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Hitchhiker's Movie is Bad, says Adams Biographer
Rollerbob writes "MJ Simpson, who has 'been studying and documenting the life and career of Douglas Adams for more than 20 years', has written a very in-depth review and plot analysis of the Hitchhiker's movie. As well as the full review that contains SPOILERS , he has also published a shortened spoiler-free version, as well as a list of things from the radio plays, records, books and TV series that have not been included in the movie. Hitchhiker's fans, prepare to be like Marvin ... very depressed."
"Really bad"
"vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad"
"bad on a big scale"
"bad on a small scale"
"staggeringly unfunny"
"unfunny, pointless crap"
"an abomination"
"amazingly, mindbogglingly awful"
"a terrible, terrible film"
(And that's from the short review)
Here is another review of the movie.
"One thing's for sure... Douglas Adams would be very proud. In the end, that's the greatest success that Robbie Stamp and Spyglass Entertainment and Jay Roach and Touchstone could have hoped for."
The first radio series is six half hour episodes - that's three hours.
The odd thing is, though, that here the screenwriter, Karey Kirkpatrick, discusses just those things that make Adams' writing Adams' writing, and it really seemed he got it.
[quote]In other words, from the audience's point of view, it matters not a jot whether Douglas Adams wrote any particular part of this movie; it only matters that it should sound like he wrote it.[/quote] The guy actually says this. No, it only matters if the FILM IS GOOD. I don't care if it sounds like him one whit.
-_-
http://imdb.com/name/nm0000416/ Terry Gilliam, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Where is that, West Midlands?
No, I think it was meant to be a radio drama originally. The books were adaptations that came later.
Now you'd think that adapting a radio program to a movie would be cake...just add visuals. Apparently that is not the case.
"Leave the strategizing to those of us with planet-sized brains." -Tycho
Gilliam was an *animator* on that show IIRC, not a scriptwriter (whatever he was credited with). The animations were surreal, but funny? I don't know. They weren't memorable to me, at least not in the same way the sketches were.
RTFA. The reviewer complains that lots of inferior material is inserted instead of the good jokes that are pulled out.
http://pqrt.org/index.php?idx=details&id=86ea1fb1a d86b71001d1b10a2a024803f02113a5
couple of things...
"wear gown"
"put all in thing"
"put thing in gown"
unlimited inventory.
and the guy's douglas adams' fucking biographer for christsakes. of course his review smacks of idolatry. i'd be amazed if it didn't so smack.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
The BBC found a way. You do know THHGTTG was more than a book, right?
"It is a detailed examination of the long-awaited film adaptation of a much-loved science-fiction book by an individual who knows the material, loves the material, and feels deeply that what made the story worth making into a movie has not been represented."
Eh... Heh. I've seen the people you're describing, and the problem is that they expect the movie to be a literal translation of the book. Nobody should ever ever EVER expect that, but they always do. Book to movie conversion is a very lossy process because of time, audience, and incompatible medium concerns.
This movie may or may not be good, but if you're looking to find out 'did they fuck up', I guarantee you will not enjoy that movie or any other that is made from a favorite book of yours. When a detail is different, the first assumption is that it's because they didn't get it. The possibility that the detail caused a significant problem and that the movie team agonized over it never gets considered. For example, when the trailer came out a few weeks ago, it showed Ford with a ring around his thumb for 'hitchhiking'. In the book, he was holding some sort of thumb shaped device. There was some actual bitching about this here on Slashdot. Nobody ever stopped and thought: "Well wait.. the dude has to 'hitchhike', right? People do this by raising their thumb. The audience may not get right away that he isn't actually holding a dildo."
I wish I could tell you that I'm above that, but I'm not. It bugs me, too. The best advice I can give when you watch book-to-movie movies is to not take it too seriously. They're not hurting the book, they're interpreting it in a lossy form. It's sort of like when they edit a movie like RoboCop for TV. In that case, at least, it's somewhat forgivable.
