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i_c_weiner
DOOP Secretary
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Right on! I loved Napolean Dynamite! Great movie...though I've seen better.
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~FazeShift~
Moderator
DOOP Ubersecretary
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Man On FireMy brother rented the DVD, curiosity, laziness and gravity made me stay in my seat. Not surprising this was from Brian Helgeland (Payback and Assassins), classic revenge and redemption. Some annoying montages with quick-panning and zoom camera work (by Tony Scott) Denzel was ok as usual, but Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black, hott!) was better. Some nifty torture/death scenes, cheesy Gladiator-esque soundtrack (I'll bet my left nut Hans Zimmer scored it). C+
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davids
Starship Captain
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The Amityville Horror (2005)I don't like to compare re-makes to the original, and in this case I can't, as i've never seen the first version of the Amityville Horror. But what I can say is this is, without a doubt, the scariest film I have ever seen. The story is tense, if a little old fashioned, bleeding walls, indian graveyard in the basement The acting is better than avererage for this genre, and the effects are fantastic. I literally leapt out of my seat and shouted out loud several times. Highly recommended! A
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~FazeShift~
Moderator
DOOP Ubersecretary
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Then what were you the remake of?!? Oh zing, yesss.
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davids
Starship Captain
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« Reply #249 on: 04-18-2005 14:48 »
« Last Edit on: 04-18-2005 14:48 »
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Originally posted by homerjaysimpson: Remakes and rip off movies suck ass. I hardly never see them because I know they suck. What! That is often the view of these movies, but I could name you a load of great ones. Plus, this year looks to have a lot of new ones: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory War of the Worlds Bewiched
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SlackJawedMoron
Urban Legend
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I know you've all been waiting for it... and here it is... Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. First of all, it’s not a direct adaptation of the book/radio series. Deal. Second of all, here are the things that bugged me: 1.Read the book? Then you already know all the best jokes. 2.Unnecessary love story. 3.More Hollywood then it needed to be (there’s a happy ending, for Chrissakes! And not happy as in “at least we aren’t dead!”) 4.Zaphod alternates between pretty cool and highly annoying. Funnily enough, both these attributes disappear when his second head is removed. (The head is annoying, so it’s good, but he becomes highly docile and not at all flamboyant afterwards, so that’s bad). 5.Some scenes from the book just don’t work as well on film. (Like the Vogon poetry bit). 6.No God disappearing in a puff of logic. 7.Trillian’s American. Not a huge deal, but slightly off-putting. 8.Marvin’s more like ‘this is how Marvin is supposed to be’, and less ‘this is how Marvin is.’ Now, with that out of the way, understand this: it’s pretty good. There are new jokes, so that’s good. There’s lots of random weirdness, so rock on. The Jim Henson puppets totally own Lucas. The Doors and Eddy are as utterly horrifying as you could imagine (in a good way). Dent is… Dent. He’s a bit more heroic in this then he is in the book (it’s all on account of that love thing… gah). Zaphod is a bit like a cowboy pirate Fabio, with just a bit of Zapp thrown in. He’s going to annoy some people… but I just can’t hate someone who signs the decree for Earth’s demolition with “Love and Kisses, Zaphod.” Trillain is pretty much Trillian… but American. And she’s not always more-or-less on top of things like she often is in the books. Marvin? See above… but he’s still funny, sometimes. He won’t annoy you. Ford is okay. He’s responsible for one of my favourite new gags (in the airlock), but he’s mostly pretty much background. The Vogon’s look awesome. In fact, the film in general looks great. It’s definitely a worthy visual thing… and there’s just enough quirkiness in the scenery to make you smile. It’s a trip, and actually reminded me of Labyrinth, for some reason. Also, after answering the great question, Deep Thought now spends her (!) time watching evil Gumby. Neat. The Guide’s interludes are pretty much taken word-for-word from the book, plus, they’re usually accompanied by strange, art-deco style visuals. No complaints there… but the film seems to rush a bit, and it’s going to be highly confusing for some people, with a lot of random segue ways. Which is in the spirit of the book, I guess, but still… Overall verdict? If you’re a fan of the franchises’ other incarnations, you’ll not be too horrified. You’ll probably enjoy it. People who aren’t fans will probably enjoy it more, because they’ll be exposed to all the wonderful humour for the first time. Lucky bastards. B
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Otis P Jivefunk
DOOP Secretary
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Super Size Me
It was an interesting prospect, and a really entertaining one. Plenty of interesting facts and stats, and well presented. It made you think at the end, very good documentary...
B
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Mr. Potter
Professor
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I can't wait for Hitchhiker's. Usually when I can't wait for a movie, it turns out that it opens here three months later than the rest of the world. This is not the exception.
