fell into place, but if you can stand Cage's quasi-serious expressions without laughing, it was all-in-all a good way to spend a buck on a movie.
Two nights ago, Denise and I again ventured out, this time to see Sahara with competing hunk Matthew McConaughey (Cage is so much easier to spell). While there wasn't quite the puzzle aspect to the movie, it was just more fun. The camraderie between McConaughey and co-star Steve Zahn was simply incredible and made for many great moments throughout. I hope there are more to come, as it seems that this might be a great buddy tag-team for future sequels. While a bit unbelievable in the physical feats towards the end, and the horrible aim of the bad guys, it was an enjoyable flick and also satisfying for a buck.
Last night I was on my own, so I checked out the new version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was bad. Really bad. You know in the book where it talks about the vastness of space and just how really massively huge it is? It's like that, but instead of "big", substitute "bad". It was horrible. While it started vaguely like the book, it quickly veered way off course into, well, somewhere. But it wasn't into a faithful reproduction, that's for sure.
Sam Rockwell was decent as Zaphod Beeblebrox, though the CGI for his second head and third arm (which strangely only made a single appearance) didn't sit quite right all the time. Martin Freeman was serviceable as Arthur Dent. Mos Def had moments as Ford Prefect, but really fell short quite regularly. He was just too stiff and not quite free-wheeling enough. I liked Zooey Deschanel as Trillian, though the whole romance with Arthur was way way overplayed. Bill Nighy was passable as Slartibartfast and Alan Rickman did justice to Marvin the Paranoid Android (or at least his voice did).
Upon further reflection, maybe it's not that the movie was bad. It just wasn't accurate. Generally I can separate film from book pretty easily and, perhaps I just know this one a little too closely. The best moment came on the Vogsphere where there was a cameo from Marvin that was in the PBS version from way back when. That was neat. The rest? Blech. Don't see it if you're a fan. If you aren't a fan? I'd probably still say don't see it.
Comments (2)
How can you say it's a bad movie when DOUGLAS ADAMS SPENT ALL HIS LIFE WORKING TOWARDS THE MOVIE AND HE WROTE OVER HALF THE SCREEN PLAY?? IF HE HAD NOT DIED HE WOULD HAVE WROTE IT ALL AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME!!!!!!!
IT WAS A FANTASTIC MOVIE AND I RECKON ALAN RICKMANS VOICE FITTED PERFECTLY FOR MARVIN AND THE ONLY PERSON THAT IS INFINETELY BAD IS YOU.
Posted by Trillian on July 22, 2005 3:29 AM
Well, uh, Trillian, I explained why I didn't like it. Pretty thoroughly, I think. You especially should be happy, as I said that I liked Zooey in the role. Incidentally, I also said that I thought that Alan Rickman did justice to Marvin - that means it's okay too.
I'm not real sure how Douglas Adams spent half his life writing half the screenplay, yet it would have been the same had he not died. I find that strangely lacking. The problem is that the radio show, the television show and, of course, the books, had a great humor to them. The movie didn't. I suspect this is because of the missing component - namely Mr. Adams.
Posted by Chad on July 22, 2005 8:01 AM