So long & thanks for all the physics

The guy who sits opposite me at work saw it last night and was not impressed (didn't laugh once - he said) But my feeling is HG2G was written for radio and worked well in that medium, was perfected in writing and simply can't work for TV. Because the humour as John says is not only interspersed with Science (albeit often spoof science) but uses it - for example the Trin Tragula quote I gave. What really makes it funny would probably need to be edited out of the film version. It also was very eighties. The Pan galactic GB in the Hitchikers guide is described in length. For each planet there is a list of where you can buy them , how well they are mixed and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate. That just isn't funny today. So it will probably remain just a "cult thing" forever!

What about re-working Casablanca directed by Michael Winner? You could have Sylvester Stallone in the role of Rick, 'Ov all ov de places in all ov de world - I coulda bin a contender!' And Whoopi Goldberg as the bint interest. 'Ahh ha he he yo ha!' Which is about the level of Whoopi's acting talent.

Casablanca, like The Third Man will never be messed with, thank god, as the rights are held by people who have stated categorically they will sue anyone who tries.

Why not remake Casablanca - it's not that good anyway. I'm from the 'let's do and see' brigade, I'm afraid, not the 'keep things the way they were' gang. A new Casablanca wouldn't change the original - and it would give you sooo much to moan about ;)

The Italian Job has recently been re-worked John... using Minis again too.

Yes. I saw it and heated it. It had little or nothing to do with the original version in my view.

I think we should rework the classics, it gives everyone a great excuse to bang on about how terrible the new version is...and of course, a new generation of fans will discover the original, which can't be bad. I really hate all this negative stuff, as writers we surely must try and think out of the box from time to time and be more open-minded and less critical. I've got an open mind about HItchhikers, but nothing can replace the thrill of reading the books for the first time and the radio series - it is hard to combine deep philosophy, humour, physics and comedy in such a sublime fashion on the page (which was done to genius perfection) nevermind trying to transfer it to the big screen. How can it replace the incredible vistas of our imagination? But it's British and from the first accounts, mildly funny, so I'm going to give it a chance. As for War of the Worlds, I'm trying my best to remain positive about this quintessentially English story, but as Speilberg is on a mission to subvert all the major stories into 'an American Tale' and as the new movie 'stars' the dullest actor in the history of acting, a certain Mr Cruise, I'm finding it hard to maintain my 'out of the box' outlook. lets just hope they don't start waving the American Flag at the end, after the invaders have been destroyed by 'pure American grit'. [%sig%]

I saw the new Italian Job, it was an okay movie - but there wasn't really enough about it to register anything as close to 'hate' as a previous reply mentioned- it was an ensemble peice that didn't work simply because the charcaters were not interesting enough, and the movie lacked 'heart'. The original had character and heart in bucketfuls. But hate? No, it was just another 3 star movie. However, the Bourne Identity and Conspiracy, which I felt was curiously close to the original Italian Job - gritty and a bit messy with tonnes of style - was a fantastic use of the medium, particularly for mainstream.

You may think it's 'not that good' but there are many who would argue with you. The 'do and see' brigade are so far responsible for the awful remakes of; The Thomas Crown Affair The Italian Job Psycho Get Carter Ocean's Eleven Planet Of The Apes The Ring nuff said!

Agreed KJ. An unfortunate miss use of the word 'hate'. From your responses, I can see you understand the point I was trying to make. And very eloquently you have expressed it to. Although I do feel that some Classics should be left as they are, in view of Spielberg treatment of late. In my view, much of the essence is lost in many of these modern variations. Its just my view.

Fans Split on 'Hitchhiker's Guide' Film Here's a link you might want to look at John: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=5&u=/ap/2...

Handy Hiker Trivia: 1. IBM’s named a chess-playing computer Deep Thought after the computer in the book that comes up with 42 as the answer to life, the universe and everything. 2. In the Microsoft Windows logo, there is a number of floating diamond shapes on the ‘flag’. In fact, there are 42 of them. 3. If you ask the Google search engine to search for “answer to life, the universe and everything”, then the Google calculator will return the answer 42. 4. All TIFF graphics files have a version number of 42. What ever changes to the format of the files the version has always been 42, and always will be 42. 5. In Mission Impossible 2, the ‘Chimera’ virus is produced and stored on floor 42 of the Biocyte building. 6. The ‘Autorory’ robot in the book Life, The Universe and Everything was named after an old friend of Douglas called Rory McGrath 7. In the movie The Matrix, when Neo shoots the lift cable so that he and Trinity can ride to the roof, they are on floor 42. 8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide was voted number four in the BBC’s survey of the favourite books in Britain. 9. The novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published in 1979, and has to date been published in over twenty languages. All together, Douglas Adams’ books have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. 10. Simon Jones, the original Arthur Dent in the radio and TV series makes a brief cameo appearance in the movie. 11. The Hitchhiker books form a trilogy in four parts.

