I think the joke of the slappy monster was that the Vogons' bureaucratic tendencies evolved as a defense mechanism, because they came from a world where having ideas gets you hit in the face with a shovel.
79.03.13 I could, and did. But the way youtube sorts comments means that comments with more replies are prioritized. That is more often argumentative comment threads, so by replying with pluses to comments you agree with it makes positive comments more visible too.
Yes, the story begins with Arthur standing up to a whole team of tough builders, lying down in front of a bulldozer and ignoring veiled threats about how if the bulldozer rolled straight over him it would suffer no damage at all. Then later when he finds out he got scammed he is FURIOUS. That guy is not some simpering cowardly pushover!
21:30 Wasn't the slapstick flyswatter thing explained somewhere? The Vogons evolved into the perfect bureaucratic species because they were swatted every time they had an idea, which also caused their faces to be smooshed in and why their noses were up the way they were?
Maybe in the movie, in the books they are an unfortunate result of evolution that evolution gave up on, and their brains are displaced and badly malformed livers.
"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." This video was released on a Thursday. Not sure if intentional or coincidental. Either way, LOL.
Also, I have to admit that I didn't realize Martin Freeman was in this until years later. Somehow I think I mentally replaced him with Jason Siegal from HIMYM
I'm just relieved I finally found someone else who found this film as bad as I did; I knew it was going to be bad when they messed up the dolphins joke at the beginning...
OMG I thought I was the only person in the galaxy who hates humor based on cringe worthy situations. I find quite a few popular shows unwatchable because it's all based on empathy with people in awkward situations hoping we will find it funny. I find it horrifying.
I loathe cringe humor and second hand embarrassment. The only reason I can watch things like The Office is because I clung to the fancanon that Michael Scott is a deliberate troll.
I loved the movie. It made me read the book. After I finished the whole series, I could never watch the movie again. The movie in no way captured the greatness of the book.
Whatever. The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway. The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly glad no more books have been turned into a Movie. Thanks.
Well, it's always a good thing when an adaptation brings people to the original source material. It's shows that people have an interest in where it all started. Contrast this to adaptions where people are too stupid to realize it is an adaptation, and take it as canonical gospel. Looking at you Netflix Castlevania, Netflix Shera, and Hamilton.
Same, I was planning on reading the books, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Around the same time I discovered my family owned the movie. I decided to watch the movie while waiting for the books to be located. Loved it, read the books, loved them even more, haven’t wanted to watch the movie since.
OMG me too!!! My first experience was the movie and I laugh so much that I bought all the books at once!! I love the books so much!!! They are so funny!! But I still like the movie!!
Whatever. The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway. The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly glad no more books have been turned into a Movie. Thanks.
Pratchett is to fantasy what Adams is to sci fi. But more so, with far higher novel output (not working for a broadcaster), and somehow manages to be more scientific. What’s impressive is that Adams went to Cambridge but Pratchett didn’t go to university at all.
Zaphod's second head REALLY bugged me in this movie. The 2nd head is suppose to be on his shoulder, NOT a second head on hidden in his neck. At the costume party he even has a bird cage on his shoulder over the 2nd head.
In fairness, Zaphod's second head is one of the hardest parts for any HHGTTG adaptation to pull off, and doesn't really serve much point. I believe even Adams himself admitted it was nothing but a random weird detail he thought up to emphasize the whole "alien" thing. You could safely remove it and not change anything, except, of course, for making VFK cheaper and HH fans riot.
was not nearly as funny...how can you have an effective argument (or row) with yourself (or other personality) if you are constantly switching back and forth like that?
One thing I liked about the film was the sometimes subtle uses of a towel in various situations. For example Ford uses it like an oven glove to protect him from heat and Arthur wears it like a cloak to protect him from the cold. Radiohead wrote their album 'OK Computer' while listening to the radio show, and you might notice aspects of the theme song, particularly in the songs 'Lucky' and 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' (and the lyrics could be about Ford Prefect).
If nothing else, the production design is incredible. It absolutely looks exactly as I imagined everything in the Hitchhiker books would. Also, the Dolphin Song is lovely.
Brazilian fan here, as someone who never had any exposure to Douglas Adams works before the movie, I still have a special place in my heart for this movie!! I laugh so much when I watched for the first time that I immediately went and bought all the books at once!! I love them so much, I embarrassed myself reading in the subway bc I started to laugh and people would stare at me!! The books are one of my favorites of all times, I read a lot of times and always make me laugh!! I still like the movie too, I can’t watch the music in the beginning without smiling, and there’s a lot of scenes that are truly hilarious!! I wish I could listen the radio show, but I never find it here! I just think I have to defend the movie so much bc it was for a lot of non British people the first experience with Douglas brilliance!!
The joke is explained in the directors commentary. What with the parallel universes and alternate timelines that Adams set up in his own universe, they were basically saying that means the universe has more than one end depending which timeline you're going down. So Marvin was basically telling them they were heading down the wrong timeline. That said, it's still a bad joke. If you have to listen to the commentary to get the joke, and the joke still isn't funny, it's a terrible attempt at humour.
Agreed. With a joke, you can't be dismissive of people who take it at face value, because the longer a person has to think about it to reach a satisfying conclusion, the less satisfying that conclusion will be, and if they hit upon an even worse joke on their way there, especially when it ruins continuity and demolishes one of the very coolest things in the source material, they are well within their rights to assume that *you* are the dumbass here... also "other end" implies only two ends, meaning there's only two alternate universes, but Mostly Harmless put a definite stopper on that, so either these guys just didn't get that far in the series, or they fucked up the wording of their joke, meaning they really shouldn't have been allowed near this project in the first place, especially since it happened to be based upon some of the most clever writing in the known universe.
It's the dissecting the frog issue brought to the nth degree, and as you say, made worse by the fact that it suggests only two ends. And what makes it even dumber is the fact that they actually change direction, thus causing the joke to fall even flatter, because the visual gag suggests going to the opposite side of the universe, not an alternate timeline. And what makes it even worse is that it wouldn't matter if it's dependent on the timeline, it would still be at the chronological end of that particular universe. The more you analyse it, the less sense it actually makes Lastly it doesn't work because you can't get to the restaurant via normal means, it's reached by circumventing all possibility (I believe 6 impossible things) that you top off with arriving at Milliways
@holly taylor, no. because han meant that he warped time, so that means his incorrect comment about parsecs is right and was always intentional... sorry wrong excuse for the wrong misfire
pickering86 The face slappers are explained in the commentary, too. They're why the Vogons are such unoriginal thinkers, and why their noses have moved up to the tops of their heads.
24:45 oooh he's mad. 24:47 really really mad. 24:49 think i might just take my headset off.... 24:51 yeah no i heard that even with the headset taken off.
I tried to think of how I feel about the hitchhiker's guide movie, but all I could think of was "I liked the song" My dad had the tv show on vhs when I was a kid, so that was my first experience with the series- I read the books out of order after finding them one by one in my parents house later and saw the movie somewhere inbetween. This worked out fine.
I have memorized large swaths of the book, and I recite it with my mother in conversations quite often. I hated the film. The only parts I did like were 1)the so long and thanks for all the fish song, 2) Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, and 3) Marvin. Also, I got major waves of nostalgia hearing the radioshow theme at the beginning. Nevermind. Seeing this reminded me of Dent. Frankly, Martin Freeman, perhaps, looks more like how I imagined Ford Prefect. Also, can I mention what I found to be the ultimate example of how the film got rid of all the punchlines (or the setups to them). "Where are we?" "We're in the galley of a ship from the Vogon constructor fleet" "Ah." Whereas, as I quote so very often, the punchline is "This is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of."
Marvin was atrocious: he is clearly described as a "metal man" - later with rust - and with "red triangular eyes". Not to mention his metal leg was part of the Wicket Key. The only way they could have made him worse was to portray him as black, rubbery and dildo shaped, and called him "Far-que".
