Like most things like it, it's appeal was exclusively to people who were already aware of it. Either the original BBC series of the novel continuations, the demand for it was coming from people who knew what it was and what it SHOULD look like.
So in Americanizing it by including Zoe Dechanel and having Sam Rockwell rework zaphod, and racebending Ford Prefect, it alienated the built in audience without actually attracting a new one. It had some good jokes, and some good scenes, but the universal opinion couldn't help but be "the books were better" simply because the books were so widely read by the audience the genre itself appeals to.
It is, in a way, the first woking of an old IP. Even before the political lines were drawn it didn't work.
I think every instance of Americanization pales in comparison to the conclusion being happy fricking Hollywood homosexualry. Just sucked the British spirit right out at the very end. Most of the actual content otherwise was pretty good, and I don't know if this is a hot take but I actually thought Mos Def was great. I felt like Zaphod was mostly just a dud in terms of design, too, with those stupid fricking heads. I'm sure a lot of people who loved the BBC show had problems with the casting in general, but I could never really get into that version. I usually like cheap, cheesy sci-fi but I kind of hated every decision they made for the show.
I think the truth is even if it released as a 1:1 adaptation of the book it still would have bombed; Americans generally are too culturally moronic to "get" it. Even for all its faults it's still better than most give it credit for.
>I actually thought Mos Def was great
Only because Mos Def is actually pretty good at what he does.
He wasn't a great Ford Prefect, he was just generically good. Ford Prefect was supposed to be this kind of Doctor Who meets shifty vagabond character, while Mos Def just kinda plays generic black comic relief.
The only actual good cast was Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, the stuffy Englishman on an involuntary adventure on a quest for a cup of tea. Mos Def did not play into that, Sam Rockwell did not play into that, Zoe Dechanel didn't even remotely play into that.
If you were going to cast it properly you'd have David Tenant as Ford, Matt Berry as Zaphod, and Billi Piper as the chick.
>Americans generally are too culturally moronic to "get" it.
It's not that, that's the product of a false understanding of who the audience is. Everyone talks about the audience as this other thing, but I'm the audience, you're the audience, we're the audience. The audience that was going to show up for it already knew what it was and anyone who didn't already know what it was wasn't interested. So whether you make a 1:1 adaptation or not, this nebulous concept of "culturally moronic Americans" was just never a factor.
Like all wokeshit it wasn't for the audience that was going to actually see it, it was for an audience that doesn't exist. And so it ultimately impressed no one.
I can agree with this. I liked the movie but enjoyed the books much more. Its kind of like Dune. Not very accurate but is its own thing. Zooey was is in her prime and all main cast were all ones i enjoy and they worked well together.
Did i mention i jerked it to Zooey a dozeb times?
>It is, in a way, the first woking of an old IP.
I always have an old book in the bathroom that I read a bit at a time as I shit.
Last one was Hitchhiker's Guide.
I gotta admit, I love it in high school but my reaction 20 years later was "more like Fedora Tipper's guide."
The movie was underwhelming.
You asked me so I'll answer: Page 5 for starters and it goes from there >Mr L Prosser was, as they say, only human. In other words he was a carbon-based bipedal life form descended from apes.
Now I'm not taking a side on the issue, but that's a drive-by meta-comment from the author about his bona-fides.
The humor is kind of dated, like Monty python, stuffy bureaucrat planning committees, and jokes about bad discos and science machines (the prospective vortex and deep thought) all seem sort of quint when those bureaucrats are now telling the police to stand down to let the mob loot and burn the community service stores, and science machines are being built to harvest Russian blood faster.
Where they tried to update the humor it failed. > and he wasn't right to play Ford Prefect against Martin Freemans Arthur Dent.
I hardly remember them but they had zero chemistry. I don’t blame them though, wernt they on green screens for most of the movie? The lighting in the movie was terriable, everything was glossy like a Unreal 1 texture and made the actors look like paper mache on top of them
If you watch the original BBC adaptation of the radio play (which preceded the books), it is dated, it looks like a Star Trek fanshow, but the principles of british humour were timeless. It's still funny, even if it isn't very cool.
