The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
 

This is about Travel. (<i> for those who keep up with these things)</i>
It was written by an Englishman, BBC aired the shows all over the world ( well, most of it) and it is about Space Travel!
Does anyone remember this show on television? Remember Slartibartfast?? lol
Is anyone going to see the movie?
The New York Times review is very good. I want to see it and be transported back to those days~
How about you? :)

I went to see this movie tonight as a &quot;preview&quot;. I walked out after about 1 hour. Maybe it just wasn't my kind of movie but I thought it was terrible. I can't remember the last time I walked out on a movie!

There was very little about the travel thru the galaxies. I was very disappointed!

No! what a bummer :)
I haven't walked out of a movie since Catch 22 a looong time ago LOL

Yes I remember it on the BBC, it actually started out as a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 and I think that was really the best medium as your imagination is usually better than any 'special effects' the film makers can do. Not sure if I will see the film when it opens here as films that are spin off's of popular TV series are rarely as good as the original. You only have to think of the Dr Who, (new series is great IMHO), and the film that was a spin off, pale immitation of the real thing.

You either appreciate Douglas Adams sense of humour - or you don't. I can imagine those who expect straight science fiction would be perplexed and disapointed. I've read all his books and seen the original TV series. I will go to see the film but hope it hasn't been given too much of a Hollywood makeover, as this would not suit his quirky humour. For the initiated - the answer is 42 lol ;)

And don't forget to take a towel.

I'd forgotton about the towel! I would imagine it's mostly harmless - so long and thanks for all the fish....

It was so long ago that we saw it on television but I remember we all laughed. Of course, we (my husband especially) have the sense of humor where it takes little to crack us up and British humor usually does that :D

I'd recommend you read the books, Scarlett, ideal light holiday reading. There are 5 books in the Hitchhiker trilogy and his Dirk Gently books are hilarious too. It's a great shame that Douglas Adams met such an untimely end.

I have re-read the lot ( trilogy in 4 parts ) and find it amazing! Although he denied there was any serious meaning, it does come out with some sheer classics about Life, the Univserse and Everything! Planet earth being an experiment, sounds about right, and it throws to pieces anyone's idea of the size of possible alien ships when it tells you about a vastly huge fleet of space warships on a deadly mission and then relates how a little dog yawned and swallowed the whole lot!
Amazing reading!!

I know of the book but have never read it...what is the basic synopsis ? Is it just characters out in space or one main person planet hopping ? I have no clue...sounds from the reviews I have read I may want to read the book(s) to get a better experience than just seeing the film ?

James - there were 5 in the &quot;trilogy&quot;

-Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
-Restaurant at the end of the universe
-so long and thanks for all the fish
-Life, the universe and erverything
-Mostly harmless

2 Dirk Gently books:

-Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency
-Long, Dark, teatime of the soul

and the &quot;Salmon of Doubt&quot;, short stories and articles published after his death.

All well worth reading :)

It's not about space travel.

Douglas Adams is a satirist, and his works aren't really &quot;about&quot; anything, so any synopsis would be misleading at a minimum, and probably, in the final analysis, meaningless. His books are a commentary on human foibles, but the fantastic backdrop of other worlds he uses to display them are incidental. There are literary parallels to <u>Catch-22</u>.

Think <i>Gulliver's Intergalactic Travels</i> and you'll be fairly close.

Wednesday - it all starts when the earth is about to be demolished to make way for a super-space highway. Arthur Dent, a very ordinary guy finds out that his friend Ford Prefect is an alien and they decide to hitch-hike on a passing spacecraft, using &quot;the guide&quot;, which is an electronic guide to the Universe....

You just have to read them....

I used to listen to the radio show. I can still hear Marvin saying &quot;I have this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side&quot;. boy, that was a long time ago. I barely remember anything else. Looking forward to seeing the movie.

Best travel advice ever came from this book: Don't Panic, and don't forget to bring your towel!

and I'm still bitter that when I broke up with my boyfriend many, many years ago, he took my autographed copy of &quot;So Long and thanks for all the Fish&quot;

The H2G2 books are actually spin-offs from the radio show.

Like Jan G, I can't imagine the film will hold a candle to the original programmes. Just track down a decent bookshop and buy the BBC talking book of the series.

Nothing will ever match Peter Jones' wonderful role as the narrator. And you don't even need to buy the audio books. Huge chunks are downloadable - thanks to the generosity of us taxpayers - at from www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers.

The TV series is available on DVD at Amazon.

Anybody who hasn't read the Hitchhiker pentology is missing a great deal in life. I personally didn't think the Dirk Gently books were as good as the Hitchhiker. My favourite gadget in the entire series? The Infinite Improbability Drive, any day!

So , we are going to be taking a trip by car this summer, across the country. Most likely 4 days. Would you get the books on CD so we can laugh our way across the US?