I've only read the first book so far. Gonna start reading the 2nd one soon. I remember watching the film a long time ago and liking but I forgot almost all of it. So when reading the book I felt ford wasnt panicking when the volgons came to earth infact he was excited due to being able to finally leave a planet he thought was boring. I rewatched the movie and ford is almost always panicking especially at the start. Also I hated that they didnt include the chefs (I forgot thier name) that actually let Ford and Arthur on the ship just to annoy the volgons. Why would the volgons willingly let ford and Arthur aboard otherwise. They also done trillian and zaph wrong. Trillian was arabic and had no love interest really with arthur except arthur and her exchanged numbers at a fancy dress party.(maybe they have love interest later on but I've only just finished the first one) and zaphs heads were side by side
@@alexholt6810 This is one point I bring up in defense of the movie. Trillian had no love interest, true. Consider that in light of the fact that Trillian has no functional part in the story whatsoever that I can recall anyway. As the radio show was essentially made up on a week to week basis, Adams did very little forethought or planning. Trillian just tags along on the boys adventure and not only does very little worth noting, she doesn't develop much of a distinct personality until book... uh, four? (Even then, it wasn't much of a personality. I don't think Adams even bothered including her in book three, then re-introduced her as someone completely different) You might have not liked the movie's solution to this issue, but at least they tried to do SOMETHING with her. I mean, the ingredients of a "will they/won't they" romantic subplot were there for the using, and Adams is the one who originally put them there. What else could the film have done to make her an active participant that wouldn't have equally displeased the fans? Make her a secret intergalactic spy?
I'm only 22 seconds in and I'm thrilled you're mentioning the random field that Douglas lay in when he formed the idea for this book. Don't know why that matters so much to me but I would indeed have been put out if you had not mentioned it. Thank you
I'm one of those people who like the movie and the books (I haven't finished the radio show and I didn't actually know there was a show) but one thing that really bugged me was the fact they changed Ford's reason for having a towel with him at all times. I don't know why but the idea of carrying a towel around with you so you could trick people into letting you use anything of there's under the assumption you'd just lost your own is downright hilarious to me and seeing it dumbed down to him just liking towels just urked me to an unnecessary degree.
Due to my aging eyes and the small screen on my phone, I made it to the eight minute mark before I realized that you're wearing a bathrobe. Well done, sir.
21:50 the poetry joke was that Vogon poetry was the 2nd worst in the universe, with the very worst being Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings who lived in Essex and perished with the Earth. If Arthur had been exposed to that, then it makes sense he'd think the Vogon poetry was good. This was in the book btw and not explained in the movie.
"Its not easy to get a hold of" Looks downstairs at my sparse DVD shelf with the original TV show and all of the radio show discs. "Aha, I'm one of lucky ones :)"
Whatever. The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway. The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly glad no more books have been turned into a Movie. Thanks.
*Some* humans. Earth is the origin of the third worst poem in the Universe but I'm not sure if they ever said something about the poetic abilities of humans generally...
LibertyisFTW when I first saw it I was doing my GCSE's. I immediately thought he had a resistance to vogon poetry as a result of the terrible anthologies we have to read in GCSE English.
i thought it was implied that these fly swatters from beneath the ground were attacking creatures that have creative thoughts and ideas on their own. its the vogon homeworld and it was stated, that vogons have no creative thoughts on their own what so ever. their lack of own ideas were a survival mechanism, methinks...
I took it as Marvin saying even though the Millyway's was at the end of time, it still has a physical location. It was built on the remains of Magrathea/Frogstar (depending on the source) but still has a physical location. So Marvin was saying that even ignoring the time travel needed, you still needed to go to the site and that site was in the other direction. The joke of the brakes squealing on a spaceship bugged me more than Marvin's line. Common, the robot has a brain the size of a planet, I think he would know what he is talking about...
Honestly, about Alan Rickman, I think he was the only actor who understood his part. His performance of Marvin was spot on in my opinion. The others-- well terrible is an understatement.
correction (4 years later :P): He was the only actor whose character had been written properly. Oftentimes you can't blame an actor if a character is a terrible interpretation of a book character, because that's the screenwriters and director failing, not the actor.
15+ years ago me and my friend, watching the dvd of the the TV series, paused on the image of Zaphods second head staring blankly into the void and we laughed, solidly for over 10 minutes, choking painful laughter. That head is one of my favourite things in mankind's entire collective history.
I'm writing in defense of the film, but I still agree with the video. Can I "briefly" explain? THE film merit: it is a funny film, and it got many people exposed to Douglas Adams' work for the 1st time. I'm Italian, I knew absolutely NOTHING from this author. Now he's one of my favorite, thanks to this film and how easy it is to get books in their original language nowadays (especially when the language is English). The books that inspired the film are a lot better than the film itself, and basically everything funny in this film is Douglas' thinking (unexplained ideas-reacting-slappers included), but you underestimate the amount of Douglas you can find in the film if you NEVER came in contact with his work before. It's really a LOT, in my personal experience. Think about this. The fan base of the original material ALWAYS fail to evaluate how much of the original is received by 1st time exposed audience of the adaptation, and that causes the fan base of said adapted work to feel rage towards the adaptation. To a varying degree, usually mixed with other reasons (main one here, imho: different and less intelligent humor thrown in, downgrading and making off beat and incoherent the general tone of the film), but it's ALWAYS there, as you yourself should be able to testify with your reaction to the Watchmen's film adaptation. Thanks for your videos!
One thing I hate just in general? People saying "42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything." Because that is flat-out _wrong_ . 42 is the answer to _the great question OF_ Life, the Universe, and Everything. It's a *crucial* part of the joke. Anyone who says the former... you can tell instantly did not read/watch/listen to the original series' or else did not properly remember/understand it.
I always understood it as an absurdity for a species to want any such answer. The expectation is something deep and philosophical and to get an integer mocks the concept.
@@333angeleyes I recommend you read or listen to Hitchhiker's Guide yourself, but to summarize, a highly advanced civilization builds Deep Thought, a supercomputer, and asks it to calculate the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything. After 7.5 million years, Deep Thought responds "you're really not going to like it", the civilization demands "tell us!" and Deep Thought responds "42." "42? 7 million years to get 42?" exclaims the civilization. "It would have gone faster, but you didn't give me the question," Deep Thought explains. The joke is the super-advanced civilization were sloppy with their wording, and asked for the answer to the great question of life, not the answer to life. The plot goes on to explain how Earth was created as an even more powerful supercomputer to calculate what the actual question was, so the distinction is actually important for the story as well. Anyone who read or listened to Hitchhiker's Guide would understand the importance of "great question of" and anyone who leaves it out clearly missed the joke. (The joke is actually funny when Douglas Adams delivers it; I just jumped straight to the punchline without any buildup.)
When the movie came out, I had only read the first book (the movie tie-in version no less), and the film was the first adaptation of it I'd ever seen. So my feelings of the film were mostly positive, and I felt they did a relatively good job making the book's humour more visual. I've since read all the books and experienced most of the other adaptations. Honestly, I think the film is better than the TV series, which I thought was just boring and awful. Part of why I feel differently about this to Dom may be, quite simply, my Irishness. I just don't have the same affinity for British humour he has. If British humour is defined by caustic detachment, and American humour by exuberant disruption, Irish humour is somewhere in between. So the adaptation's "Americanising" of the British comedy actually chimed quite well with me.
Would you consider the, "Lol, so random," humor from the Superhero/Date/Disaster/ Epic Movies to be cringe humor? I get that they are supposed to be Spoof movies, but you can't just throw in Harry Potter fighting Optimus Prime in the background while Protagonist is having beer for breakfast in a cafe ran by Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's why I like Mel Brooks style Spoof Movies. They keep within their, for lack of a better term, lore while still being funny.
I think that the film is so well liked (I even admit to a soft spot for it, despite knowing it's terrible) because for a lot of us in America, including myself, it was the first incarnation of the story we experienced. It's like, if you've only ever had orange juice from concentrate before, then you think it's pretty good, and then you taste fresh squeezed orange juice and you understand what you've been missing out on. The first time I saw the film, I'd never even heard of Douglas Adams, so when I saw even the echos of his work, it was something so completely new and different that it blew my mind. It didn't occur to me that Arthur Dent was being overly whiny, because Martin Freeman was the only version of Arthur Dent I'd ever seen. And it didn't bug me that Marvin looked depressed, because in the film, he as built to exemplify depression, so he would look depressed. And the ending joke was mildly funny because end and edge can be synonyms in some cases, and I had no idea that it was supposed to be at the end of time. Of course once I read the books and realized how much better the writing was, the movie seemed terrible in comparison, but it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first glimpse I got of the universe.
Some changes I can understand (the main villain being changed, the Hollows’ origin story being changed) because those were revealed in the second and third book respectively. But some things just boggled me. Why did they make Enoch, the rude and grimy preteen, into a brooding teenage model? Why did they turn Emma from a fierce pyrokinetic that holds the group together into a ditzy Disney Princess sterotype with Olive’s powers? Why are the twins there if they had no plot importance in the book, and were only a photo of some random peculiars?