The 2005 movie on the other hand lacked the humour. Arthur Dent is supposed to be the butt of a self-deprecating British joke, but instead he becomes the hero of the story who gets the girl in the end while Mos Def is the comic relief in the same style as Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys, or Chris Tucker in the Fifth Element. That's not a bad thing in the right context, but this was not that context and so the product as a whole suffered irreparably.
>I actually thought Mos Def was great
Only because Mos Def is actually pretty good at what he does.
He wasn't a great Ford Prefect, he was just generically good. Ford Prefect was supposed to be this kind of Doctor Who meets shifty vagabond character, while Mos Def just kinda plays generic black comic relief.
The only actual good cast was Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, the stuffy Englishman on an involuntary adventure on a quest for a cup of tea. Mos Def did not play into that, Sam Rockwell did not play into that, Zoe Dechanel didn't even remotely play into that.
If you were going to cast it properly you'd have David Tenant as Ford, Matt Berry as Zaphod, and Billi Piper as the chick.
>Americans generally are too culturally moronic to "get" it.
It's not that, that's the product of a false understanding of who the audience is. Everyone talks about the audience as this other thing, but I'm the audience, you're the audience, we're the audience. The audience that was going to show up for it already knew what it was and anyone who didn't already know what it was wasn't interested. So whether you make a 1:1 adaptation or not, this nebulous concept of "culturally moronic Americans" was just never a factor.
Like all wokeshit it wasn't for the audience that was going to actually see it, it was for an audience that doesn't exist. And so it ultimately impressed no one.
is for you too.
He wasn't a good Ford Prefect he was just good.
The people who get hurt most by the wokening are black actors, because not only are they not actually getting more roles, but the roles they are getting are the WRONG roles. Mos Def probably deserves a career as a comic actor in hollywood, or at least a more realistic shot, but despite stealing the show here he didn't get one did he?
No he did a great job and now he's off to irrelevancy because movies are a group effort, and he wasn't right to play Ford Prefect against Martin Freemans Arthur Dent.
Might be Akira I think
best movie I have seen in it's original run is Aquaman
Worst movie I have seen in a theatre was the hannah montana movie, I didn't realize it wasn't at all a comedy like the show was the brother character wasn't even in it or mentioned at all it was a pure drama for girls. I think some of the later seasons of the show were light on comedy too so maybe my expectations were thrown off by only seeing episodes a few seasons behind
I remember being excited for this when it first came out. Then I watched it and was too different from the books. The character changes, the way they did certain scenes, etc. Online the sentiment was pretty much the same, and it was already a niche movie with a small fanbase that were going to go see it.
>Then I watched it and was too different from the books. T
This is a pleb take. It was just bad
https://i.imgur.com/Y0TG5cl.jpg
How did it fail so hard?
It was bad, the humor is linked to the author, who was too old write prime jokes, a bit dated, it just wasn’t funny or wacky.
Le random nothing matters Becuase the universe is le ransomed and big sci fi shick Is hard to do well at the best of times.
The whole movie lacked any flavor. It was also over grossly visually.
Whole thing felt committe made from a bunch of mindless jerks at marketing division of the sirius cybernetics corporation.
It really lacked any real excitement or favor, to repeat myself. Truely a milatoast production
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks as I commute from being a wagie. Stephen Fry was great for a lot of the characters but I greatly prefer Martin Freeman’s livelier if less suave Zaphod. I’m going to listen to the radio plays once they’re available through my library.
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks as I commute from being a wagie. Stephen Fry was great for a lot of the characters but I greatly prefer Martin Freeman’s livelier if less suave Zaphod. I’m going to listen to the radio plays once they’re available through my library.
I will always say the BBC radio show is the best version.
Frankie and Benjy Mouse were the perfect masterminds, and even Slartibartfast is amazing.