"Derp de derp."
There is a rather detailed self-interview with script writer Karey Kirkpatrick here: http:http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/movienews/in terview.html
It is not new but sheds some insight what was done to HHGG and why
No it wasn't a joke, and it happened about 6 months before "Bill & Teds Bogus Adventure" which as you probably know did star death and was very successful.
Pratchett has stated several times that there are 3 types of groups that want to buy the rights to his books:
1) Groups that would just sit on the rights and not use them
2) Groups that have no money but love the books!
3) Groups that have money but don't give a damn about the books.
And as far as he's concerned, he's got enough money thank you very much.
"We like your idea of chocolate chip ice cream, but we don't like these dark crunchy things in it."
Neil has also been through the same process as Adams (With Terry Prachett), and says he would ammend Adams' description thus:
"We like your idea of chocolate chip ice cream, but we see it as a bread type base, a tomato puree covered with cheese, pepperoni, maybe olives."
This is why Good Omens will not become a film (unless Terry Gilliam does it).
You have to know that the original person attached to the script was "Mr Ghostbusters" Ivan Reitman. Douglas Adams hated this choice, as he felt Reitman lacked any of the subtleties or wit necessary to do the film (see also Meatballs, Kindergarden Cop, and Evolution). But the studio refused to back down. However, while Douglas was under contractual obligation to deliver a script, the contract didn't specify when. So Douglas sat on it. and sat on it. and sat on it. and basically refused to finish it unless another person was attached to the project. I believe that is where it stood when he died... material he had started writing twenty years prior and had intentionally never finished got finished by someone else and squished into a movie.
If you're desperate for more of that genuine Douglas Adams wit, check out
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency,
The Long Dark Tea time of the Soul,
The Deeper Meaning of Liff, and
The Last Chance to See.
They're all very good, but The Last Chance to See has to be at the top of the list, if for no other reason than the idea of Mr. Hitchhiker's Guide getting paid to write a travelogue is so engaging, and the subject matter so brilliant. The Dirk Gently series is spot on as well. While the character archetypes are quite recognizable from the HHGTG, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Also, many people don't know this but the radio scripts diverge pretty far from the books, with entire planets and escapades not present in the texts. They're also worth a read. And the companion book to both gives insight and humor into the whole process, and is required reading for anyone who wants to understand what the heck went on. It includes little DA gems like a sketch about a veteran kamikazee pilot.
The HHGTG videogame also contains a wealth of amazing material not available elsewhere, though you will need to cheat like mad to get through it. Starship Titanic the book wasn't wirtten by DA, but the game was. The game, sadly, isn't very good, though if you're desperate it was better than this movie sounds like it will be. The Parrot in that game was also a gem.
The ______ Agenda
However, while Douglas was under contractual obligation to deliver a script, the contract didn't specify when. So Douglas sat on it. and sat on it. and sat on it. and basically refused to finish it unless another person was attached to the project. I believe that is where it stood when he died...
No, this is incorrect. What happened was Douglas eventually decided it was going nowhere and bought back the rights with his own money. After that he tried setting it up with Mike Nesmith before eventually teaming up with Spyglass Entertainment and Jay Roach. He spent the last few years of his life working on a new screenplay for the movie, and even moved to Santa Barbara to make working on the movie easier.
That's ok.
Curious. I checked this, and you're right - it is near the beginning of the second episode.
Er, the second episode of the second radio series, that is - it's in Fit the Eighth, where Zaphod is asking Roosta if there's any food, and Roosta offers him his towel.
No need - I just checked it from my rip of the CDs of the complete radio series, and checked in the Radio Scripts book.
The only thing I can think of is that you have an oddly edited version - I've not heard the 'LP' versions of Hitchhiker that were done, so maybe they changed stuff around in those..?
Or they've edited the radio series CDs, and then updated the radio scripts book to match it, which seems...improbable.