@@CGFillertext I've seen the movie but haven't read the books yet( don't @ me I'm working on it) but how I understood it was- Enoch needed to be cute so people who hadnt read the book liked him. (Still gave me massive murder vibes but okay) Emma needed to fit the "good girl is best girl" trend that was going on at the time. (Upset at this one because I share her name, and apparently some personality traits.) And twins are creepy. (But I absolutely loved them in the movie.)
I'm still waiting for a clever mishmash parody of the martin freeman hobbit and the martin freeman guide movie and Sherlock. Since they have the same basic set up. Martin Freeman is invited on an adventure, doesn't want to go, is reluctantly forced to go. Complains that there is no tea on this adventure. The difference being in the hobbit and sherlock he eventually has some semblance of fun.
As someone who loves computer games I would kill for an adaptation this good. Doesn't mean it's a "good adaptation", just that I'm used to the bar being so drastically low.
I just finished reading the book and now learning there are 5 other novels and oh so much more stuff of this universe gave me a calm and happiness I hadn’t felt since 2019
I'd wait until you get there before celebrating. It's a mixed bag to be sure--the series never truly putters out of steam, but some of the passages of later books are pretty dire.
I found the film immensely fun. My first experience with Hitchhikers was reading a review of a book in Starlog Magazine, which intrigued me. My 2nd experience was seeing the TV show on PBS, which was also airing Dr Who from Tom Baker on; as well as the first three seasons of Red Dwarf. My third experience was buying the book, falling in love; & buying its sequels. Which led to... Greatly anticipating the movie, based on Starlogs coverage of its making. And, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, since the only thing I could compare it to was the bad TV series & the books.
As someone who enjoyed the movie as a teenager, but who has since listened to the radio series and is now starting to read the books... my god the movie falls flat on its face.
The vogons having evolved into such a bureaucratic race, never daring have any own original ideas, and having noses looking the way they do, seems pretty tied up with the "slappers" on their planet to me...
If the whole movie had "that makes sense" kind of potential when thinking about it later then you'd say that's brilliant. As it is you end up assuming it's stupid slapstick with no purpose because the rest of the movie makes that seem like the most plausible explanation.
It’s on the nose to the point where I don’t even think it’s supposed to be an interpretation. The Vogon planet attacks anyone who has inspiration or imagination. It’s obvious what it’s trying to say
I choose to interpret the ending of the movie as Marvin meaning "other end of the universe" as in the temporal end rather than the spacial edge, and the ship turning around because Zaphod's an idiot and misinterpreted that as "opposite spacial edge" even though he should know better. But that's just me salvaging that scene and turning it into a joke in my mind through headcanon; I have no illusions the the intent wasn't the stupid error The Dom describes it as.
You know, this film was my introduction to Hitchhiker's, so I guess I have a bit of nostalgia for it. While I do have to appreciate it structure-wise for trying to utilize elements from all the other versions, after reading/seeing those other versions I have to agree that at the very least it's certainly not as good.
So as someone who absolutely adore all the books (though admittedly hasn't heard the radio show ) I rather liked the movie, though I was younger when I originally saw it so maybe should rewatch. Also another thing so for the books they are narrated by Martin Freeman for the audio books since 2006, and he does a pretty good job.
i can't be the only person who thought that the ending joke actually DID reference the fact that the restaurant was at the end of time, right? they headed out and marvin made that comment that the restaurant was at the "other end" of the universe...they didn't just turn around and go the other way. they turned, but curved and hit the improbability drive. my brain just completely processed that as Marvin meaning that by "other end" meant not the opposite direction but actually meant the other type of end of the universe...the end of time. i had read the books, watched the tv series and listened to the radio shows since i was very little. it never occurred to me that Marvin meant anything other than the end of time when he said that. Ford had mentioned the restaurant, but proven by the movie that he can be forgetful about mentioning details, it left it to Marvin to point out that the end wasn't the one they were headed or. I guess its all about personal perspective. I love every incarnation of Hitchhikers. So while I respect that The Dom has his opinion on it, I think its a perfectly enjoyable movie that I am happy to have in my collection of frequent rewatchables.
Yup... pretty obvious double meaning wordplay. Rather disappointing considering how smart and funny I found that bit. (Guess our reviewer is one of those doors he griped about after all. "Ahhhhhhhhh...") Otherwise a surprisingly nice review with a lot of good points. (And yes, the cringe humor seemed shoehorned in to appease The Office fans) In any event, a lot of folks see this on cable and hate it. DO NOT WATCH THIS ON CABLE! It is the edited version, which utterly demolishes everything the film does right, but for some reason is the way they keep presenting it. Buy the Bluray, it really is the only good way to see this.
What got me more than the time/space question was the fact that a big part of the joke about Marvin is that no one ever listens to him, or listen and then cut him off once he gets to something important. The fact that the crew reacted immediately to his comment undermines that entire dynamic.
My experience with Douglas Adams writing style is from reading a non-fiction book about a collaboration with a zoologist to visit endangered species. It's called Last Chance to See and I would highly recommend it. It is thoughtful, thought provoking and funny as hell with Adam's descriptions of events.
My first exposure to this universe was the film... I quite liked it... It got me interested as a kid and when I had the interest, I was pleasantly surprised when I started going through older iterations and found different paths taken. It made it feel more rewarding to find new jokes and approaches.
Since when can Beetlejuicians change their bodies at will...? In "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" Zaphod demands to know if radiation or other hazards was going to result in him having another head in the end... Sort of implies that he didn't get the extra arm and head on purpose. Plus (at least in the novels) there's at least two other species that look human, the people of Krikket and that planet Arthur lives on for a while when he's going through his depression
If I may (more or less) quote from the radio series: Trillian: Zaphod please take your hand off me. And the other one, thank you. And the other one. Zaphod: I grew that one specially for you Trillian, took me six months but was worth every minute. Implies at least that Zaphod was willing to get the arm on purpose and possibly that he grew it rather than having it randomly appear. I could be wrong as it has been a while since I read any of the books or listened to the Radio show but I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to change their body structure consciously. At least they are not the haggunemnons(?) who almost constantly change their genetic structure at almost random as they are likely to morph into something with far longer arms to reach their coffee spoon but are now incapable of drinking the coffee.
@@bobbys332 The Haggunenons were the creation of Adam's friend John Lloyd. They do not appear after the radio show because Adams was afraid Lloyd would claim copyright on them and ask for royalties.
Wow, I'm sorry you had to go through this The Dom, I always assumed it was just a harmless bit of slapstick British/American comedy. But to see you this infuriated...I need to read these books already, because I am missing out.
For s1/book 1, maybe, but the shows and books are released in a mind-bendingly complicated order, so it's kinda hard to say what's the original for anything from s2 onwards - or at least you can't say x medium is for all. I was very impressed with Dom's breakdown in the following video
King Fabletown Which series though, because the new one isn't so much an adaptation as taking the original idea and basis for the book and giving it a completely new story (I love both series just to be clear, both are so different from each other it's difficult to compare them but I would say I prefer the BBCAmerica/Netflix series slightly more)
Agreed. I loved the Netflix series. It's not *my* Dirk Gently, but the series as a whole captured the feel of the books quite neatly which the Stephen Mangan series didn't, I felt.
Startship Titanic was the other way around. The book was written based on the game. Terry jones (who voiced the parrot in the game) was asked to write the book because the publisher wanted to release the game and the book simultaneously (for marketing reasons) and DNA didn't have the time to write it by himself, so he offered it to Terry Jones who said that he will write it while naked.
A fine display of English manners. One should always warn ones neighbors before they are bound to hear "Belgium", and see a driven mad with rage YT reviewer trashing about.
About adaptations: Imagine you have an plant and you want to communicate to someone what the plant is like. They are many way you could do that. One way would be to paint it. One way would be to write a long description of the plant . One way would be to make a clay sculture of the plant , you could even spent year in a lab making a synthetic aroma that reproduce its smell. Or maybe you could make a dance balette to express what the plant make you feel. Now if someone came and try to make a sculture of the plant based on what you wrote they'll probably get something that's different that would they would have if they sculted it based on the original plant . A story is like that plant. Every adaptation is like interpretation of the same image. When adapting from a book you'll already adapting from an interpreation of the story. You use the first medium to create an idea of the original story in your head then trie to communicate that idea through a second medium, but it doesn''t mean the idea and the model are identical. It's like a game of telephone. When an author is in charge of the adaptation, they still have access to the original idea, they can still make the new interpreation based on the actual model.