With a little trepidation I watched this last night, and was a little surprised; I had wanted to hate it so badly, and just couldn't. The fellow who played Arthur Dent was uninspiring, as was the American no-mark for Zaphod, but everything else gelled quite well. I think the persons who don't laugh out loud are those who wouldn't have laughed at the TV series or the books. It's that kind of humour Adams reformed from Godard and the Marx Brothers, which in today's world would be called 'zany'. I agree with what Jude says about the books being a bit dated: kids today don't know the kind of gravitas then associated with rock music. Had Floyd wanted to play with their speakers on another planet, Rolling Stone would have paid for the necessary technology. Music, science and humour are all a bit overlooked today, hence not being very funny. Adams thrived on having his characters disappear from intergalactic liners and ended one of them (think it was Fish) with Dent looking at a matchbox and nothing else. You don't get away with that sort of absurdity in Airstrip One (sorry, Britain) now. Hardcore fans should look up the couple of computer games that Adams managed to get the funds together for in his lifetime; Starship Titanic on the PC and the somewhat older Bureaucracy in text format. Not for dummies, and it takes hours, but at any time you are required to fill in forms over the rest of your life you will find something to laugh at. Librarians and council officers will look at you in a funny way, or find you charming. x

Hitchhikers has always been evolving - from the radio series, to the book, the TV series and now the film. Adams worked long and hard to get the film made, writing new sequences and characters for it, and I'm sure he would have been very happy to have finally seen it on the screen. It is only a pity he died. This comparing of all the different versions is just silly. Enjoy what you enjoy and don't worry about the rest. Quite obviously the film is not the radio series but if you don't like the film the radio series will still exist. I loved the new radio series of Hitchhikers last year. And am greatly looking forward to the two news ones starting from 3rd May on Radio 4 and I have already preorded them on CD from the BBC website.

5 parts after Adams wrote "Mostly HArmless" after a good few years break...So it is a trilogy in 5 parts The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Restaurant at the end of the Universe Life the Universe and Everything So Long and thanks for all the fish Mostly Harmless

Adams in responsible for the evolved love story in the movie and a lot of the changes that 'the fans' will hate. As for Fry taking over that role - I'm in two minds.

Click on the 'Let the guide teach you link' and you can listen to Fry. Sounds brilliant to me. And the design is great. I'm going to see the film of Friday.

Fry *sigh*

I loved the books and the original radio play but I thought the original BBc tv version was poor. My favourite tale which still has me in fits is that of Trin Tragula... "Trin Tragula was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. She would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake. “Have some sense of proportion!” she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day. And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex, just to show her. Into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she haw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it. To Trin Tragula’s horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot have is a sense of proportion."

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster anyone? hic

The BBC series Marvin makes a cameo appearance as well, saw a preview screening last night, yes, bits missed out, bits added on, enjoyable non the less. Inspired vision of the Vogons and the poetry torture scene etc. [%sig%]

Casablanca was a great film for it's day but it doesn't have a modern voice, well at least I think so. For me, it's one of those films that everyone has said is a classic but which does very little for me. But it's okay that you love it - difference of opinion is fine, the fact that we both love movies and talk about them passionatly is where its at. In my opinion, thr Big Sleep is ten times better, utterly confusing and still relevant and very sexy, plus we have Lauren Bacall who oozed sexuality. Ingrid bergman didn't - sorry. Well, the ring remake was definately a good movie because it kick-started interest in the Japanese horror movie genre, which I have grown to love over the years - my favourite - 'Dark Water', slow, boring, repetitive, but in the end, fucking scary! The 'Hollywood version' of the Grudge is actually by the same Japanese director, and I think that is better than the original. But yes, the remakes you mention were not succesful, but they made a profit, which is all the movie house wants or cares about. Sad, I know, but true. Still, I try to remain positive about movies and there's a hell of a lot of great stuff out there. Mayeb we can start a favourite movie thread, that would be good idea surely? All the best LIZ

very insightful richard, thanks. I have resolved to see it now. I am a hardcore fan but understand why it will probably never become mainstream. on the subject of humour, Tom Sharpe (whose "wilt" books were the pinacle of pant wetting humour in the 80's) has released another Wilt book which is sitting at number 2 in the fiction charts. In Theory Wilt would be in his late sixties now, but Sharpe has recreated him in modern tiomes exactly as he was. Very clever!

