I'd not seen it until very recently, but I thought parts of it were quite entertaining.

Yeah, there were a number of things significantly altered from what was in the books (or the TV series, which I only vaguely remember, or the radio dramas, which I've only read bits of the first and none of the second) or omitted entirely, and then there was a bunch of other stuff which was never in any of them, that I can recall (Humma Kavula?! http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ilies/ermm.gif ) Aaand then, there was Marvin's appearance (which I thought was a case of poor judgement) and Zaphod's second head (which was several different kinds of disturbing and wrong) and there were probably some other things I'm not remembering right now.

Even considering all of that, I thought most of it could have believably fit in with what's in the books, somehow or other, and I thought it far from a complete waste of my time.

Go ahead, Valium; I brought my own cross and the nails are right over there. Yes, that's it -- the large mallet. Good! http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...s/thumbsup.gif

I loved Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin. There were some bits, though, that could have used more exposition. The background story for the paddles on Vogsphere would have explained a lot, plus they're the source of the joke about why the Vogons' noses are on their foreheads.

They definitely could have done with a few minutes more. Still, I give them an A+ for effort. Lots of little touches, like the red corded phone at the far end of the Magrathea showroom. And a lot of the changes, I think, were consistent with an honest desire to translate the book well to film. (In particular, the plot point about *ahem* Zaphod's signature was entirely in Adams's style. :D)

I hadn't considered Valium's assertion that it 'looks just like any other wacky British comedy' (I'm paraphrasing). He might have a point, I don't know.

Let me put it this way; on a scale of one to ten:

Radio h2g2: 7. I've read the scripts, and although there are some good bits, the radio-only stuff really had no business being on radio, and the plot DID have a tendency to spiral out of control.
Book h2g2: 9: Has the most gags, and it does hold itself together well.
TV h2g2: 10. For me, the perfect iteration, but only if you pay attention to the minutae that people can miss, particularly during Guide entries.
Movie h2g2: 6: Finally Trillian gets a decent plotline, but Zaphod is too wacky, and...and...they filmed the Mostly Harmless entry, but didn't stick it in! Come on, one minute more! One minute for a CRUCIAL bit of Hitchhiker lore! Oh, and the Nonexistence of God was too good to not put in! They should've chucked Humma Kavula, though. For being the "villain," he didn't get the proper introduction or explanation of his motivations.

My suspicion is that they didn't include the "Mostly harmless" bit because it would have gone against the theme of the movie. (By which I mean Arthur's little speech while in the "hot seat" near the end.)

It's just a suspicion, of course.

Huh? How are those connected?

To be honest, it feels more like Notting Hill to me. Which is why I think it was awful.

Well, while I thought that the new Marvin wasn't as good as TV Marvin, I thought that it was okay. At least they kept the triangle eyes. I suppose the real problem is that the head isn't supposed to droop like that (he's not supposed to be depressed), but I can't see how that robot body could do anything BUT droop the head.

You'll have to explain this Notting Hill thing to me, CV.

It's the stereotypical 'wacky British comedy!!!!!!!'.

They're unoriginal, and a rather tripey attempt to inject bland, middle-class British manners into their equally sappy 'boy-meets-girl' US counterparts.

About the only good part is right at the beginning in the bookshop with Dylan Moran.

Notting Hill is wacky? If you're arguing that it's bad that it follows every single B-romantic comedy cliche, well....

I certainly COULD argue that everything about ANY romantic comedy is cliche to some point or other. Consider a basic romantic comedy plot:

A. Introduce the guy and girl. They have some fundamental element that will automatically insert friction into a relationship, even though they're both adorable.
B. They meet cute.
C. Insert typical Three's Company misunderstanding here.
D. Insert well-meaning bungling from secondary characters here.
E. One overhears the other revealing how wonderful they are.
F. They confront the other with the inevitability of their relationship.
G. Glomping ensues.

Tweak it a little bit, and there you go. British, American, whatever.

Exactly. That is the primary problem with the Guide film.

The first time I saw the movie, I was transfixed by the girl playing Trillian.

Then I watched it again and realised she can't act.

Well, I'm not sure I meant that the cliched romantic comedy plot is a bad thing. After all, that's precisely why I prefer romantic comedies to Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. With megaepics you have to use too many brain cells keeping track of the characters, their motivations, how they got from point A to point B so fast, how does character C know about plot point D already, that sort of thing. Lord of the Rings is NOT escapism. The Princess Bride and other "true" classics ARE escapism.

Err, wonderful opinions, but that doesn't explain why the Guide should have a sappy romance in it. It doesn't need one. It doesn't need half the crap they shoe-horned into it, in fact.

*cough* Fenchurch *cough*

Does Fenchurch really count as sappy? Besides, DNA gave you every option to divert that particular plotline, didn't he?

Of course, given that Fenchurch disappeared because she was from a Plural Zone and Arthur didn't, even though he's undoubtedly made ten times the hyperspace jumps she did.

Not as sappy as watching thingy Deschanel fail to act.

Plus Fenchurch got naked.

Hey, Zooey did a fine job. She's supposed to be kooky, that's the whole point of the character. Trillian's got all sorts of issues related to her white knight complex, her being stuck in cubicle heck, being underappreciated for her intelligence, etc. etc.

Fenchurch...although I love the fact that the woman who finally figured out how the world could be made a good and happy place without nailing anyone to anything finally got a bigger share of the pie, she's almost a little TOO kooky. But that's what makes her perfect for Arthur. Besides, any reference to The Importance of Being Earnest, no matter how oblique, is okay in my book. :)

Eh?