When I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I was like seven. Thanks to my limited perception of, among other things, English, space, and reality, I could not tell you the plot of any of the five books I read if my life depended on it. That being said, I could tell you that they are one of the funniest things I have ever read, even without being able to remember a single event after the Earth's destruction.
I thought the whole joke of "other end of the universe" was a sort of in-joke, for anyone who understands that it refers to time, therefore making Marvin's statement not make sense. Otherwise, there's no joke there. I mean, break sounds on the ship is hardly a joke.
it was, but a lot of people don't realize that douglas adams was heavily involved in this retelling and most of the complaints that people echo about the movie were his decisions; it's one of those things...
The radio series will always be my favourite, with the books close behind, I recently rewatched this film, and, while it was definitely not as good as I remember(Why is Zaphod a complete idiot??) I still found enjoyment from it, not all of the jokes land, but I'm not sure you could get a better guide (other than the original obviously) than Fry, thought the general production design was superb, especially with the Henson Company's Vogons and quite liked the musical opening number...although the fact there's two title reveals always confused me...
The book has an excellent interaction between Ford the man demolishing Arthur's house, where he reasons that because Arthur and the demolition man were both determined to stand there indefinitely, Arthur wasn't necessary for that to happen, and the demolition man could just hold up his end of the standoff while Ford and Arthur left to get drinks. Suffice it to say I was _very_ disappointed when the film replaced this scene with "hey guys I have booze".
I know this is 5 years after the video but I am a dirty lover of this movie. Though like you touched on with the radio show, I think it just hit me at the right age, time, and place. I fully know nostalgia for this is why it is one of my top 3 favorite films of all time. Granted maybe it is because I'm American so some of the humor might hit better, plus I seen this at 16 (my first time every hearing/seeing about Hitchhikers). All that said, enjoyed the video still. Always enjoy hearing why someone almost passionately dislike something I enjoy. New to the channel but so far have greatly enjoyed it all!
You played a clip from the "Tertiary Phase" of the radio series as an example of "the original source material" despite the fact that it was actually an adaptation of the third book, was not written by Adams, and was released in 2004 at which time this film was already in production.
I think they didn't literally mean it was at the other end of the universe, Marvin was just saying "You're going the wrong way, dipwads" in his own, depressingly sarcastic way. Granted, I'm a big of an apologist for this movie despite loving the books so.....
I love the fact 42 people listened to the radio show - hitchhikers guide's original format. Edit: I posted this at the beginning of the video, I'm glad Dom noticed too :)
I might have met Douglas Adams in London in 1971. I did meet a youngish 6'8" man who looked like him and was witty. .. If you figure the probability, there is about 1 in 10 chance that the guy I met was D. Adams. This was before he went to Europe with his Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe.
My first exposure to the Adams universe was the TV show, which I saw while visiting cousins in England (my branch of the family had moved to the USA about 10 years before then). I think I was about 21 at the time. I absolutely fell in love with it, and bought the book - or maybe it was two books which were out by then. At any rate, I was completely hooked on Adams from the first paragraphs, and bought subsequent books as soon as they came out. Years later, I introduced them to my kids, and my daughter, in particular, loved them as much as I did (she is now a librarian, so obviously has a lot of literary taste! ). She was about 13 when the movie came out, and we were so looking forward to seeing it, then so disappointed. So angered, in fact, at what the movie had done to the smartness and subtlety of the humor in the books. Sometimes I am tempted to rewatch it, to see if maybe I overreacted, but cannot get the bad taste out of my mouth enough to try. Great review, Dom.
I consider the radio continuity to be the true continuity, in part because this was my first exposure to the series, it’s also the original (the books came later), and I just prefer the way things were presented. Also it is the one version which features alternate realities as early as series 2 and 3, eventually using this to explain that all versions (including the book and tv series) are all real (which I don’t think any other versions really address). The film is fine, but definitely inferior to all other versions.
I love how the English longbowman's "fuck you" hand sign means "peace" or "see ya" in American. I just love profanity that doesn't translate into profanity between cultures.
@@Tang-qi6zw Oh wow, learn something new every day huh! I'm fascinated by comms differences between cultures but hadn't come across that one before - perhaps due to watching almost zero American rap music vids, I dunno...?
It is SO refreshing to hear someone else - whom also read the books, listened to (and bought) the entire radio series, and watched same said TV adaption - criticise the film exactly the same way (that bricks don't?!) that I did when I came out. I can't even sit through more than 30 minutes of it nowadays without turning it off! Well done, Sir! (I enjoyed watching your review on MY 'big screen' - ie my TV- than I did watching the film adaption at the cinema!)
I thought the whole point of the shovels hitting people for thinking was to explain why the Vogons were so stupid and had their noses high up on their faces
i saw the movie first and read the book second. never could find the radio show. but i can understand where you are coming from, dom. you didn't like the movie. it's all cool. i liked the movie and eventually decided to read the book afterwards. this gave me the idea to actually begin work on my own book and inspired me to take some new and interesting twists on it.
To be fair "the restaurant's at the other end of the universe" joke is in keeping with Douglas Adams' tendency for clever double meaning humour. Like "what's so unpleasant about being drunk? Ask a glass of water." (A joke I never understood when listening to the radio play, but laughed out loud when I came to it in the book and suddenly realised what it meant.)
I think the joke of the slappy monster was that the Vogons' bureaucratic tendencies evolved as a defense mechanism, because they came from a world where having ideas gets you hit in the face with a shovel.
Natural selection at its finest
@@juniperrodley9843 your in a lot of the comment sections of the stuff I watch, Juni...
@@borderlinecrazy6444 *I am everywhere child*
@@juniperrodley9843 btw, it's yessy
See that sounds like Adams.
"mom, there's acrazy man running aroundin a bathrobe."
"just ignore him dear. he's doing a web show"
"Mummy, why does he keep screaming 'Belgium'?"
"HOW DARE YOU USE THAT KIND OF LANGUAGE YOUNG MAN!?!?"
Don't panic
try not to stare at him...it only encourages him to act even stranger and we don't need that sort of thing taking place just before tea
@@weldonwin * clutches pearls * gasp, what has the world come to!?
"Disappointing but Mostly Harmless"
Nice double meaning Dom
79.03.13 +
LonerRavenclaw what
79.03.13 the plus sign was just a way of saying I agree with you. It's something Hank Green came up with.
Couldn't you have justed liked it like everyone else ?
79.03.13 I could, and did. But the way youtube sorts comments means that comments with more replies are prioritized. That is more often argumentative comment threads, so by replying with pluses to comments you agree with it makes positive comments more visible too.
Yes, the story begins with Arthur standing up to a whole team of tough builders, lying down in front of a bulldozer and ignoring veiled threats about how if the bulldozer rolled straight over him it would suffer no damage at all. Then later when he finds out he got scammed he is FURIOUS. That guy is not some simpering cowardly pushover!
No, he's an entitled Brit; the worst kind!
Being furious is not a sign of rugged manliness.
Why was he mad? Because he was pushed over.
How did his furiosity manifest? Ineffective simpering.
@@petermgruhn you clearly never read the books. Arthur is a bit of an idiot, and well out of his depth. But at no point was he a coward or pushover.
We'll see who rusts first!
21:30 Wasn't the slapstick flyswatter thing explained somewhere? The Vogons evolved into the perfect bureaucratic species because they were swatted every time they had an idea, which also caused their faces to be smooshed in and why their noses were up the way they were?
Maybe in the movie, in the books they are an unfortunate result of evolution that evolution gave up on, and their brains are displaced and badly malformed livers.
"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." This video was released on a Thursday. Not sure if intentional or coincidental. Either way, LOL.
I want to believe it was intentional.
Currently watching this video on a Thursday.
@@hannahbrennan2131 samesies
Pretty sure this was also released on Towel Day
Damn, I missed a trick; its a Tuesday...
The Dom freaking out about the "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" joke is now one of my most favorite reactions.
Also, I have to admit that I didn't realize Martin Freeman was in this until years later. Somehow I think I mentally replaced him with Jason Siegal from HIMYM
I'm just relieved I finally found someone else who found this film as bad as I did; I knew it was going to be bad when they messed up the dolphins joke at the beginning...
OMG I thought I was the only person in the galaxy who hates humor based on cringe worthy situations. I find quite a few popular shows unwatchable because it's all based on empathy with people in awkward situations hoping we will find it funny. I find it horrifying.