I do like Casablanca and i think you've missed the point KJ. there are other qualites beyond sex appeal. Still, I do agree that some classic films are over-rated... Citizen Kane is supposed to be one of the greatest films of all time - all that fuss about a sledge :)

If ever a film begged to be remade, it is Birth of a Nation. They just reworked a couple of Howard Hughs silent films and I caught one the other night on television. Excellent job of restoring the old silent film The Mating Call and by-golly it was damn good to watch.

Howell. Suppose I may as well see it to. But I'm not going to like it! Jude. What did you think of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It's one of those books I which I had written.

havent seen it, sorry

Too busy making inane remarks here Lorraine?

Please MykEl, I was not just referring to sex in Casablanca!! I meant that the themes of personal sacrifice, duty and love - as expressed in Casablanca although now rather noble and archaic does little to move me. Bacall and Bogart in The Big Sleep, sizzle. There's no sex, but as an addendum to what is jokingly called 'the plot', it just adds to the style of the peice. The Big Lebowski was a remake of this, and that was a good movie but not as good as the original

Mykle just has to include on of his pet themes, eg sex, religion, politics. He's very limited you know. I watched the Big Sleep recently and it was just as dated as Casablanca. I don't know about The Big Lebowski but the accepted remake of The Big Sleep was actually called The Big Sleep, starring Robert Mitchum and set in London. It was much the same as the original, apart from the inclusion of a bare tit or two. Times change I guess and any remake worth it's salt HAS to include the obligatory nipple or two.

The Big Lebowski is also 'an accepted remake' of The Big Sleep. But the Farrel brothers, rather than just doing a straight remake, paid more of a homage to the theme of 'male at odds with the world and independent women in general' - the basic Film Noir theme - than the charcaters or plot. No-one has worked out what's going on in the Big Sleep, but it's great all the same. Just tho throw the cat amongst the pigeons for a moment - one of my favourite films is 'Conan The Barbarian'; does anybody else have any similarly 'unexpected' favourite movies?

Actually, I think it was the Cohen brothers who did the Big Lebowski. I loved it. I love anything by the Cohen brothers, for that matter. Especially the ones with John Turturro in 'em.

I'm not convinced that reworking actually dose lead a younger generation to have a look at the classics. I mean come on, having been grown up on a diet of effect driven movies, ps2's, etc. Would they really be inspired by any of the latter mentioned films? I'm convinced that these modern variations, 'in some cases', add very little to some of the classics.

I don't think re-works are ever as good as the original, really. I'm not a fan of 'classic' films anyway. I find the datedness too quaint to tolerate.

I liked the Big Sleep because of the words. I was glued to the telly doing the aural equivalent of squinting (bit deaf) So many films now are just explosions. And often actors don't seem to have any expressions. I saw a black and white Beauty and the Beast once. That was so magical, like frost on windows, it was French, silent. Does anyone know who it might have been by?

I saw the film last night and I loved it. The Vogons (designed by the Jim Henson workshop) stole the show. They were completely brilliant. I love the puppets Henson makes - and I don't understand why CGI is so widely used these days. The design of the guide was also brilliant - I would like to have seen more of it. I laughed out loud a number of times. My favourite bit being when during an infinite improbability drive trip the characters all turn into characters made of wool. It was a strange experience seeing it. Some of the script is exactly the same as the radio show, and other bits are new. I don't know that the subplot involving the point of view gun worked, and at other times it all felt rushed. Still, I thought it was great - imaginative and Adam's vision does come across - that the world is a beautiful place, it's just humanity's strange and perplexing oddities that are hard to comprehend. The scene where Slartibartfast takes Arthur to see the Earth Mark II is an awe-inspiring filmic moment. I didn't like Zaphod and his annoying head which kept popping up. It was annoying.