Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Page 4 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Redlemon · 05-03-2005, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormBerlin

...I felt kinda lost about the towel thing. Maybe someone could explain it?

Here's the direct quote:

Quote:

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

StormBerlin · 05-04-2005, 10:18 PM

Ah... that makes sense

Thanks

Spektr · 05-05-2005, 07:24 AM

I've been a hardcore advocate of the Hitchhiker's series (and most of Adam's other works) since I was about 14. I've read all the books several times over, and all I have to say is...fuck all the haters. The movie was great. Entertaining, funny, and a brilliant visual adaptation of the galaxy that Douglas Adams created. He aided in creating and directing the movie, as well as penning the screenplay before he died. So if you didn't like it, you'll have to take it up with him.

stevie667 · 05-05-2005, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spektr

... all I have to say is...fuck all the haters ... So if you didn't like it, you'll have to take it up with him.

Big bump to that.

questone · 05-05-2005, 06:47 PM

I don't care if it turns out to be the worst movie ever made, I'm still going to see it.

superiorrain · 05-06-2005, 03:12 PM

Just came back from seeing the movie having only finished the book yesterday. It was all brilliant. The book of course was better, but i've yet to see a film that truely is better than the book (well apart from Fight Club). But anyway getting back to topic, Marvin was nothing like i imagined him, but when i saw him he was perfect, better than my wildest dreams. I think we all have marvin moments and for a robot they were expressed so well. So this is my sticking out my thumb and hichhiking out of this thread. So long and thanks for all the fish. Ah Bollocks.

Charlatan · 05-07-2005, 05:06 AM

I just saw it last night with my son and while he thought it was excellent I just liked it enough...

The biggest problem with the film, as I see it, isn't that it changed the storyline it's that in an effort to adapt the story to a 90 minute three act plot structue they stripped out nearly all of the Guide's commentary and the humourous asides. Everything from the Guide's comments on digital watches to the philosophers Vroomfondle and Magikthise... For me, it was always these elements that made the books, the TV series and the radio plays enjoyable.

When you strip it down to just the story it is interesting and wacky but no where near as hilarious.

PoweredByPorn · 05-07-2005, 07:27 AM

"Run! He's got a towel!"

I enjoyed it overall. As has been said, the love story was overplayed, and the ending was too Holywood, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

My biggest gripe is that Marvin didn't have enough lines.

Charlatan · 05-07-2005, 08:04 AM

Growing the love story was inevitable when you are after a mainstream audience... no studio would have financed it if they didn't add that aspect.

cartmen34 · 05-07-2005, 08:57 AM

My wife and I saw this last weekend and loved it. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard.... but I think we were the only ones in the theatre doing more than just a quiet chuckle. LOL

spindles · 05-14-2005, 03:49 PM

I want me 20 bucks back. My wife laughed once, which put her one up on me. I was almost not going to see this, because the reviews have been so critical. Bloody waste of a baby sitter opportunity.

When you take a book full of funny jokes and cut everything to leave a punchline, it is not funny anymore. What you are left with is a bunch of slapstick (which I personally don't find funny). Spoiler: Like when deep thought tells them the answer - with another 20 seconds of dragging out the computers hesitance, this would've been a much funnier scene

And if you need a love story to make a movie, then I don't think I want to go to the movies anymore - it really pisses me off that hollywood seem to have lost the ability to write a decent script without whiz bang special effects taking over - it seems that having fantastic exploding things makes it acceptable to write crap.

stevie667 · 05-15-2005, 05:16 AM

[QUOTE=PoweredByPorn]"Run! He's got a towel!" [QUOTE]

That made me laugh so much. The new vogons were leaps and bounds over the last ones, much funnier, and much more appropriatly designed i thought to the actual descriptions of their personalities.

docbungle · 05-15-2005, 05:32 PM

Wow. This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. What a mess. Completely uninspired and trite.

Derwood · 06-02-2005, 04:39 PM

I haven't seen it, but.....

Why doesn't Zophod have 2 heads?

Charlatan · 06-04-2005, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystmarimatt

Quote:

Originally Posted by AfterBurn
is the 1981 version of the movie good?

In a word?

No.

I have to take issue with this... I am watching the BBC mini-series as I type this and it is *way* better than I remembered it being.

The acting and delivery is note perfect. The one negative is that it is a BBC made for TV series... if you can tolerate or even love the aesthetic of Doctor Who then you should have no issue with the production values of this series....

Very funny, well written and just damn clever.

In some ways, I'd say it's better than the movie.

Moskie · 06-04-2005, 09:23 PM

I think I enjoyed the BBC miniseries better, too. The fact that they spread out the story as much as they could (as opposed to cramming it into one movie) helped it out a lot. Not all of it was great I guess, but they at least committed themselves to presenting something close to the book.

The movie was ok... it kept me entertained. Nothing was really hilariously done though.

Leo · 06-07-2005, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

The biggest problem with the film, as I see it, isn't that it changed the storyline it's that in an effort to adapt the story to a 90 minute three act plot structue they stripped out nearly all of the Guide's commentary and the humourous asides. When you strip it down to just the story it is interesting and wacky but no where near as hilarious.

I agree completely Charlatan. Good books are always going to be tough to put into a different medium. It might have worked better as a trilogy though.

Charlatan · 06-07-2005, 05:18 AM

Leo and Moskie... I fully suspect that (pending financial success) they will make more of these films (perhaps a trilogy in five parts).

The film as it stands right now, left a pile of the stories unfinished, the biggest of which is that they went and got the guns for Humma Kavula (John Malkovich) but never brought them to him... They also left off saying they were going to get something to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe... etc.

