CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
It's got some good people in it, it's well made, it lists lines directly from the book...but it's just not funny at all. They must have tried really hard to achieve this!
How did the Hitchhiker's Guide movie manage to be so unfunny?
- Thread starter CaptainWacky
- Start date
-
- Tags
- hitchhiker manage unfunny
The Tomtrek
Love Wookiee
They left in all the set-ups to the jokes, but took away all the punchlines.
For example, the Babel fish. The reason why you explain what the Babel Fish is and why it can excrete languages telepathicly is so you can go on to explain the non-existence of God.
The film says "this is the Babel Fish, it translates things", and then moves on. So there's no joke.
That plus doing very stupid things with the story, like going to a random planet to meet John Malkovitch so he can give them co-ordinates fore the infinite improbability drive, which basically renders the entire point of having an ui. The infinite improbablity drive, in story terms, is a way for the plot to get from point A to point B quickly and easily without needed waffle about how you get from point A to point B. You want to go to a long-lost panet that no one has been to for ages? Well the infinate improbably drive does it instantly, without them having to do needness storytelling of how they find a long-lost panet that no one has been to for ages. They just get there so the story can continue.
The film fucks this all up and we get a needless side-story about that planet and John Malkovitch and Zaphod's head (ZAPHOD HAS TWO HEADS. TWO. NEXT TO EACH OTHER. IF YOU'RE GOING TO TO HITCHHICKERS, YOU HAVE TO DO THAT. THE BBC SERIES DID IT FOR FUCKS SAKE).
AND by cutting out lot of the actual things you need to know to understand the story, a lot of the things go unnoticed. Zaphod (or was it Ford?) wears a towel over his head when going up to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall on the needless sidequest to rescue Trillian. WHY is he doing it? It's not explained in the film (of course in the books and radio series it's explained that the Ravenous Bugblatter Beat of Trall is so stupid that it thinks if you can't see it, it can't see you). So people who don't know the books miss the joke, and people who do know the books wonder why it's there at all.
I know every version is different.
I know Adams apparently worked on the script (although it was rewritten after he died of course).
But mostly the film entire missed the point of the books and radio series and TV series.
Oh and Mos Def was terrible as Ford.
Oh and the Restaurant at the end of the Universe is at the end OF TIME on OF SPACE you can't go the WRONG DIRECTION to it FUCK YOU FILM.
Oh and Simon Jones is Arthur Dent.
(sorry for the rant. I didn't like the film.)
For example, the Babel fish. The reason why you explain what the Babel Fish is and why it can excrete languages telepathicly is so you can go on to explain the non-existence of God.
The film says "this is the Babel Fish, it translates things", and then moves on. So there's no joke.
That plus doing very stupid things with the story, like going to a random planet to meet John Malkovitch so he can give them co-ordinates fore the infinite improbability drive, which basically renders the entire point of having an ui. The infinite improbablity drive, in story terms, is a way for the plot to get from point A to point B quickly and easily without needed waffle about how you get from point A to point B. You want to go to a long-lost panet that no one has been to for ages? Well the infinate improbably drive does it instantly, without them having to do needness storytelling of how they find a long-lost panet that no one has been to for ages. They just get there so the story can continue.
The film fucks this all up and we get a needless side-story about that planet and John Malkovitch and Zaphod's head (ZAPHOD HAS TWO HEADS. TWO. NEXT TO EACH OTHER. IF YOU'RE GOING TO TO HITCHHICKERS, YOU HAVE TO DO THAT. THE BBC SERIES DID IT FOR FUCKS SAKE).
AND by cutting out lot of the actual things you need to know to understand the story, a lot of the things go unnoticed. Zaphod (or was it Ford?) wears a towel over his head when going up to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall on the needless sidequest to rescue Trillian. WHY is he doing it? It's not explained in the film (of course in the books and radio series it's explained that the Ravenous Bugblatter Beat of Trall is so stupid that it thinks if you can't see it, it can't see you). So people who don't know the books miss the joke, and people who do know the books wonder why it's there at all.
I know every version is different.
I know Adams apparently worked on the script (although it was rewritten after he died of course).
But mostly the film entire missed the point of the books and radio series and TV series.
Oh and Mos Def was terrible as Ford.
Oh and the Restaurant at the end of the Universe is at the end OF TIME on OF SPACE you can't go the WRONG DIRECTION to it FUCK YOU FILM.
Oh and Simon Jones is Arthur Dent.
(sorry for the rant. I didn't like the film.)
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Ah, so that's how.
Ilyanna
moral imperfection
I hated that movie. I tried to be gracious and take into consideration that you just can't transform the awesomeness that is Douglas Adams' story-telling into a movie, but then again, as Tomtrek said - the BBC series did it ages ago and I laughed myself silly, so why not this one?? (I have read the first scene of book one about 30 times, and I still get hysterical with laughter when I read the argument between Arthur and the contractor, but when I saw the movie... nothing. Not even a smile.)
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
The only bit I like is the construction scene and that's for the effects.
The Tomtrek
Love Wookiee
The only part I liked was this bit:
[YOUTUBE]ikdFUcWluyU[/YOUTUBE]
Because of how it reminded me of the better TV series.
[YOUTUBE]ikdFUcWluyU[/YOUTUBE]
Because of how it reminded me of the better TV series.
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
It actually looks a lot like that awful Courier gizmo, actually.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
I bet Stephen Fry was all polite about it sucking even though he was friends with Douglas Adams. HE'S SUCH A GENTLE GIANT.
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
He probably sat through it throwing out creative obscenities. "Oh, by the four arses of hell this is utter piffle and flea shite!"
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Careful now.