The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

[s1eve]

Saw it last night. Never read the book nor saw the BBC series.

Verdict: What a hoot!


Oh, don't forget to bring a towel.:lol

[bottomlesscup]

Can't wait.

Anybody else seen that horrific low-budget adaptation from a few years ago? Thank god this classic is getting the treatment it deserves.

[whistlelock]

do you mean the BBC version that came out in '84? I dunno what you're talkin' about 'cause that rocked.

[refriedwhiskey]

Yeah! It was great.

[bottomlesscup]

Perhaps I'll have to rent it again. It's been quite a few years since I've seen it, but I remember not liking it at all.

[boski62]

Never read the books; know they were a big phenom when they were first out...but based on the trailers, I'm predicting that this one is going to miss with the mass audience...

How much did it cost? Anyone know? It looks expensive--but it doesn't have any star power (casting mos def gives it a low-rent feel) to attract folks unfamiliar with the books and, frankly, IMO, the trailers don't have any real grabbers.

It's a sci-fi comedy. But neither the sci-fi nor the comedy glimpsed in the trailers has really hooked me.

I'm basing this prediction purely on my anecdotal response to the trailers. Now, presumably there's a big audience of folks (like with LOTR) who read and loved the books, so maybe they'll show in sufficient numbers to take the #1 slot this weekend.

But how much does a movie like this have to make to be considered successful?

The H'Wood Reporter is saying the perceived weekend battle for #1 is between HITCHHIKER and TRIPLE-X, and the winner will be determined on which one attracts the majority of the young male audience. If that's the case, I gotta go with TRIPLE-X hands down. I just can't see the 18-24 group coming out in droves for HITCHHIKER. They're too young to've experienced the heyday of the books' publishing phenom, and the trailers IMO don't give them anything to get really excited about.

On the other hand, I gotta believe the older demographic that loved the HITCHHIKER books will be out in large numbers to support the film, so we'll see if that can propel the movie to #1. I'm skeptical...

I'm assuming studio expectations are pretty high given the source material and the marketing campaign, but I'll be surprised if it breaks $100 mill domestic b.o. (And won't be surprised it if seriously fizzles...)

[A Pathetic Writer]

I'm with Boski. My wife has stated she'd rather watch Kung Fu Hustle than Hitchhikers...

HG2G just looks too weird in the trailer -- and for most Americans who aren't familiar with 70s and 80s British humor... It is.

Putting this in the "disappointing results" column.

[MacG]

I think it looks friggin' HYSTERICAL! Add to that Sam Rockwell...what's not to love?!

Sadly, though, I think it will have a hard time registering with auds. Most of them will choose XXX over Aurthur Dent.... :(

[Salazkin]

I haven't read the books, but I liked the trailer. I think it looks like it could be an exceptionally good film (though I agree that it very well may not resonate with mass audiences).

[kojled]

if you're a big fan, there is an audio production that plays on npr time to time that's a lot of fun

[RKBentley]

I haven't read the books in years and the last time I saw THGTTG was the BBC Mini in 1981.

I thought they did a good job with the movie, I'm not a diehard fan but I thought the nods to the mini were nice with the original Marvin Robot, the original Aurthur and the music too.

[phoenixwriting]

Haven't seen this yet (it's been a busy week) but I will. Oh, and the wife is similarly keen... but maybe that's because I've agreed to go see "In Good Company" with her. ;)

This may not break records in the US... but it will more than recoup its investment in the overseas market. There is a huge buzz for this film down here (in Oz) and elsewhere.


:D

[scojo]

According to Box Office Mojo, it beat XXX State of the Union on its first day at the US box office:


Friday Estimate:
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy $8,000,000
2. XXX: State of the Union $4,250,000
3. The Interpreter $4,140,000
4. The Amityville Horror (2005) $2,490,000
5. A Lot Like Love


www.boxofficemojo.com/


Could make over $20 million over its three day opening weekend. That would be mighty impressive for something that is rather 'eccentric English' in tone.


scojo

[boski62]

HITCHHIKER grabbed #1--by a great margin, too. Grossed almost 22 million. TRIPLE-X couldn't even knock out INTERPRETER in its second week.

So much for my analysis.

(At this point, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that a long time ago I predicted that TITANIC would bomb, seriously. After seeing the early trailers, I couldn't believe they were making another movie about the Titanic...no one's interested in a tragedy from 1912...yada, yada, yada...)

[scojo]

Yes, I got my box office prediction right.:D

scojo

[English Dave]

THGTTG No 1? yeahhhhh. My faith restored.

[MorganTS]

Maybe I was tired from staying up too light the night before... I fell asleep half way through, when the whale was falling from the sky.

[le kilt]

Morgan, Bill Bailey, who did the whale voice-over, does have a send-you-to-sleep kind of voice. But when I went to a Friday lunchtime screening, the whale moment got one of the biggest laughs from the thirty or so punters.