Yeah me too.
Is it based on empathy, really, or lack of empathy?
I can't stand it either. Sometimes I find it physically painful to watch. I don't understand how anybody can find it funny, but a lot of people do.
I've only seen a handful of examples of cringe humor where I didn't instantly turn off the TV
I loathe cringe humor and second hand embarrassment. The only reason I can watch things like The Office is because I clung to the fancanon that Michael Scott is a deliberate troll.
I loved the movie. It made me read the book. After I finished the whole series, I could never watch the movie again. The movie in no way captured the greatness of the book.
Whatever.
The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway.
The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly
glad no more books have been turned into a Movie.
Thanks.
Listen to the radio version. It's the original and still the best.
Well, it's always a good thing when an adaptation brings people to the original source material. It's shows that people have an interest in where it all started.
Contrast this to adaptions where people are too stupid to realize it is an adaptation, and take it as canonical gospel. Looking at you Netflix Castlevania, Netflix Shera, and Hamilton.
Same, I was planning on reading the books, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Around the same time I discovered my family owned the movie. I decided to watch the movie while waiting for the books to be located. Loved it, read the books, loved them even more, haven’t wanted to watch the movie since.
OMG me too!!! My first experience was the movie and I laugh so much that I bought all the books at once!! I love the books so much!!! They are so funny!! But I still like the movie!!
I have always felt that the lo-res nature footage was intended to look like a documentary you'd watch in school. Low budget educational clips...
yeah, I thought that was a bit too
"Dry wit and surreal humor"
That also explains why you like Terry Pratchett
Whatever.
The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway.
The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly
glad no more books have been turned into a Movie.
Thanks.
Pratchett is to fantasy what Adams is to sci fi. But more so, with far higher novel output (not working for a broadcaster), and somehow manages to be more scientific. What’s impressive is that Adams went to Cambridge but Pratchett didn’t go to university at all.
Zaphod's second head REALLY bugged me in this movie. The 2nd head is suppose to be on his shoulder, NOT a second head on hidden in his neck. At the costume party he even has a bird cage on his shoulder over the 2nd head.
Jami JoAnne Russell SAME I was watching for the first time with my parents I kept internally screaming whenever it happend
whenever i watch an adaptation of a book i know with my parents i have to physically stop myself from yelling the inaccuracies
In fairness, Zaphod's second head is one of the hardest parts for any HHGTTG adaptation to pull off, and doesn't really serve much point. I believe even Adams himself admitted it was nothing but a random weird detail he thought up to emphasize the whole "alien" thing. You could safely remove it and not change anything, except, of course, for making VFK cheaper and HH fans riot.
The two heads so he could drink two drinks at the same time. ( various drinking games against himself )
was not nearly as funny...how can you have an effective argument (or row) with yourself (or other personality) if you are constantly switching back and forth like that?
One thing I liked about the film was the sometimes subtle uses of a towel in various situations. For example Ford uses it like an oven glove to protect him from heat and Arthur wears it like a cloak to protect him from the cold. Radiohead wrote their album 'OK Computer' while listening to the radio show, and you might notice aspects of the theme song, particularly in the songs 'Lucky' and 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' (and the lyrics could be about Ford Prefect).
Also of course Paranoid Android is about Marvin
If nothing else, the production design is incredible. It absolutely looks exactly as I imagined everything in the Hitchhiker books would. Also, the Dolphin Song is lovely.
Brazilian fan here, as someone who never had any exposure to Douglas Adams works before the movie, I still have a special place in my heart for this movie!! I laugh so much when I watched for the first time that I immediately went and bought all the books at once!! I love them so much, I embarrassed myself reading in the subway bc I started to laugh and people would stare at me!! The books are one of my favorites of all times, I read a lot of times and always make me laugh!! I still like the movie too, I can’t watch the music in the beginning without smiling, and there’s a lot of scenes that are truly hilarious!! I wish I could listen the radio show, but I never find it here! I just think I have to defend the movie so much bc it was for a lot of non British people the first experience with Douglas brilliance!!
The joke is explained in the directors commentary. What with the parallel universes and alternate timelines that Adams set up in his own universe, they were basically saying that means the universe has more than one end depending which timeline you're going down. So Marvin was basically telling them they were heading down the wrong timeline.
That said, it's still a bad joke. If you have to listen to the commentary to get the joke, and the joke still isn't funny, it's a terrible attempt at humour.
Agreed. With a joke, you can't be dismissive of people who take it at face value, because the longer a person has to think about it to reach a satisfying conclusion, the less satisfying that conclusion will be, and if they hit upon an even worse joke on their way there, especially when it ruins continuity and demolishes one of the very coolest things in the source material, they are well within their rights to assume that *you* are the dumbass here... also "other end" implies only two ends, meaning there's only two alternate universes, but Mostly Harmless put a definite stopper on that, so either these guys just didn't get that far in the series, or they fucked up the wording of their joke, meaning they really shouldn't have been allowed near this project in the first place, especially since it happened to be based upon some of the most clever writing in the known universe.
Sounds like a long-winded excuse for a joke they'd realised too late was shit
It's the dissecting the frog issue brought to the nth degree, and as you say, made worse by the fact that it suggests only two ends.
And what makes it even dumber is the fact that they actually change direction, thus causing the joke to fall even flatter, because the visual gag suggests going to the opposite side of the universe, not an alternate timeline.
And what makes it even worse is that it wouldn't matter if it's dependent on the timeline, it would still be at the chronological end of that particular universe. The more you analyse it, the less sense it actually makes
Lastly it doesn't work because you can't get to the restaurant via normal means, it's reached by circumventing all possibility (I believe 6 impossible things) that you top off with arriving at Milliways
@holly taylor, no. because han meant that he warped time, so that means his incorrect comment about parsecs is right and was always intentional... sorry wrong excuse for the wrong misfire
pickering86
The face slappers are explained in the commentary, too. They're why the Vogons are such unoriginal thinkers, and why their noses have moved up to the tops of their heads.
24:45 oooh he's mad.
24:47 really really mad.
24:49 think i might just take my headset off....
24:51 yeah no i heard that even with the headset taken off.
I tried to think of how I feel about the hitchhiker's guide movie, but all I could think of was "I liked the song"
My dad had the tv show on vhs when I was a kid, so that was my first experience with the series- I read the books out of order after finding them one by one in my parents house later and saw the movie somewhere inbetween. This worked out fine.
Moonkitti hi
The song is a banger though
Soon so long.....but thank for all the fish
I have memorized large swaths of the book, and I recite it with my mother in conversations quite often. I hated the film. The only parts I did like were 1)the so long and thanks for all the fish song, 2) Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, and 3) Marvin. Also, I got major waves of nostalgia hearing the radioshow theme at the beginning.
Nevermind. Seeing this reminded me of Dent. Frankly, Martin Freeman, perhaps, looks more like how I imagined Ford Prefect. Also, can I mention what I found to be the ultimate example of how the film got rid of all the punchlines (or the setups to them). "Where are we?" "We're in the galley of a ship from the Vogon constructor fleet" "Ah."
Whereas, as I quote so very often, the punchline is "This is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of."
Marvin was atrocious: he is clearly described as a "metal man" - later with rust - and with "red triangular eyes". Not to mention his metal leg was part of the Wicket Key.
The only way they could have made him worse was to portray him as black, rubbery and dildo shaped, and called him "Far-que".
@@95rav really, i just liked alan rickman voicing him. you're totally right about the rest.
I think Martin Freeman could've made for an exceptionally good Arthur, but the writing... Man, the writing...
I've only read the first book so far. Gonna start reading the 2nd one soon. I remember watching the film a long time ago and liking but I forgot almost all of it. So when reading the book I felt ford wasnt panicking when the volgons came to earth infact he was excited due to being able to finally leave a planet he thought was boring. I rewatched the movie and ford is almost always panicking especially at the start. Also I hated that they didnt include the chefs (I forgot thier name) that actually let Ford and Arthur on the ship just to annoy the volgons. Why would the volgons willingly let ford and Arthur aboard otherwise. They also done trillian and zaph wrong. Trillian was arabic and had no love interest really with arthur except arthur and her exchanged numbers at a fancy dress party.(maybe they have love interest later on but I've only just finished the first one) and zaphs heads were side by side
@@alexholt6810 This is one point I bring up in defense of the movie. Trillian had no love interest, true. Consider that in light of the fact that Trillian has no functional part in the story whatsoever that I can recall anyway. As the radio show was essentially made up on a week to week basis, Adams did very little forethought or planning. Trillian just tags along on the boys adventure and not only does very little worth noting, she doesn't develop much of a distinct personality until book... uh, four? (Even then, it wasn't much of a personality. I don't think Adams even bothered including her in book three, then re-introduced her as someone completely different) You might have not liked the movie's solution to this issue, but at least they tried to do SOMETHING with her.