The Vogon's voices... the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, the shoe planet, just everything.
british humor does not translate well. there are subtle attitudes and differences that can turn something funny into something cringy. alan rickman was perfect though.
Literally British "Star Wars". This movie is for 12-16yo kids (like "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter"), not for adults. Adults have "Solaris", "Kin-Dza-Dza" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".
I was at a party hanging out with Mos Def. Nobody else was dancing so I danced with Mos Def.
We did an awesome dance and had an awesome time. We started making out but then some pizza arrived. We ate the whole pizza and the entire time I never took off my really cool wig.
My two biggest gripes are just that some of my favorite lines in the book are from excerpts from the Guide, and also the extremely clever writing is mostly traded out for the more trendy awkward humor that was popular at the time similar to what you might see in The Office.
I watched the movie and loved it when I was a teen, then I read the books and loved them (well, not really the fourth and fifth) equally. I found out that my English teacher in highschool had used to include it on her curriculum and when I asked her why she didn't anymore she said kids simply did not understand the humor and just thought the book was weird. I never understood that until I read book reviews for Hitchhiker's online and holy shit American women in particular are moronic. It's practically a kid level book and shit really just flies right over their heads.
I don't really think it's an American vs British thing. I think it's a very specific taste in humor that mixes wackiness, irreverence, and a working general knowledge of sci-fi tropes.
Normies are boring.
Like most things like it, it's appeal was exclusively to people who were already aware of it. Either the original BBC series of the novel continuations, the demand for it was coming from people who knew what it was and what it SHOULD look like.
So in Americanizing it by including Zoe Dechanel and having Sam Rockwell rework zaphod, and racebending Ford Prefect, it alienated the built in audience without actually attracting a new one. It had some good jokes, and some good scenes, but the universal opinion couldn't help but be "the books were better" simply because the books were so widely read by the audience the genre itself appeals to.
It is, in a way, the first woking of an old IP. Even before the political lines were drawn it didn't work.
I think every instance of Americanization pales in comparison to the conclusion being happy fricking Hollywood homosexualry. Just sucked the British spirit right out at the very end. Most of the actual content otherwise was pretty good, and I don't know if this is a hot take but I actually thought Mos Def was great. I felt like Zaphod was mostly just a dud in terms of design, too, with those stupid fricking heads. I'm sure a lot of people who loved the BBC show had problems with the casting in general, but I could never really get into that version. I usually like cheap, cheesy sci-fi but I kind of hated every decision they made for the show.
I think the truth is even if it released as a 1:1 adaptation of the book it still would have bombed; Americans generally are too culturally moronic to "get" it. Even for all its faults it's still better than most give it credit for.
>I actually thought Mos Def was great
Only because Mos Def is actually pretty good at what he does.
He wasn't a great Ford Prefect, he was just generically good. Ford Prefect was supposed to be this kind of Doctor Who meets shifty vagabond character, while Mos Def just kinda plays generic black comic relief.
The only actual good cast was Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, the stuffy Englishman on an involuntary adventure on a quest for a cup of tea. Mos Def did not play into that, Sam Rockwell did not play into that, Zoe Dechanel didn't even remotely play into that.
If you were going to cast it properly you'd have David Tenant as Ford, Matt Berry as Zaphod, and Billi Piper as the chick.
>Americans generally are too culturally moronic to "get" it.
It's not that, that's the product of a false understanding of who the audience is. Everyone talks about the audience as this other thing, but I'm the audience, you're the audience, we're the audience. The audience that was going to show up for it already knew what it was and anyone who didn't already know what it was wasn't interested. So whether you make a 1:1 adaptation or not, this nebulous concept of "culturally moronic Americans" was just never a factor.
Like all wokeshit it wasn't for the audience that was going to actually see it, it was for an audience that doesn't exist. And so it ultimately impressed no one.
>Matt Berry as Zaphod
Thanks for ruining every possible adaptation besides this dream casting for me forever.
You're welcome.
