Kenji, the book does rely a great deal on word play for many of the jokes. So I imagine it would be hard for you to understand. I think it would lose something in translation as well. Too bad.

(Sorry, I don't have the book anymore so I can't give you any quotes.)

Lisa

Saw the movie Friday night with Jim. I won't speak for him, but I truly loved the movie. It's not perfect and it's a bit more disjointed than any other incarnation, but it is absolutely true to the spirit of the original concept.

There were some tears-in-the-eyes laugh-out-loud moments for me. Quite a few, but that comes with a warning. I was the only one in the theater that was laughing out loud in Pulp Fiction when the gun accidentally went off.

I couldn't quite catch the title, but in the scene where Arthur Dent is holding a book, it's "Last Chance to See." I'm not 100%, but it makes sense with some of the other Douglas Adams references.

If I can understand the jokes, maybe I can read it in English.

Well, the humor is definitely very British, and Douglas did sometimes use word play in his humor. Here's an example from Life, the Universe, and Everything, after a sofa has mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, floating in the middle of a field:

“Why,” he said, “is there a sofa in that field?”
“I told you!” shouted Ford, leaping to his feet. “Eddies in the space-time continuum!”
“And this is his sofa, is it?” asked Arthur, struggling to his feet and, he hoped, though not very optimistically, to his senses.

It's a very funny sequence, but I'm not sure how well the humor comes across if English isn't your native tongue. In fact, I'm very curious to see how it would be translated.

Other examples include Douglas simply making up words purely for the humor value. For example:

The mattress flurred and glurried. It flolloped, gupped and willomied, doing this last in a particularly floopy way.

I imagine some people just learning English might be confused when they don't find some of those words in a dictionary!

Blake

Well, the humor is definitely very British, and Douglas did sometimes use word play in his humor. Here's an example from Life, the Universe, and Everything, after a sofa has mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, floating in the middle of a field:

“Why,” he said, “is there a sofa in that field?”
“I told you!” shouted Ford, leaping to his feet. “Eddies in the space-time continuum!”
“And this is his sofa, is it?” asked Arthur, struggling to his feet and, he hoped, though not very optimistically, to his senses.

It's a very funny sequence, but I'm not sure how well the humor comes across if English isn't your native tongue. In fact, I'm very curious to see how it would be translated.

Other examples include Douglas simply making up words purely for the humor value. For example:

The mattress flurred and glurried. It flolloped, gupped and willomied, doing this last in a particularly floopy way.

I imagine some people just learning English might be confused when they don't find some of those words in a dictionary!

Blake

I read those jokes.......well........Hmmmmm....... :confused: :confused: :confused:


I must find out Japanese translated edition!

I'm pretty pleased overall. It was a pretty good adaptation, and had some truly funny bits. Some choppy editing--it looks like there needed to be maybe ten more minutes, which I'm hoping to see on DVD.

Lots of shout-outs and references to earlier versions; Simon Jones makes a peekaboo appearance, as does the BBC series Marvin, and there's a fully orchestrated version of Journey of the Sorcerer, which is nice.

The cast did quite well--I'm not sure about where they went with Zaphod's character from a writing perspective, but Sam Rockwell was great. Martin Freeman was fabulous as Arthur, and Mos Def, while the most uneven of the bunch, fit the shoes of Ford Prefect.

The audience seemed to like it, too--they were laughing quite a bit.

Now, I just really hope that there's an extended DVD cut.

and there's a fully orchestrated version of Journey of the Sorcerer, which is nice.

The cast did quite well--I'm not sure about where they went with Zaphod's character from a writing perspective, but Sam Rockwell was great. Martin Freeman was fabulous as Arthur, and Mos Def, while the most uneven of the bunch, fit the shoes of Ford Prefect.

Damn, you beat me to a reference of Journey of the Sorcerer. I love that song. Scott knows that I caught it.

I didn't like it quite as much as Scott Hajek, but I thought it was very good, a nice tribute to Mr. Adams. I didn't catch all the references because I never heard the radio play and only caught bits of the British TV series. My experience is mostly with the books, and some of that HAD to be changed to translate to screen.

Marvin stole the show for me. Sam Rockwell was excellent in a somewhat different interpretation of the Zaphod Beeblebrox character. Zooey Deschanel is excellent and charming as Trillian (I fell in love with her in ELF). Martin Freeman had the right mix of confusion and wonder. Mos Def was better than I expected, but he was still the weakest of the bunch which is bad because he is such a crucial character.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish - sing along

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish - sing along

This is fun. Sounds like Monty Python's animation.

For those of you who haven't seen it, or are planning on a second viewing, bring your 3-D glasses. I just found this from an interview with the director:

[indent]Simon Jones was just great as Arthur Dent, and we needed a face and voice for that sequence. We actually shot it in 3-D, so if you wear red and green glasses, he actually jumps out. I haven't really told the studio that I did that. I thought it'd be more fun if we just did it. No one really knows. But I just couldn't resist doing it.
[/indent]Sounds like fun.

For those of you who haven't seen it, or are planning on a second viewing, bring your 3-D glasses. I just found this from an interview with the director:

[indent]Simon Jones was just great as Arthur Dent, and we needed a face and voice for that sequence. We actually shot it in 3-D, so if you wear red and green glasses, he actually jumps out. I haven't really told the studio that I did that. I thought it'd be more fun if we just did it. No one really knows. But I just couldn't resist doing it.
[/indent]Sounds like fun.

To which sequence is he referring?