[A Pathetic Writer]

Any other movie snagged $20 mil with a big budget production cost and you'd be screaming how much of a failure it was.

Hypocrites.

[Skipmonster]

How can you say this movie has no star power? Alan Rickman? Sam Rockwell? That hack John Malkovich? Mos Def is great in this. As is Martin Freeman from "the Office" and Shaun of the Dead". I'm glad that it beat XXX (Which had 300 more screens btw)but am surprised. I saw it in KC in a 1/4 full theater. And you need the places like KC.

[blackrooster]

Any other movie snagged $20 mil with a big budget production cost and you'd be screaming how much of a failure it was.

Not sure what the budget was, but $20 million is respectable, although not fantastic, especially since it only has a cult following and is expected that much of the movie will probably come from overseas.

$20 million is especially good since the marketing for this movie was horrible.

But I think the big focus here is that it beat XXX.

[Bill Marquardt]

According to the credits, Douglas Adams, author of the books, wrote the screenplay, which means the project must have been sitting around for awhile since he passed away four years ago.

I thought the film a good effort at telling the basic story from the quadrilogy, but frankly I believe the old 3-hours-plus version from the BBC series was better. Too much was left out in this one, although a sequel is forecast at the end.

[Tipjar]

Coincidentally I read the whole Hitchhiker series two weeks ago. I got an all in one paperback release as a gift for a friend about two months ago, and soon I was itching to have and read my own copy. Compiled book includes "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", "Life, the Universe, and Everything", "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish", "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe", and "Mostly Harmless".

Saw the movie tonight and was saddened in many ways...but I found a cinema that has $7 tickets by accident(!) and got enough mild grins out of the experience to live with it.

I think this movie is only leading box office based on a catchy, intriguing, vaguely hip title. Nothing more. The premise is worth more than the final product.

The book was farcical and silly, but often brilliantly so. The movie has diced so much into so little that layer upon layer of cleverness is missed dearly. Don't get me wrong, there are not only some cute bits, but a couple of genuinely funny ones as well. I just don't know how first-timers can get satisfaction out of a story that has about as much continuity as a rock video in many places. Sorry.

Some personal bummers for me (minor SPOILERS):
Cheap flash animations in the most basic websafe HTML colors to depict the actual Guide's visuals put me off. Flat and awkward chemistry between Arthur and Trish McMillan (Trillian) onscreen, and romantic dynamics so childish I suffered watching. Many poor audio choices including punchlines so muddied they were incomprehensible and lost to the audience (I only caught them because I read the book, recently), and I think poor casting for many roles that were heavily voice dependent. Rickman(?), star that he is, was way too tepid as chronically depressed robot Marvin, for me. (And Marvin's design did not exude anything about his character. When I see oversights like that on projects with backing I cringe that more worthy professionals were not given a chance.) The voices playing the sighing ship doors were kinda weak, the onboard computer had the enthusiasm but not quite the voice. I'm sorry, it was all noticeable enough to stick out for me. And I didn't like the main offscreen narrator. A more stentorian or sardonic delivery could have made it richer, instead of what rang like story recitation at a children's library to my ear.

I want to say that the producers shoulda used a bigger babblefish on this project because the material deserved better, but the truth is the group of stories that comprised the (many versions of) the 'series' (in print, radio, and television) wandered all over the place, so it might have been an ambitious challenge for even the greatest talents.

Final verdict: Maybe worth theater money. Definitely worth renting after the 'new release' phase.

:-)

[RKBentley]

From what I've been reading around the net, this script and Watchmen were sharing a booth in Dev Hell for a long time.

I think the guys over at thedigitalbits.com hit the nail on the head saying THHGTTG started as a radio play then adapted into novels, then adapted into a BBC TV Mini Series, then adapte into a computer game and now a Full Length Movie. All of them are different from each other.

[kojled]

tipjar

does 'Cheap flash animations in the most basic websafe HTML colors' translate into 'bad effects'? heard ebert and whatshisname say that on the tube. is it true. do not believe it. an effects-driven movie with bad effects? ouch


zilla

[Hairy Lime]

Really enjoyed this. Funny and quirky and cute. Then again, I had pretty low epectations given the disappointing box office.

[Thomas H]

I didn't know what to expect with this film. All I knew was that is was some kind of quirky sci-fi movie. I really enjoyed it though. It was different in a good way. And now I have a crush on Zooey Daschenel. :D

[Hairy Lime]

I'd have a crush on Zooey if she could act, but she's the same damn character in everything even if that character is endearing.

[Thomas H]

Maybe she just took William Wallace's advice too close to heart.

"Just be yourselves"







IT'S MY ISLAND!!! :D

[whistlelock]

I really liked this movie. We took a friend to it, and he just stared at the screen with his mouth open the whole time. He'd never seen british comedy before.

And I thought the Guide graphics were perfect. Given that the Guide was supposed to be written by people who wandered into the office and started something that looked keen to them.