UK - Neelu Berry opens my eyes

[TheNewSaint]

You had to love John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, leading the Jatravartids and their sneeze-based religion. Oh, and the cameo from the early-1980s Marvin standing in line was a nice touch. Other than that, the 2005 movie doesn't have much going for it.

[noblepa]

You had to love John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, leading the Jatravartids and their sneeze-based religion. Oh, and the cameo from the early-1980s Marvin standing in line was a nice touch. Other than that, the 2005 movie doesn't have much going for it.

That's probably why I haven't seen it show up even on late-night cable TV.

[longdog]

I wasn't too crazy about Mos Def as Ford Prefect. Martin Freeman was good as DentArthurDent, but not good enough to save the movie.

I was quite surprised when Mr Def was cast as Ford Prefect. While I had (for no reason other than my brain randomly filling in the gaps) pictured Ford as being black I never expected anybody else to.

Actually I think the connection is that all Ford Prefects were black... In my head at least.



I think he made a better job of it than David Dixon who, for equally vague reasons, I thought was a terrible choice for the TV series.

[TBL]

I feel there were two major issues a movie just cannot overcome when adapting such a book:
1. There are just too many commentaries by the narrator that would need to be constant, pulling your attention from the protagonists, and
2. There is just far too much story to fit into a single movie, a la The Lord of the Rings. To adapt such a tome, they'd need more than a single movie.

A series would be, by far, a better way to put HHGTTG onto the screen.

[John Uskglass]

A series would be, by far, a better way to put HHGTTG onto the screen.

Been done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitch ... TV_series)

Apparently it is available on that Britbox they have now.

I remember it as being a bit crap, but then the pictures are always better on the radio.

[MRN]

I actually loved the movie, which puts me in a fairly tiny minority I know. I mean, I also love the books and the tv series and in fact organized my life around catching it on TVO back when. I think I taped the radio show off CBC, too, don't tell the CRTC.

I'm kind of a "Yay! We get FOUR cakes!" type when it comes to reinterpretations, obviously.

It wasn't a perfect or even a great adaptation but I thought it was a pretty good riff on the original, and it was fun, which is kind of the number one requirement for a HHGTTG adaptation.

And I may have actually cried through the final scene, when the Earth comes back, which is when I really realized that the entire thing was a love letter to Douglas Adams from a bunch of people who knew him. (which may also have been responsible for some of its greatest flaws. Good Omens was fortunate to have Gaiman as showrunner to keep a fairly steely eye on things and not let sentiment run away with the story)

[MRN]

(this is my 'how did THAT happen' face)

[longdog]

Good Omens was fortunate to have Gaiman as showrunner to keep a fairly steely eye on things and not let sentiment run away with the story)

Now that is good. The whole series would have been worth it just for Crowley's line at the loading of Noah's Ark... "Shem! One of your unicorns is escaping... Oh well... He has another one".

And of course this....

Thousands petition Netflix to cancel Amazon Prime's Good Omens

More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.

But Christians marshalled by the Return to Order campaign, an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation, disagree. More than 20,000 supporters have signed a petition in which they say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”. God, they complain, is “voiced by a woman” – Frances McDormand – the antichrist is a “normal kid” and, most importantly, “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”. They are calling on Netflix to cancel the show.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... -pratchett

I seem to recall there were other complaints from the religious "gays under the bed" nutcases that Aziraphale and Crowley acted like a bickering but very much in love gay couple to which Gaiman said "They are". Although he did then point out that while Aziraphale and Crowley obviously loved each other to a risk everything level of devotion they were angels and not capable of being sexual... Homo or otherwise.

[grixit]

The 2005 movie was ok, but very uneven. The original radio series and the books were great. The tv series was cheesey and very british and a lot of fun. I was not aware of there being another radio series, i'll have to look out for it.

I haven't watched Good Omens, because i want to read the book first.