I mean, the ingredients of a "will they/won't they" romantic subplot were there for the using, and Adams is the one who originally put them there. What else could the film have done to make her an active participant that wouldn't have equally displeased the fans? Make her a secret intergalactic spy?
I'm only 22 seconds in and I'm thrilled you're mentioning the random field that Douglas lay in when he formed the idea for this book. Don't know why that matters so much to me but I would indeed have been put out if you had not mentioned it. Thank you
I'm one of those people who like the movie and the books (I haven't finished the radio show and I didn't actually know there was a show) but one thing that really bugged me was the fact they changed Ford's reason for having a towel with him at all times. I don't know why but the idea of carrying a towel around with you so you could trick people into letting you use anything of there's under the assumption you'd just lost your own is downright hilarious to me and seeing it dumbed down to him just liking towels just urked me to an unnecessary degree.
Yup the moive is one of my guilty pleasure i have not read the book
Imagine coming out of a door in the oval office in a bathrobe with a towel over your shoulder and saying "Oh! Sorry, just moving through"
I thought it was because it was useful for everything, I mean, it's also a blanket and pillow AND bag.
@@aoyukinana you have to read our listen to the book. Its amazing blow your mind. Boom
@@meandmybobbygee1812 And you can wrap it round your head to ward off the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
Due to my aging eyes and the small screen on my phone, I made it to the eight minute mark before I realized that you're wearing a bathrobe. Well done, sir.
I'm at 7:54, and you just told me, so it's not just you my friend😂
don't feel bad...took me 9...
I would like to present this review with an award for the most gratuitous use of the word "Belgium" by an internet reviewer.
That was a tweak for the American market.
Have you ever been to Belgium in fact?
I have to applaud you, my good hoopy frood.
Only used by loose tongued people in situations of dire provocation. This seems fair enough to me
21:50 the poetry joke was that Vogon poetry was the 2nd worst in the universe, with the very worst being Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings who lived in Essex and perished with the Earth. If Arthur had been exposed to that, then it makes sense he'd think the Vogon poetry was good. This was in the book btw and not explained in the movie.
Actually, Vogon poetry was the third worst with the second worst being that of the Azgoths of Kria.
And Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge was actually an obfuscation of Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, a real person.
"Its not easy to get a hold of"
Looks downstairs at my sparse DVD shelf with the original TV show and all of the radio show discs.
"Aha, I'm one of lucky ones :)"
TBF, the joke about the restaurant being at the other end of the universe is hilarious without additional context.
Honestly it's just a chuckle at best, I like this film and it always bugged me.
It's not the Joke tho. Like Dom said.
It's at the End of Time!
Whatever.
The next Books, that have no movie yet, are awful anyway.
The Quality drops MASSIVELY, so i am truly
glad no more books have been turned into a Movie.
Thanks.
@@slevinchannel7589 why tf are you spamming this under like every comment?
@@lukaskuhlemann482 Go figure.
actualy, I think the idea of Arthur being unnaffected by Vogon poetry, is because I believe they mentioned humans are horrible at poetry.
*Some* humans. Earth is the origin of the third worst poem in the Universe but I'm not sure if they ever said something about the poetic abilities of humans generally...
Kaja Miletic Earth has the worst, the Vogons are the third.
My interpretation was that Arthur was just lying about how he felt about it.
I'm got the same thing. The Guide even says that humans have the worst poet in history.
LibertyisFTW when I first saw it I was doing my GCSE's. I immediately thought he had a resistance to vogon poetry as a result of the terrible anthologies we have to read in GCSE English.
Eugenideddis if you listened or seen the radio and television he was in pain by the Vogon poetry and than lied about it
i thought it was implied that these fly swatters from beneath the ground were attacking creatures that have creative thoughts and ideas on their own. its the vogon homeworld and it was stated, that vogons have no creative thoughts on their own what so ever. their lack of own ideas were a survival mechanism, methinks...
Yeah, there's something on the dvd/director's commentary that says that
I took it as Marvin saying even though the Millyway's was at the end of time, it still has a physical location. It was built on the remains of Magrathea/Frogstar (depending on the source) but still has a physical location. So Marvin was saying that even ignoring the time travel needed, you still needed to go to the site and that site was in the other direction. The joke of the brakes squealing on a spaceship bugged me more than Marvin's line.
Common, the robot has a brain the size of a planet, I think he would know what he is talking about...
Honestly, about Alan Rickman, I think he was the only actor who understood his part. His performance of Marvin was spot on in my opinion. The others-- well terrible is an understatement.
Even Bill Nighy? I thought he was good
correction (4 years later :P): He was the only actor whose character had been written properly. Oftentimes you can't blame an actor if a character is a terrible interpretation of a book character, because that's the screenwriters and director failing, not the actor.
I think Stephen Fry as the voice of the book was spot on as well as Bill Bailey as the sperm whale. For me Yasiin Bey's Ford was a real hoopy frood.
15+ years ago me and my friend, watching the dvd of the the TV series, paused on the image of Zaphods second head staring blankly into the void and we laughed, solidly for over 10 minutes, choking painful laughter. That head is one of my favourite things in mankind's entire collective history.
loved Rickman but won't love a movie due to his presence alone. But he does tend to elevate it.
That's how I feel about Stephen Fry. And it still couldn't save this film.
Could never top Peter Jones and Steven Moore.
@@richardvernon317
Rickman seems wrong for Marvin to me.
I'd be inclined to swap his and Bill Nighy's roles.
Every time Dom uploads a video, a copy of fifty shades of grey is burned.
and thank the Gods for that!
*Excellent*
and then gleefully jumped up and down on
Nobody can make that many videos.
I'm writing in defense of the film, but I still agree with the video. Can I "briefly" explain?
THE film merit: it is a funny film, and it got many people exposed to Douglas Adams' work for the 1st time.
I'm Italian, I knew absolutely NOTHING from this author. Now he's one of my favorite, thanks to this film and how easy it is to get books in their original language nowadays (especially when the language is English).
The books that inspired the film are a lot better than the film itself, and basically everything funny in this film is Douglas' thinking (unexplained ideas-reacting-slappers included), but you underestimate the amount of Douglas you can find in the film if you NEVER came in contact with his work before. It's really a LOT, in my personal experience.
Think about this. The fan base of the original material ALWAYS fail to evaluate how much of the original is received by 1st time exposed audience of the adaptation, and that causes the fan base of said adapted work to feel rage towards the adaptation. To a varying degree, usually mixed with other reasons (main one here, imho: different and less intelligent humor thrown in, downgrading and making off beat and incoherent the general tone of the film), but it's ALWAYS there, as you yourself should be able to testify with your reaction to the Watchmen's film adaptation.
Thanks for your videos!
One thing I hate just in general? People saying "42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything." Because that is flat-out _wrong_ . 42 is the answer to _the great question OF_ Life, the Universe, and Everything. It's a *crucial* part of the joke. Anyone who says the former... you can tell instantly did not read/watch/listen to the original series' or else did not properly remember/understand it.
I always understood it as an absurdity for a species to want any such answer. The expectation is something deep and philosophical and to get an integer mocks the concept.
so you re telling me the books are the reason the question to the answer is 42....i can finally rest in piece...
@@edselcervantes6229 Well, seeing as the radio-show came first....
I don't get it and what's the joke?
@@333angeleyes I recommend you read or listen to Hitchhiker's Guide yourself, but to summarize, a highly advanced civilization builds Deep Thought, a supercomputer, and asks it to calculate the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything. After 7.5 million years, Deep Thought responds "you're really not going to like it", the civilization demands "tell us!" and Deep Thought responds "42." "42? 7 million years to get 42?" exclaims the civilization. "It would have gone faster, but you didn't give me the question," Deep Thought explains.
The joke is the super-advanced civilization were sloppy with their wording, and asked for the answer to the great question of life, not the answer to life.
The plot goes on to explain how Earth was created as an even more powerful supercomputer to calculate what the actual question was, so the distinction is actually important for the story as well.
Anyone who read or listened to Hitchhiker's Guide would understand the importance of "great question of" and anyone who leaves it out clearly missed the joke.