I can agree with this. I liked the movie but enjoyed the books much more. Its kind of like Dune. Not very accurate but is its own thing. Zooey was is in her prime and all main cast were all ones i enjoy and they worked well together.
Did i mention i jerked it to Zooey a dozeb times?
>It is, in a way, the first woking of an old IP.
I always have an old book in the bathroom that I read a bit at a time as I shit.
Last one was Hitchhiker's Guide.
I gotta admit, I love it in high school but my reaction 20 years later was "more like Fedora Tipper's guide."
The movie was underwhelming.
>Fedora Tipper's guide
I don’t see that at all, in what way?
>I don’t see that at all
if you have to ask anon, im sorry, the soi has warped your very DNA, you're no longer a real man.
You asked me so I'll answer: Page 5 for starters and it goes from there
>Mr L Prosser was, as they say, only human. In other words he was a carbon-based bipedal life form descended from apes.
Now I'm not taking a side on the issue, but that's a drive-by meta-comment from the author about his bona-fides.
The humor is kind of dated, like Monty python, stuffy bureaucrat planning committees, and jokes about bad discos and science machines (the prospective vortex and deep thought) all seem sort of quint when those bureaucrats are now telling the police to stand down to let the mob loot and burn the community service stores, and science machines are being built to harvest Russian blood faster.
Where they tried to update the humor it failed.
> and he wasn't right to play Ford Prefect against Martin Freemans Arthur Dent.
I hardly remember them but they had zero chemistry. I don’t blame them though, wernt they on green screens for most of the movie? The lighting in the movie was terriable, everything was glossy like a Unreal 1 texture and made the actors look like paper mache on top of them
That's a 2023 take on a 2005 movie though.
If you watch the original BBC adaptation of the radio play (which preceded the books), it is dated, it looks like a Star Trek fanshow, but the principles of british humour were timeless. It's still funny, even if it isn't very cool.
The 2005 movie on the other hand lacked the humour. Arthur Dent is supposed to be the butt of a self-deprecating British joke, but instead he becomes the hero of the story who gets the girl in the end while Mos Def is the comic relief in the same style as Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys, or Chris Tucker in the Fifth Element. That's not a bad thing in the right context, but this was not that context and so the product as a whole suffered irreparably.
>racebending Ford Prefect
>find out A FRICKING RAPPER is going to play ford prefect
>oh boy.jpg
>he turns out to actually be a great entertaining actor
I was pleasently surprised.
this
is for you too.
He wasn't a good Ford Prefect he was just good.
The people who get hurt most by the wokening are black actors, because not only are they not actually getting more roles, but the roles they are getting are the WRONG roles. Mos Def probably deserves a career as a comic actor in hollywood, or at least a more realistic shot, but despite stealing the show here he didn't get one did he?
No he did a great job and now he's off to irrelevancy because movies are a group effort, and he wasn't right to play Ford Prefect against Martin Freemans Arthur Dent.
worst film i've ever seen in a theater
whats the best one youve seen
Avengers Endgame
The Last Jedi
jurassic park
Cuties
Might be Akira I think
best movie I have seen in it's original run is Aquaman
Worst movie I have seen in a theatre was the hannah montana movie, I didn't realize it wasn't at all a comedy like the show was the brother character wasn't even in it or mentioned at all it was a pure drama for girls. I think some of the later seasons of the show were light on comedy too so maybe my expectations were thrown off by only seeing episodes a few seasons behind
Barbie
Bros
Black Panther
jurassic park, matrix, and LOTR were all epic in the theater
For me, it's Trisha of the original BBC TV show
>Marvin, activate your massive metal wiener
>Here I am, wiener the size of a planet, and some slag from Islington is using me as a dildo.
This bbc mini series is all you needed.
Or the audio drama
I remember being excited for this when it first came out. Then I watched it and was too different from the books. The character changes, the way they did certain scenes, etc. Online the sentiment was pretty much the same, and it was already a niche movie with a small fanbase that were going to go see it.