[hucknallred]

The 2005 movie was ok, but very uneven. The original radio series and the books were great. The tv series was cheesey and very british and a lot of fun. I was not aware of there being another radio series, i'll have to look out for it.

I haven't watched Good Omens, because i want to read the book first.

Adams did write the screenplay for the 2005 movie prior to his untimely death. All the new stuff like the face slapping things, the point of view gun, new characters like Humma Kavula & Questular Rontok were his creations. His script was finished off by another writer after his death though.
I liked the use of practical effects over too much CGI. However I must say the effects for the Magrathea shop floor were excellent.
Also the post II Drive segments were clearly Adams ideas like having them all as animated knitted characters etc.

[TheNewSaint]

The tv series was cheesey and very british and a lot of fun.

Now that you mention it, I think that's what was missing from the 2005 movie. HHG2G's British-ness was a fundamental part of its charm. For all its imaginative silliness, it was also very hung up on teatimes and social formalities and other little idiosyncracies of British life. And that got lost in the conversion to big-budget Hollywood movie. The story didn't Americanize well.

[AnOwlCalledSage]

I'm desperately not trying to pull rank on anyone by claiming that I listened to the first episode broadcast and therefore have more insight (okay I am. I was a fan of The Goodies, and at the time Radio 2 was broadcasting "I'm Sorry I'll Read that Again" repeats - which was basically The Goodies + John "Otto" Cleese, and at the end of the show I retuned and accidentally bumped into a rather bizarre Radio 4 show's first episode) but Douglas Adams was absolutely prepared to compromise his "vision" to get a Hollywood film version made. That is well documented.

It's why, for all its flaws, I cut the film a lot of slack. And as I have previously mentioned... Zooey! She was perfect casting as Trillian

[hucknallred]

Now that you mention it, I think that's what was missing from the 2005 movie. HHG2G's British-ness was a fundamental part of its charm.

Arthur: OK. Leave this to me. I'm British. I know how to queue.

[grixit]

Adams did write the screenplay for the 2005 movie prior to his untimely death. All the new stuff like the face slapping things, the point of view gun, new characters like Humma Kavula & Questular Rontok were his creations. His script was finished off by another writer after his death though.

Well i'll just tell myself that if he had lived to see the movie through it would have been a lot better.

[grixit]

To get this back on topic, i'd say Neelu is in the vortex without any fairy cake.

[MRN]

Any day now the Great Revaluing Of The Leaves will occur?

[BankofSwissindo]

Any day now the Great Revaluing Of The Leaves will occur?

I think I may have the ideal kind of bank account you might be interested in, redeemable against all debts foreign and national.

[Normal Wisdom]

Well the moment has finally arrived, all the votes have been counted and the result can be revealed to a breathlessly waiting public. It isn't the outcome some would have wished for but we must all respect the democratic process.

In the end, it was closer than many expected but I have to announced that Neelu's petition on the 'We The People' website, concisely titled: "I Demand my $6m gold Payments, 1-11, for each of 7.6 billion people, under SWISSINDO, NESARA, GESARA International Laws" fell a mere 85,847 signatures short of the 100,000 required to elicit a response from the White House.

Neelu has not yet taken to social media to comment on the result but it would not be a surprise if she blamed vote rigging by dark forces. Meanwhile her erstwhile associates 'Harrison Boomerang' and 'Handy Cashman' have been missing in action for a couple of weeks, possibly since they realised that their appeal for funds 'to secure the safety of Mr Sino' wasn't going to be an effective source of income.

Fortunately for Neelu she doesn't have to wait another 4 years to mount a new campaign and it would be no surprise if, after a short pause to allow President Biden to unpack, we are back here again.

[Foggy]

Wait, I mailed my ballot before the polls closed! STOP THE COUNT!!

[Burnaby49]

Wait, I mailed my ballot before the polls closed! STOP THE COUNT!!

Your vote was counted and they're now only 85,846 votes short! A real cliff-hanger!