In the end, it is all about the observational humour found in the book's dialogue.

05-04-2005, 10:18 PM	#122 (permalink)
StormBerlin Happy as a hippo Location: Southern California	Ah... that makes sense Thanks __________________ "if anal sex could get a girl pregnant i'd be tits deep in child support" Arcane

05-06-2005, 03:12 PM	#126 (permalink)
superiorrain Psycho Location: London	Just came back from seeing the movie having only finished the book yesterday. It was all brilliant. The book of course was better, but i've yet to see a film that truely is better than the book (well apart from Fight Club). But anyway getting back to topic, Marvin was nothing like i imagined him, but when i saw him he was perfect, better than my wildest dreams. I think we all have marvin moments and for a robot they were expressed so well. So this is my sticking out my thumb and hichhiking out of this thread. So long and thanks for all the fish. Ah Bollocks. __________________ "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke

05-07-2005, 05:06 AM	#127 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I just saw it last night with my son and while he thought it was excellent I just liked it enough... The biggest problem with the film, as I see it, isn't that it changed the storyline it's that in an effort to adapt the story to a 90 minute three act plot structue they stripped out nearly all of the Guide's commentary and the humourous asides. Everything from the Guide's comments on digital watches to the philosophers Vroomfondle and Magikthise... For me, it was always these elements that made the books, the TV series and the radio plays enjoyable. When you strip it down to just the story it is interesting and wacky but no where near as hilarious. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

05-07-2005, 07:27 AM	#128 (permalink)
PoweredByPorn "...a face I could bear to look at in the mirror." Location: Virginia Beach, VA	"Run! He's got a towel!" I enjoyed it overall. As has been said, the love story was overplayed, and the ending was too Holywood, but it could have been a whole lot worse. My biggest gripe is that Marvin didn't have enough lines. __________________ Do you want me to sit in a corner and rust of just fall apart where I'm standing?

05-07-2005, 08:04 AM	#129 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	Growing the love story was inevitable when you are after a mainstream audience... no studio would have financed it if they didn't add that aspect. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

05-05-2005, 07:24 AM	#123 (permalink)
Spektr Copacetic Location: Nati	I've been a hardcore advocate of the Hitchhiker's series (and most of Adam's other works) since I was about 14. I've read all the books several times over, and all I have to say is...fuck all the haters. The movie was great. Entertaining, funny, and a brilliant visual adaptation of the galaxy that Douglas Adams created. He aided in creating and directing the movie, as well as penning the screenplay before he died. So if you didn't like it, you'll have to take it up with him.

05-05-2005, 06:47 PM	#125 (permalink)
questone Crazy	I don't care if it turns out to be the worst movie ever made, I'm still going to see it.

05-07-2005, 08:57 AM	#130 (permalink)
cartmen34 Psycho Location: the hills of aquafina.	My wife and I saw this last weekend and loved it. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard.... but I think we were the only ones in the theatre doing more than just a quiet chuckle. LOL __________________ "The problem with quick and dirty, as some people have said, is that the dirty remains long after the quick has been forgotten" - Steve McConnell

05-14-2005, 03:49 PM	#131 (permalink)
spindles Mine is an evil laugh Location: Sydney, Australia	I want me 20 bucks back. My wife laughed once, which put her one up on me. I was almost not going to see this, because the reviews have been so critical. Bloody waste of a baby sitter opportunity. When you take a book full of funny jokes and cut everything to leave a punchline, it is not funny anymore. What you are left with is a bunch of slapstick (which I personally don't find funny). Spoiler: Like when deep thought tells them the answer - with another 20 seconds of dragging out the computers hesitance, this would've been a much funnier scene And if you need a love story to make a movie, then I don't think I want to go to the movies anymore - it really pisses me off that hollywood seem to have lost the ability to write a decent script without whiz bang special effects taking over - it seems that having fantastic exploding things makes it acceptable to write crap. __________________ who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

05-15-2005, 05:16 AM	#132 (permalink)
stevie667 Too Awesome for Aardvarks Location: Angloland	[QUOTE=PoweredByPorn]"Run! He's got a towel!" [QUOTE] That made me laugh so much. The new vogons were leaps and bounds over the last ones, much funnier, and much more appropriatly designed i thought to the actual descriptions of their personalities. __________________ Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information.

05-15-2005, 05:32 PM	#133 (permalink)
docbungle It's all downhill from here Location: Denver	Wow. This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. What a mess. Completely uninspired and trite. __________________ Bad Luck City

06-02-2005, 04:39 PM	#134 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	I haven't seen it, but..... Why doesn't Zophod have 2 heads? __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

06-04-2005, 09:23 PM	#136 (permalink)
Moskie Pure Chewing Satisfaction Location: can i use bbcode [i]here[/i]?	I think I enjoyed the BBC miniseries better, too. The fact that they spread out the story as much as they could (as opposed to cramming it into one movie) helped it out a lot. Not all of it was great I guess, but they at least committed themselves to presenting something close to the book. The movie was ok... it kept me entertained. Nothing was really hilariously done though. __________________ Greetings and salutations.

06-07-2005, 05:18 AM	#138 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	Leo and Moskie... I fully suspect that (pending financial success) they will make more of these films (perhaps a trilogy in five parts). The film as it stands right now, left a pile of the stories unfinished, the biggest of which is that they went and got the guns for Humma Kavula (John Malkovich) but never brought them to him... They also left off saying they were going to get something to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe... etc. In the end, it is all about the observational humour found in the book's dialogue. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke