I'm watching Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy on Starz

[Orangepeel]

man, what a way to ruin a book!

It's like a car wreck that I can't take my eyes off because I can't believe it. I wonder if it would be marginally less bad if I'd never read the book.

[realisticphish]

1. indeed

i knew it would suck (compared to the books) when I went to see it, so i tried to view it as an entirely seperate entity... but i couldn't

-Arthur was a douchebag, instead of a quiet, confused guy
-Trillian was irritatingly outgoing (instead of the quiet physicist)
-WHY DID THERE HAVE TO BE A LOVE INTEREST
-What's up with the human lady with the Vogans? Who the hell is she?
-The Point-Of-View gun? Wow.
-The wierd ass guy on the little spider machine thing? Again, who the hell is he?

I will say, the rest of the casting was ok (except that having Ford have an American accent kind of missed the point). And the scene where they're looking at the new earth being constructed is ok.

[Orangepeel]

6. I gave up about 1/2 hour into it (although it seemed like years)

yeesh it was bad

[951-Riverside]

2. "Mos Def" aka (Dante Terrell Smith) really annoyed me

the guy can't act.

[El Fuego]

3. I used to think it was tragic Douglas Adams died

before the movie was made. But after seeing it, I decided it was probably for the best that he never had to know what a disaster it was.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

8. Actually, Douglass had more to do with this movie...

than he did the bbc stuff. He died before it was finished, but from what his family said about it, he was very proud of the movie. And it's not the book, it's a movie. You have to look at them both from different places.
Duckie

[Orangepeel]

13. I tried to keep them separate

but it was awful either way

[YellowRubberDuckie]

14. Well, I loved it...

We own it and have watched it several times. I'm sad you didn't like it, but oh well.
Duckie

[El Fuego]

15. No, he had EVERYTHING to do with the BBC productions

and not much to do with the movie.

It was a BBC radio show first, which Adams wrote almost entirely. The books were based on the radio show, and the BBC TV production was mostly written by Adams. The TV show followed the narative of the books almost verbatim.

Adams started writing a movie script for Hitchhiker's in 1980. Disney bought the rights in 1998. But Adams died in 2001 before the project got off the ground.

Adams'movie screenplay was eventually entirely re-written by Karey Kirkpatrick (author of "Chicken Run") and Garth Jennings. And the train wreck of a movie was released in 2005.

I bet the re-write was responsible for the disastrous and altogether nauseating plot line where Trillian becomes Arthur Dent's love interest. I know Adams would have HATED that.
:puke:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. Haven't seen it but I loved the book

Too bad it's so bad...I likened making a movie of this book to making a movie of Breakfast of Champions, and that movie didn't turn out half bad...Willis does well with the surreal though

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. There are movie snobs here...

I usually like most movies most people here at DU think suck. So don't completely overlook the movie. It's actually very funny.
Duckie

[NewJeffCT]

5. Never saw the movie...

But, there are so many things from the book that just wouldn't translate to the screen that I don't think even the best of screenwriters & directors could do it justice.

[YankeyMCC]

7. I liked it

every incarnation has been different as Adam's himself has admitted. I would not say it was perfectly in the spirit of the books but it was close enough for me to enjoy. Adams was involved with the writing and development of the movie and I think it shows.

I would agree that the love interest angle was the thing was annoying to fans of the books and other earlier incarnations. I understand it's inevitable they have to find a way to insert a love story but unfortunately in this case I think that is at the core of all the deviations of spirit between the movie and the books (which is the incarnation I'm most familiar with having only seen a little of the TV show and never heard the radio plays).

I wasn't completely satisfied with Mod Def's portrayal of Ford either, but I don't know if that's anything to do with acting skill or just a different image of the character in my mind.

But overall I still enjoyed the movie and feel it was a very good effort to present a similar kind and style of story found in the books in a movie format.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

10. I liked it too.

Enjoyed it very much, but I'm a huge fan of both Martin Freeman (Arthur) and Bill Nighy (Slarty Bartfast).
Duckie

[azmouse]

11. Loved the book, hated the movie.

[Burma Jones]

12. Liked the Movie, Liked the Book, liked the TV series

haven't heard all of the Radio Series.

Anyone that could write something that works in four different media deserves to, well, live a lot longer than he did.