The Yak Shack Forum

Well - I know we have discussed a little about this film before but I don't believe it had it's own thread previously.

Right - it's out on Friday so there's no prizes for guessing where Mark and I will be on Friday evening :D (yes we know it's C7 the next day so we won't stay for a drink or anything afterwards with the guys, we shall go straight to bed with a mug of Ovaltine).

Last weekend a UK newspaper had a DVD with 30 minutes of footage, behind the scenes action, and interviews with Arthur Dent (played by some guy who was in Love Actually - yep - Ginger hair you know the one) and Stephen Fry as the book - who acts sort of as a narator and sets the atmosphere and character to the whole film, and it certainly looks like the Brit actors are well cast - the president of the Universe and Ford Prefect are played by 2 Americans I don't know and I am not sure about those two yet - we shall have to see.

LOVE FILM has a A-Z  here:

http://www.lovefilm.com/static.php?tpl=newsletters_issue48





 ;D

You will have to report about what you thought of the movie :)

The previews look good to me but I would like somebody to tell me if it's any good before I decide to spend money to see it at the theatre  ;)

Yea I am looking forward to your review as well as it looks like a very weird movie.  I never read the book.  

:o

You must read the book(s)!

I don't think you will have to read it to understand the movie, but its a vary good read and I highly recommend it if you have a weird sennse of humour or are slightly disturbed (i.e. me). Douglas Adams was a genius. He also wrote a few other books which are well worth checking out such as the Dirk Gently books 8)

Even I've read the 4 books, including the 2 Dirk Gently ones, and I enjoyed them very much.
Ed you really must read them.  ;D

Thanks for the recommendations  Anna and Jo!   :)   I will check my library.

Is their just one book to this series or is their a bunch of books  ???

Can you tell me the titles or title of the book  or is it just called the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?   :-[

I have been a huge fan of the books for ages now and am enthraled to find out that they are finally bringign the story to the big screen.  However, I'm not really sure how they are going to convey the story, as most of the humor is mentioned in asides.  Regardless, this has been a long time coming...In my copy of 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide', Adams mentions in his introduction that, "The first book will soon be converted into a major motion picture."  Funny enough, he made this comment in 1983.....

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (1979) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (1980) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
Life, The Universe And Everything (1982) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) - Dirk Gently
The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul (1988) - Dirk Gently

Don't forget 'Mostly Harmless'! 8)

This is a short piece that follows after 'So long and thanks for all the fish'

Thanks FTY!  I didn't know about 'Mostly Harmless'.  I'll try and locate a copy of it. ;D


So I just did a search on Amazon and I discovered a brand new book due to be released April 29th:

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400045088/qid

One more to add to the list-

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe ( not sure of the year, but it was written in between So Long and Mostly Harmless).

It is just a short story, 12 or 13 pages, but still a nice part of the trilogy/quadrilogy/pentrilogy?

My housemate and I are going to see it in less than 2 hours time!

Mwahahahahahaha - I get to see it before any of you.... FOR ONCE! Usually we always have to wait for much longer :P

I can't wait ;D

Damn you! Damn you to Hades! You're probably in there now enjoying it! Well, we're going to see it this evening in 5 hours time, so at least I won't feel TOO cheated... :)

Just got back (from the cinema, not the Underworld, thanks Mark ::) )

A few words of advice: Book fans - pretend you have forgotten the storyline.

That is all. I loved it - my particular favourite (as in the books) was Marvin, voiced oh so perfectly by Alan Rickman. Pure Douglas Adams genius. Watch for the planet that is in the shape of his head 8)

Damnit we could have gone earlier if we hadn't had to wait for Sushant and Karen - ahh well - they'll have to buy me popcorn for this ;)

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (1979) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (1980) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
Life, The Universe And Everything (1982) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect
So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) - Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) - Dirk Gently
The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul (1988) - Dirk Gently


Thank you, I will have to get to a bookstore sometime soon and check them out  ;D

To be fair Jo  - the script was written by Douglas Adams you know  ::)

I know... but you have those perfectionists out there that were complaining already about stuffing 4 books into one movie :P

Erm... that was really just the first book Jo

You mean they are going to do more??? I was told that was the one and only movie and I thought to myself that they did not put much of any of the other 3 in it! :P

Well - I think they have had no assurance, but they said on the DVD documentary that they are crossing their fingers :)

The only thing was that our cinema was probably only about 1/4 full or less - which is not a good sign on preview night  :o

Ditto here - it was pretty quiet in my cinema as well. Mind you, it WAS 9:30 at night, but that is no excuse - When I went to see Troy they had 6 sessions on the opening day and the one I went to (last one) was still packed and there were people being turned away.

Spread the word people - we went to see it with people who had no prior knowledge of the books and thought it was fantastic - a real breath of fresh air.

Yeah I thought it was great too ;)

Seriously, though Jo it was just the first book (with a few omissions and a few additions, but nothing that I could remember from books 2-5)....

I hope they can make sequels but who will they get to write them? They won't compare to Douglas' own work that's almost certain...

Gee I hate to rain on everyone's parade but I thought the movie was terrible.   :P   My wife and I went to see it this afternoon at the first showing and very few people were there.  As I have said I never read the books so I went in with an open mind.

I was really wishing the movie would get better as it went on but unfortunately for us it did not.  There were a few cute moments but overall I was very disappointed.  

Now I saw the movie Sahara just last week and that movie is 5000% better than what I saw today.   That's just the way I feel about it.  

It's a pity you didn't like it Ed, but I guess its not everyone's cup of tea (if you'll excuse the pun)

Not Bucky Katt's either ;)
(http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/images/getfuzzy21464860050502.gif)

Good Morning FTY:

Yea I was sorry too.  I am not the only one though as most movie reviewers have given this movie thumbs down.  It did well at the box office initially because of dedicated fans of the books and people like me who were curious about the movie but I think there will be a big drop off now that the novelty has worn off and the poor reviews are in.  

Don't let the movie put you off the books - I think I would have thought the same thing with a few books had I seen their movie adaptations before reading the books :)

I agree that almost invariably the books are always better than the movie about them.   :)  As for Mark's hope that movie sequals will be forthcoming I think the jury is still out on that one.  I think in a large part it will depend on how much money the movie generates.  

My friend and I saw it today and both enjoyed it very much. It was funny and provided some good laughs. Sure it wasn't great but we liked it. And I love the dolphins and their song--we had it stuck in our heads for the rest of the day   ::)
Oh, and neither of us had read the book.

Definitely read the books. Even if you didn't like the movie, read the books. You'll see why it was quite such a challenge to convert it into a movie while keeping the tone, the irreverent humour and a coherent storyline intact!

There is no doubt that the books are better but that's to be expected ;)

i saw it last night.i thought it was good.the books are a million times better and seeing the whale did make me laugh too much for a cinema but over all i enjoyed it>

I have put the books on my "to read" list. But I won't be starting on that list until uni is done.
And yeah, I'm sure the books are much better. I'll post when I start/finish one.

As for box office, it unfortunately looks to have a huge drop from last weekend to this  :-\

I just saw on the previews to the movie "The Pacifier" that"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" will be released on DVD soon in the US... I will finally be able to see it  ;D The movie theatre were I live only kept it in for a week and I never got the chance to go when it was out >:()

I saw the DVD today, it was good but I think the TV series was better, except for Marvin loved Alan Rickman as Marvin. Did anyone who's seen the TV series spot the orginial Marvin? Also was it me or did the vice president look like Divina Mac Call ???

 :)  This was a great attempt at putting this movie on the big screen but it just did not do the series or the book justice. :( Hopefully the DVD will have extended the movie!  ^-^