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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"A fine example of when the brightest of ideas can still be fun time, even if not the best of films." --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- Aww; no movie tie-in game? Given the grandeur of the classic infocom adventure title of the same name; that's sad. Who can forget that cool "babel fish puzzle" which kept going on and on unless you knew its secret? We could've had this totally cool comedy RPG, or maybe a 3D accelerated version of the text adventure classic. Too bad that simply didn't happen. It would be cool if it did though. Sing along with the dolphins, why don't you? Here's the core lyrics of the "Thanks for all the fish" song, if anyone wishes to just sing along: So long, and thanks for all the fish. So sad that it should come to this. We tried to warn you all, but, oh dear. You may not share our intellect...Which might explain your disrespect...For all the natural wonders that grow around you So long, so long, and thanks for all the fish! [Yep; there's more:] The world's about to be destroyed. There's no point get-ting annoyed! Lie back and let the planet dissolve around you. Despite those nets and tuna feats, We thought most of you were sweet...Especially the tiny tots and your preg-nant women...! So long, so long, so long, so long, so long! So long, so long, so long, so long, so long! So long, so long, and thanks for all the fish!
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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
A Review by Techtite
As Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)! The Film: To be fair, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a perilous undertaking to translate from novel to film. To them, a film based on their most favorite of sci-fi novels should not be merely "funny," but perhaps even a bit bold, and maybe even...epic! Indeed; to please even one of these fans was a daring mission. Yet to be equally fair, someone already dared such a perilous undertaking --the Lord of the Rings film trilogy-- and the results were absolutely brilliant. It is no detriment to cinema when I say that this film, in comparison to that trilogy, is "pretty good." Then again, to make a film based on a popular novel and have it be merely "pretty good" is an outrage to some of the book's most avid fans. It's still pretty funny though, so why worry? Let's start at the beginning. The film opens with a narrative where Earth is doomed, and various alien species are trying to tell us so. We see these species as our "inferiors" on Earth and therefore, the warnings fall on deaf ears. The dolphins, for example, are jumping through hoops and such, not for our amusement, but as a sort of farewell message before jetting off to outer space: "Farewell, and thanks for all the fish!" This is in the spirit of the book, and given such a true to the book opening, one may hope for a finely made film. Then the dolphins begin to sing. Yes; sing. I can see what the filmmakers intended here; a salute to the classic days of Monty Python, like where Monty Python's "Quest for the Holy Grail" stops at Camelot and all the knights of the round table begin to dance. Yet that scene was most funny when King Arthur decided afterward, it's better if they do not stop at Camelot; it is a silly place. This film's "Farewell and Thanks for All the Fish" song is hardly teeth-gratingly bad. It is, however, a testament to how you'll react to this film, since it acts as "bookends" during the opening and closing credits. What follows in between is pretty much more of the same. Love the song; love the movie. Loathe the song, well...you get the idea, right? In its defense, the film rarely strays away from the original story. Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) has a new friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def). After saving Ford's life, Ford wishes to save Arthur's life in turn. See; Ford is actually an alien, and Earth is scheduled for demolition to make way for a new interstellar highway system. As the book/film title suggests, Ford and Arthur escape certain doom by "hitchhiking" from spaceship to spaceship across the galaxy. Who knows where they'll turn up next? In time, our heroes meet up with the Galaxy's eminent leader, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), who is seeking an answer to "THE Question" of the universe. Zaphod is joined by Trillian (played by the cute-as-a-button Zooey Deschanel), who is from Earth herself. In fact, as this film rewrites the tale, Trillian and Arthur deserve to be together, since they are true love. Why rewrite the story this way? Well, the easiest answer would probably be: "...because Trillian is played by Zooey Deschanel." It's not very important really, so let's just move on. Of course, this is a comedy, so one may be more interested in the humor. Here's a small sample. In one of many salutes to the book's classic mantra, "Don't panic," Ford and Arthur are thrown into an airlock by a nefarious alien, who's about to dump them into space. "Don't panic!" cries Ford. Arthur, ever the realist, insists they're doomed. "No...no," insists Ford, "What is this...?" Ford begins to play around with a flashy computer panel nearby, which in Star Trek would incredulously explain a stupefying, easily solved escape. "What is this? What is this!" insists Ford, pulling a lever. "Well...what is it?" insists Arthur. "This...is...nothing," sighs Ford, "Yep...we're gonna die." The resulting Monty Pythonesque comedy moment is very well played. The film also has some pretty spiffy FX. Among the most amusing sights is John Malkovich's as an alien who looks human from the waist up, if not for his entire lower torso: a millipede-like assortment of little golden robot legs. There are actually many possible reactions to this visual but boredom is not one of them. Yet no FX moment is as cool as the "unreality drive" of their spaceship. See; in order to bend time and space to get to planets in an instant, reality itself must be warped. This effect lasts for many seconds after warp travel, so there's no telling what the crew will look like for those seconds of alternate reality. In one scene, Ford and Arthur are a pair of futons ("I'm a sofa!" cries Ford; "I know how you feel!" jests Arthur). In another scene, the whole crew is a bunch of cloth puppets, as a space-sick Arthur throws up rainbow colored yarn. It loses a bit of its humor in its translation to text, but it's one of many funny visual gags. Yet shouldn't this be even funnier...? Bolder...? Epic...? That question will have to wait until the eminent sequel, which not unlike The Wrath of Khan, will hopefully have all the "kinks" out by then. The good news: Hitchhikers has been translated to the big screen. The bad news: it's not half bad. Then again; isn't that also the good news? Decide for yourself.
The DVD: I have to admit; these are cute extras in the spirit of the movie. Example: after enjoying the deleted scenes, be sure to enjoy what the DVD amusingly refers to as "fake deleted scenes." As you may have predicted: this is really a gag reel. However, it's rather amusing when referred to as "fake deleted scenes." Almost as funny is a supposed "additional hitchhiker's guide entry," offered only on the DVD. Topping off the list of funny extras is a sort of "hangman" style game, fully playable from your DVD player (no PC/DVD-ROM needed). That's all pretty funny, really. Not as funny would be the sing-along, which, sorry to say, was half of my gripe with this movie. I'd say the singing dolphins really polarized fans somewhat, and suffice to say, I'm of the camp that was squirming in my seat at the time. No need to debate this; some people found it hilarious! I'm just saying. Commentary is offered in two forms. The first is by the producer and the actors. The second commentary is by Executive Producer and Douglasd Adams' Colleague Sean Solle. That's about all there is, but overall I'd say it's a nice batch of extras for a film that, as I said before, was only flawed in that it wasn't as "classic" and unforgettable as it could have been, given the subject matter used.
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