(The joke is actually funny when Douglas Adams delivers it; I just jumped straight to the punchline without any buildup.)
Any Whovians should know that Addams also wrote one of the best most watched Dr Who stories ever
City of Death
I particularly loved his work in Key to Time, particularly The Pirate Planet.
And one that failed to get completed but was later released as a cobbled together video release, and also adapted into the first Dirk Gently novel.
More accurately, Dirk Gently was base on Shada and City of Death.
The Key of Time was my "definitive" Doctor who from my Childhood 8)
Don't think I've seen Shada, City of Death was amazing though. BTW I have always wanted HGTTG to do a crossover with Dr Who.
Did The Dom forget to install The Calm Intellectual Filter?
He broke it in Sea of Monsters
I don't think the Filter would have resisted the word Belgium...
Oh, sorry.
@@luisantoniohernandezdauaja6961 you absolute zarqing cretin! There's no need for such crass language!
When the movie came out, I had only read the first book (the movie tie-in version no less), and the film was the first adaptation of it I'd ever seen. So my feelings of the film were mostly positive, and I felt they did a relatively good job making the book's humour more visual.
I've since read all the books and experienced most of the other adaptations. Honestly, I think the film is better than the TV series, which I thought was just boring and awful.
Part of why I feel differently about this to Dom may be, quite simply, my Irishness. I just don't have the same affinity for British humour he has.
If British humour is defined by caustic detachment, and American humour by exuberant disruption, Irish humour is somewhere in between. So the adaptation's "Americanising" of the British comedy actually chimed quite well with me.
I strongly agree, cringe humor is an abomination that shouldn’t exist.
That's just an entitled and stupid thing to say. "Hurr durr I dun like dis so it shouldn't exist".
TheDOPDeity it’s just a joke, they aren’t being entitled just dramatic
Would you consider the, "Lol, so random," humor from the Superhero/Date/Disaster/ Epic Movies to be cringe humor? I get that they are supposed to be Spoof movies, but you can't just throw in Harry Potter fighting Optimus Prime in the background while Protagonist is having beer for breakfast in a cafe ran by Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's why I like Mel Brooks style Spoof Movies. They keep within their, for lack of a better term, lore while still being funny.
I think that the film is so well liked (I even admit to a soft spot for it, despite knowing it's terrible) because for a lot of us in America, including myself, it was the first incarnation of the story we experienced. It's like, if you've only ever had orange juice from concentrate before, then you think it's pretty good, and then you taste fresh squeezed orange juice and you understand what you've been missing out on. The first time I saw the film, I'd never even heard of Douglas Adams, so when I saw even the echos of his work, it was something so completely new and different that it blew my mind. It didn't occur to me that Arthur Dent was being overly whiny, because Martin Freeman was the only version of Arthur Dent I'd ever seen. And it didn't bug me that Marvin looked depressed, because in the film, he as built to exemplify depression, so he would look depressed. And the ending joke was mildly funny because end and edge can be synonyms in some cases, and I had no idea that it was supposed to be at the end of time. Of course once I read the books and realized how much better the writing was, the movie seemed terrible in comparison, but it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first glimpse I got of the universe.
would you consider doing an episode for Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children? I would really like to see that
+
Please do! The movie was a huge disappointment.
Some changes I can understand (the main villain being changed, the Hollows’ origin story being changed) because those were revealed in the second and third book respectively.
But some things just boggled me. Why did they make Enoch, the rude and grimy preteen, into a brooding teenage model? Why did they turn Emma from a fierce pyrokinetic that holds the group together into a ditzy Disney Princess sterotype with Olive’s powers? Why are the twins there if they had no plot importance in the book, and were only a photo of some random peculiars?
@@CGFillertext I've seen the movie but haven't read the books yet( don't @ me I'm working on it) but how I understood it was-
Enoch needed to be cute so people who hadnt read the book liked him. (Still gave me massive murder vibes but okay)
Emma needed to fit the "good girl is best girl" trend that was going on at the time. (Upset at this one because I share her name, and apparently some personality traits.)
And twins are creepy. (But I absolutely loved them in the movie.)
I'm still waiting for the day when Martin Freeman plays a role that isn't interchangeable from all the others.
What about his role in Alo G Indahouse?
the typecasting is real
I'm still waiting for a clever mishmash parody of the martin freeman hobbit and the martin freeman guide movie and Sherlock. Since they have the same basic set up. Martin Freeman is invited on an adventure, doesn't want to go, is reluctantly forced to go. Complains that there is no tea on this adventure. The difference being in the hobbit and sherlock he eventually has some semblance of fun.
Wild Target.
I like when he plays a bully in power.
I love the books and absolutely adore the movie. It's not perfect by any means but I still really enjoy it as a self contained story.
As someone who loves computer games I would kill for an adaptation this good. Doesn't mean it's a "good adaptation", just that I'm used to the bar being so drastically low.
I just finished reading the book and now learning there are 5 other novels and oh so much more stuff of this universe gave me a calm and happiness I hadn’t felt since 2019
I'd wait until you get there before celebrating. It's a mixed bag to be sure--the series never truly putters out of steam, but some of the passages of later books are pretty dire.
I found the film immensely fun.
My first experience with Hitchhikers was reading a review of a book in Starlog Magazine, which intrigued me. My 2nd experience was seeing the TV show on PBS, which was also airing Dr Who from Tom Baker on; as well as the first three seasons of Red Dwarf.
My third experience was buying the book, falling in love; & buying its sequels.
Which led to... Greatly anticipating the movie, based on Starlogs coverage of its making.
And, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, since the only thing I could compare it to was the bad TV series & the books.
You really need to add a subcatigory after People who watched the move. People who wished they DIDN'T watch the movie.
Neo Blackheart +
I shall add my name to that subcatigory.
Definitely fall into that subcategory
As someone who enjoyed the movie as a teenager, but who has since listened to the radio series and is now starting to read the books... my god the movie falls flat on its face.
Neo Blackheart I like the movie but not as an adaptation
just as a film
Welp, the movie drove The Dom crazy. Maybe Terrance will finish the review.
" it'll all end in tears, I just know it" is a phrase I use to this day.....
The vogons having evolved into such a bureaucratic race, never daring have any own original ideas, and having noses looking the way they do, seems pretty tied up with the "slappers" on their planet to me...
If the whole movie had "that makes sense" kind of potential when thinking about it later then you'd say that's brilliant. As it is you end up assuming it's stupid slapstick with no purpose because the rest of the movie makes that seem like the most plausible explanation.
It’s on the nose to the point where I don’t even think it’s supposed to be an interpretation. The Vogon planet attacks anyone who has inspiration or imagination. It’s obvious what it’s trying to say
I choose to interpret the ending of the movie as Marvin meaning "other end of the universe" as in the temporal end rather than the spacial edge, and the ship turning around because Zaphod's an idiot and misinterpreted that as "opposite spacial edge" even though he should know better. But that's just me salvaging that scene and turning it into a joke in my mind through headcanon; I have no illusions the the intent wasn't the stupid error The Dom describes it as.
You know, this film was my introduction to Hitchhiker's, so I guess I have a bit of nostalgia for it. While I do have to appreciate it structure-wise for trying to utilize elements from all the other versions, after reading/seeing those other versions I have to agree that at the very least it's certainly not as good.
The one thing I did like about the film, is that Ford's reaction to every situation is to reach for/brandish his towel.
So as someone who absolutely adore all the books (though admittedly hasn't heard the radio show ) I rather liked the movie, though I was younger when I originally saw it so maybe should rewatch. Also another thing so for the books they are narrated by Martin Freeman for the audio books since 2006, and he does a pretty good job.
Technically the time end of the universe is an "other end" of the universe than any space end.
i can't be the only person who thought that the ending joke actually DID reference the fact that the restaurant was at the end of time, right? they headed out and marvin made that comment that the restaurant was at the "other end" of the universe...they didn't just turn around and go the other way. they turned, but curved and hit the improbability drive. my brain just completely processed that as Marvin meaning that by "other end" meant not the opposite direction but actually meant the other type of end of the universe...the end of time. i had read the books, watched the tv series and listened to the radio shows since i was very little. it never occurred to me that Marvin meant anything other than the end of time when he said that. Ford had mentioned the restaurant, but proven by the movie that he can be forgetful about mentioning details, it left it to Marvin to point out that the end wasn't the one they were headed or. I guess its all about personal perspective. I love every incarnation of Hitchhikers. So while I respect that The Dom has his opinion on it, I think its a perfectly enjoyable movie that I am happy to have in my collection of frequent rewatchables.