I also saw Hiroshima Mon Amour and Waiting for Guffman recently. Both are pretty great movies, with Guffman being hilarious, and Hiroshima being very interesting in a film essay sort of way.
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Melllvar
DOOP Secretary
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Hitchhikers...
I thought it was as near to the book as Hollywood is ever going to get, and therefore was pretty enjoyable. In fact, I loved it.
Martin Freeman was excellent as Dent, and say what you like about Trillian, Zooey Deschanel was adorable. However, it's Marvin when steals the movie, for me.
A
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jacoby
Delivery Boy
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Hitchhikers As a movie, I enjoyed it. I laughed and had a good time.
AS an adaptation, I had serious issues with it. To me it felt as thought the writers did not understand the humor of the book. I felt like someone had given the writers a copy of the book with all the funny bits circled, and they had just sort of blindly tried to put them in.
They refernce towels a lot, but never once explain why towels are important.
When talking to the wrecking crew, they tell him the plans were on display. The joke is that they were not at all on display, but thats not what makes it funny. The book says that they were in a basement with no lights and no stairs, locked in a filing cabinet in a bathroom with a sign saying 'beware of leapord' In the movie they leave it at, "They were in the basement" Why leave the joke in and skip the punchline?
Then theres the description of space. The book talks about how big space is saying "You may thing its a long way down the road to the chemist, but thats just peanuts to space." The movie has all the lines leading up to the joke, comparing space to something absurdly small, and then they just say Space is really big.
It was pretty funny in its own right though, and a lot of things did make it in, so I say
B-
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Juliet
DOOP Secretary
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I thought Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was really funny and it had me laughing. I love the dolphins part and the bit they went to church. I think Marvin and Martin Freeman are cute
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VelourFog
Space Pope
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Originally posted by davids: What! That is often the view of these movies, but I could name you a load of great ones. Plus, this year looks to have a lot of new ones: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- awesome War of the Worlds- suck Bewiched- suck and not to be a nerd or anything, but those are all more like "reimaginings" that straight remakes. War of the Worlds is now about a divorced dad and his adorable daughter (and possibly less adorable son that no one ever talks about). This sounds like "Signs 2," to me. And Johnny Depp is good in anything (plus they got rid of the singing in this version).
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CyberKnight
Urban Legend
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The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:First, some background. I'm a huge fan of the radio series, the books, the game, and Douglas Adams in general. This film is not the best adaptation of a beloved book out there, but neither is it the worst. It's fair to middling, IMHO. The main problem for me seemed to be that the film wasn't entirely sure whether it was targeted at newcomers or as an homage to the original story, and thus it didn't really succeed at either. First off; things which translated well to film: - The book. Oh yes. It managed to be 21st century while still retaining something of the original TV series' book style (easily the best thing about it). The POV entry in particular made me chuckle.
- The Vogons. We don't see a lot of them in the original books (I believe they turn up in HHGTTG and MH) so it was good to see an expansion of their culture (or lack thereof) onscreen. SJM's right, the poetry scene doesn't really work (for one thing, you don't get the "Poetry Appreciation Chair" joke!), although I thought it was very clever that the hitchhikers are tied to the blocks with what are essentially rubber bands. ;) There was a hint of Python towards the end with the towel, as well ("Run away!" ).
- The Heart of Gold, although strictly not as it should be, was a very well designed spacecraft and the IID animations were very cool. Although technically I thought the cockpit of the HoG was a protected area so the IID wouldn't affect it?
- Magrathea. That was awesome.
Some things that didn't translate so well: - The pacing. The sequencing of the story was jerked around a little too much for my liking (for instance, why did we need to see the party in Islington at all? It totally removed the joke of the telephone number from the survival in space joke.
- Trillian. While I admit Deschanel did an excellent job I just winced when she said Zee instead of Zed. It's Zed, dammit! ;) But again, this is largely down to me having the lines and inflections from the radio series ingrained in the neurons inside my head.
It also seemed like the main parts of the book (Magrathea, the destruction of the Earth) were sidelined to make way for the new material, which just didn't compare. Of course I wasn't expect nor did I want a direct translation of the books, but I was suprised by how little was left in. So, the rating. As a fan of the radio and TV series I'd give it a B-, but if I'd never seen either I'd be generous and bump that up to an A-. :)
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Bushmeister
Professor
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Napoleon Dynamite
I don't think I can say much that hasn't been already said in this thread but I thought that this film was excellent, one of those films where you can just sit down and lose yourself in the overall silliness.
I especially liked the dialogue between Kip and Napoleon:
"Just borrow some from the school nurse, I know she has like five sticks in the drawer." "I'm not gonna use her's, you sicko...urggh...idiot."
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~FazeShift~
Moderator
DOOP Ubersecretary
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"Two words: Question Mark" You mean this: ? You wasted valuable milliseconds on useless characters! Your Internet-fu is weak.
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