I finally found Dirk Gently at my local bookstore. Soon, I will have finished reading ALL of Douglas Adams' novels. And I feel that makes me a better person than I was before.

I read in the paper this morning that there is a line of Hitchiker towels for sale. Anyone know where I can get one? (I'd pay $42 for one embroidered with the words, &quot;DON'T PANIC&quot;).

RIP, DNA.

Go to Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/
and hear an audio trailer of The Quandary Phase of Hitchhiker which begins on Tuesday 3 May.
You'll be able to hear it over the Internet

My understanding is that the film script was written by Adams himself quite some time before he died so hopefully not too Hollywood-ised, no. (Haven't seen it myself yet so can't comment).

Can I also recommend Last Chance To See, a collaborative effort between Douglas Adams and zoologist/ conservationist Mark Carwardine. It is about the rather serious and slightly depressing topic of endangered species, their conservation, the likelihood of their survival and such forth BUT it is all written in Adam's inimitably humourous style and is a great read.

Then again I'm very interested in conservation issues already so....

The review in this morning's local paper was very good 3 stars (out of 4 from a VERY picky reviewer).

And in a seperate &quot;Family Viewing&quot; section Jane Horwitz calls it &quot;Deliciously funny, imaginative, sometimes poignant, refreshingly hand-made looking . . . .&quot;

Can't wait to see it.

Maybe seuesnothome just wasn't in the right frame of mind (or maybe isn't familair with Douglas Adams)

Hi Scarlett, do you think Pup will enjoy these CD books? Just wondering, LOL. We don't want him to be irritated or bored. Take care.

I find Pup gets most irritated and bored when those guys are yelling on CNBC LOL..
((&amp;))

The review in our local paper was pretty mediocre. I could never get into the books, but my husband liked them and will see the movier no matter if the reviews are good or bad.

I read the books a really long time ago. I never remember a tv show.

I wanted to see the movie, but now I am not so sure.

I will ask one of the kids at work what they think. They are usually pretty reliable.

I am a science fiction geek though. I will probably like it.

Janis....... True, I am not familiar with Douglas Adams. I went because we had free tickets to the preview and I thought I'd give it a try. It's definitely not my kind of movie.

I picked up tickets today for a preview for the movie in 2 weeks and this time I'm sure I'll enjoy it. It's Monster In Law! That should be fun.

There were about 20 of us from work there last night and one guy is a sci fi geek (his description) and he liked it and his teen kids did too until close to the end when they were getting antsy. Most of the women didn't care for it.

I have seen good rating on it. ???

I must have a geeks taste in movies then :D
I would rather see a bad science fiction movie than something with Jennifer Lopez &amp; Jane Fonda~

suesnothome, that sounded rude but I was not referring to you personally! I was just thinking of how I cannot stand Jen Lopez and her films and all these Jane Fonda interviews are so tiresome, I did was not referring to your taste in movies..sorry for sounding rude :)

This is not about travel as we know it on earth as vacation, visitation and so on.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=3457307
machin, you might want to post that here also.

I loved the radio series. They are as much a part of my growing up as Monty Python.

I can quite clearly remember stumbling on the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the radio and thinking I was the only one who thought it stunningly funny, then findling all my pals did too.

The man was a comic genius, and carried great messages in his humour, too.

I did prefer the Hitchhiker series to Dirk Gently, but the bit in the first paragraph of Detective Agenecy about getting up enough momentum to break out of the Cambridge ring road had me wetting myself laughing.

Paralllels in style to Lake Wobegon?

I'm not a big Hitchhiker fan, but my husband is, so he'll probably be seeing this movie alone. We are both, however, looking forward to seeing Kingdom of Heaven as soon as it opens.

It's true, with movies like Hitchhiker, you have to realize what *kind* of sci-fi you're dealing with. My dad was a sci-fi fan and loved going to sci-fi movies. But then one day he went to see Sleeper (the Woody Allen movie set in the future). Not exactly what he was hoping for ;-)

Scarlett........ no offense taken. We all have our preferences.... mine is comedy or romance.

It helps to read &quot;The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner&quot; before reading &quot;Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency&quot;.

((I))

I think this we will just have to buy the set of CDs to listen to on our drive to Oregon.
suesnothome, good :)
I usually like any kind of movie- but certain actors (if you can call them that) irritate me :)
My husband talks about Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke being a great comedy team a long time ago, apparently he saw them in London back when he was a lad :)
I think maybe our entire trip will be spent listening to old BBC shows..I will arrive in ORegon with a British accent LOL

JUST got back from seeing it and I thought it was very good indeed... not a sell out and very much retaining aspects of both the radio and tv series.

Thanks Kavey!

Welcome! Casing is great... especially Arthur Dent and Marvin but actually all of it...