>Then I watched it and was too different from the books. T
This is a pleb take. It was just bad
It was bad, the humor is linked to the author, who was too old write prime jokes, a bit dated, it just wasn’t funny or wacky.
Le random nothing matters Becuase the universe is le ransomed and big sci fi shick Is hard to do well at the best of times.
The whole movie lacked any flavor. It was also over grossly visually.
Whole thing felt committe made from a bunch of mindless jerks at marketing division of the sirius cybernetics corporation.
It really lacked any real excitement or favor, to repeat myself. Truely a milatoast production
>Baalbuddy poster preaching to anyone about what humor is
whoever this homosexual artist is puts more words into his porn than a left-wing meme
It's trash
It was alright, hard to get passionate about it either way. I did not understand the plot at all
The romance plot was awful and took up way too much focus.
That definitely felt like a studio note
>YOU HAVE TO HAVE A ROMANCE PLOT OR ELSE THE WAMAN WON'T WATCH IT!!!
>people reading the shitty books instead of listening to the godly og broadcasts
I want you filthy immigrants to leave.
>proud of being moronic
Bit gay innit m8
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks as I commute from being a wagie. Stephen Fry was great for a lot of the characters but I greatly prefer Martin Freeman’s livelier if less suave Zaphod. I’m going to listen to the radio plays once they’re available through my library.
I will always say the BBC radio show is the best version.
Frankie and Benjy Mouse were the perfect masterminds, and even Slartibartfast is amazing.
The Vogon's voices... the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, the shoe planet, just everything.
I fricking enjoyed it and saw it twice, or maybe even three times now. It is funny and innovative unlike most crap these days.
It wasn't good
Mos Def was playing a ginger character, they've been erasing carrot tops for decades
i liked it but the three leads were horribly miscast
zaphod was great though
british humor does not translate well. there are subtle attitudes and differences that can turn something funny into something cringy. alan rickman was perfect though.
There was very little british humor in the movie though.
from the very start it never lets up with bri'ish "humor"
i wish the guys from peep show were in this. super hans would make a great zaphod and mark can be arthur dent. jez can be ford
woulda nailed it
Test
Literally British "Star Wars". This movie is for 12-16yo kids (like "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter"), not for adults. Adults have "Solaris", "Kin-Dza-Dza" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".
No it's for college aged males. Get your hand off it.
I didn't like how Zaphod was a vindictive butthole in the movie, he didn't seem like that at all in the book
Mos Def was awful
Generally I like the movie but it's not something I can watch over and over
I never fully understood why Ford saved Arthur. Was it really just friendship?
Mix of friendship, pity, and wishing to save a bit of Earth because despite being bored by it most of the time he grew a bit sentimental.
The script simply wasn't very good.
Reddit: the movie
Normies don't like "weird" things. I mean, they're fricking normies. It's kind of in their name. They like normal stuff.
I was at a party hanging out with Mos Def. Nobody else was dancing so I danced with Mos Def.
We did an awesome dance and had an awesome time. We started making out but then some pizza arrived. We ate the whole pizza and the entire time I never took off my really cool wig.
My two biggest gripes are just that some of my favorite lines in the book are from excerpts from the Guide, and also the extremely clever writing is mostly traded out for the more trendy awkward humor that was popular at the time similar to what you might see in The Office.
>What if the guy with two heads.. had only one head?
Bravo Nolan
I watched the movie and loved it when I was a teen, then I read the books and loved them (well, not really the fourth and fifth) equally. I found out that my English teacher in highschool had used to include it on her curriculum and when I asked her why she didn't anymore she said kids simply did not understand the humor and just thought the book was weird. I never understood that until I read book reviews for Hitchhiker's online and holy shit American women in particular are moronic. It's practically a kid level book and shit really just flies right over their heads.
I don't really think it's an American vs British thing. I think it's a very specific taste in humor that mixes wackiness, irreverence, and a working general knowledge of sci-fi tropes.