Yup... pretty obvious double meaning wordplay. Rather disappointing considering how smart and funny I found that bit. (Guess our reviewer is one of those doors he griped about after all. "Ahhhhhhhhh...") Otherwise a surprisingly nice review with a lot of good points. (And yes, the cringe humor seemed shoehorned in to appease The Office fans)
In any event, a lot of folks see this on cable and hate it. DO NOT WATCH THIS ON CABLE! It is the edited version, which utterly demolishes everything the film does right, but for some reason is the way they keep presenting it. Buy the Bluray, it really is the only good way to see this.
lol, he didn't get the joke at all.
I thought they were accidentally heading to the "other end" i.e. the big bang, which has another restaraunt
What got me more than the time/space question was the fact that a big part of the joke about Marvin is that no one ever listens to him, or listen and then cut him off once he gets to something important. The fact that the crew reacted immediately to his comment undermines that entire dynamic.
Yes, I got this as well. It was an interesting "double meaning".
7:25 thank you, Dom, for blessing my screen with the image of Alan Rickman (may he rest).
My experience with Douglas Adams writing style is from reading a non-fiction book about a collaboration with a zoologist to visit endangered species. It's called Last Chance to See and I would highly recommend it. It is thoughtful, thought provoking and funny as hell with Adam's descriptions of events.
My first exposure to this universe was the film... I quite liked it...
It got me interested as a kid and when I had the interest, I was pleasantly surprised when I started going through older iterations and found different paths taken. It made it feel more rewarding to find new jokes and approaches.
Since when can Beetlejuicians change their bodies at will...? In "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" Zaphod demands to know if radiation or other hazards was going to result in him having another head in the end... Sort of implies that he didn't get the extra arm and head on purpose. Plus (at least in the novels) there's at least two other species that look human, the people of Krikket and that planet Arthur lives on for a while when he's going through his depression
If I may (more or less) quote from the radio series:
Trillian: Zaphod please take your hand off me. And the other one, thank you. And the other one.
Zaphod: I grew that one specially for you Trillian, took me six months but was worth every minute.
Implies at least that Zaphod was willing to get the arm on purpose and possibly that he grew it rather than having it randomly appear.
I could be wrong as it has been a while since I read any of the books or listened to the Radio show but I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to change their body structure consciously. At least they are not the haggunemnons(?) who almost constantly change their genetic structure at almost random as they are likely to morph into something with far longer arms to reach their coffee spoon but are now incapable of drinking the coffee.
@@bobbys332
The Haggunenons were the creation of Adam's friend John Lloyd. They do not appear after the radio show because Adams was afraid Lloyd would claim copyright on them and ask for royalties.
Also, the ending rant was absolutely magnificent.
Wow, I'm sorry you had to go through this The Dom, I always assumed it was just a harmless bit of slapstick British/American comedy. But to see you this infuriated...I need to read these books already, because I am missing out.
Remember the radio show is the original and everything else is an adaptation
For s1/book 1, maybe, but the shows and books are released in a mind-bendingly complicated order, so it's kinda hard to say what's the original for anything from s2 onwards - or at least you can't say x medium is for all. I was very impressed with Dom's breakdown in the following video
I learned something today.. that the end of the universe meant time, not direction.. thank you
thank you for including the original series music.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE DO DIRK GENTLY.
King Fabletown Which series though, because the new one isn't so much an adaptation as taking the original idea and basis for the book and giving it a completely new story (I love both series just to be clear, both are so different from each other it's difficult to compare them but I would say I prefer the BBCAmerica/Netflix series slightly more)
Agreed. I loved the Netflix series. It's not *my* Dirk Gently, but the series as a whole captured the feel of the books quite neatly which the Stephen Mangan series didn't, I felt.
That's what -she- Dirk said.
The film introduced me to the series weirdly enough and i will always have a love for it. Just hits the right spots for me on its own.
0:42 Oh that makes me sad. More people have seen the film than any of the other mediums.
I know, right?!
Totally shocking and incomprehensible!
Best time stamp, at least for this episode.
You talked about the radio series. Just made my day, feel like no one talks about the radio series.
Startship Titanic was the other way around. The book was written based on the game. Terry jones (who voiced the parrot in the game) was asked to write the book because the publisher wanted to release the game and the book simultaneously (for marketing reasons) and DNA didn't have the time to write it by himself, so he offered it to Terry Jones who said that he will write it while naked.
Can't believe the Dom said "Belgium" on screen.
Same here, shocking I say.
Meanwhile, me watching this in Belgium: what did we ever do to you Dom?
"Listened to the radio series: 42"
Hoopy
Jesus Christ, Dom, what must the neighbours think?
I went next door to warn them first XD
A fine display of English manners. One should always warn ones neighbors before they are bound to hear "Belgium", and see a driven mad with rage YT reviewer trashing about.
For those who don't know, the television show is available on amazon prime, at least in America.
About adaptations:
Imagine you have an plant and you want to communicate to someone what the plant is like. They are many way you could do that. One way would be to paint it. One way would be to write a long description of the plant . One way would be to make a clay sculture of the plant , you could even spent year in a lab making a synthetic aroma that reproduce its smell. Or maybe you could make a dance balette to express what the plant make you feel. Now if someone came and try to make a sculture of the plant based on what you wrote they'll probably get something that's different that would they would have if they sculted it based on the original plant .
A story is like that plant. Every adaptation is like interpretation of the same image. When adapting from a book you'll already adapting from an interpreation of the story. You use the first medium to create an idea of the original story in your head then trie to communicate that idea through a second medium, but it doesn''t mean the idea and the model are identical. It's like a game of telephone.
When an author is in charge of the adaptation, they still have access to the original idea, they can still make the new interpreation based on the actual model.
RIP Terry Jones, the Co-Writer of Starship Titanic
The game itself? Atrocious.
It's like they adapted only every other word.
When I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I was like seven. Thanks to my limited perception of, among other things, English, space, and reality, I could not tell you the plot of any of the five books I read if my life depended on it. That being said, I could tell you that they are one of the funniest things I have ever read, even without being able to remember a single event after the Earth's destruction.
@crocuslament9680:
Very well done to grasp it now at least!
- I'm 58 and still struggle with English, space and reality, not to mention the rest!
I LOVED the radio programme. As a child in the eighties, i made sure i stayed near the radio saturday evenings.
I thought the whole joke of "other end of the universe" was a sort of in-joke, for anyone who understands that it refers to time, therefore making Marvin's statement not make sense. Otherwise, there's no joke there. I mean, break sounds on the ship is hardly a joke.
it was, but a lot of people don't realize that douglas adams was heavily involved in this retelling and most of the complaints that people echo about the movie were his decisions; it's one of those things...
@@larrote6467 didn’t watch the whole video moment
The radio series will always be my favourite, with the books close behind, I recently rewatched this film, and, while it was definitely not as good as I remember(Why is Zaphod a complete idiot??) I still found enjoyment from it, not all of the jokes land, but I'm not sure you could get a better guide (other than the original obviously) than Fry, thought the general production design was superb, especially with the Henson Company's Vogons and quite liked the musical opening number...although the fact there's two title reveals always confused me...
Zaphod is an idiot because he had is mind sliced up.
the second title reveal is a direct homage to the bbc tv series opening. Basically a wink and nod to longtime fans of the Hitchhikers works.
I liked the film, it was at least based on Douglas' own script
Honestly, I don‘t understand why everyone is hating on it so much, in my opinion at least it kept true to the tone of the novel.
The book has an excellent interaction between Ford the man demolishing Arthur's house, where he reasons that because Arthur and the demolition man were both determined to stand there indefinitely, Arthur wasn't necessary for that to happen, and the demolition man could just hold up his end of the standoff while Ford and Arthur left to get drinks.
Suffice it to say I was _very_ disappointed when the film replaced this scene with "hey guys I have booze".
I know this is 5 years after the video but I am a dirty lover of this movie. Though like you touched on with the radio show, I think it just hit me at the right age, time, and place. I fully know nostalgia for this is why it is one of my top 3 favorite films of all time. Granted maybe it is because I'm American so some of the humor might hit better, plus I seen this at 16 (my first time every hearing/seeing about Hitchhikers).
All that said, enjoyed the video still. Always enjoy hearing why someone almost passionately dislike something I enjoy. New to the channel but so far have greatly enjoyed it all!
You played a clip from the "Tertiary Phase" of the radio series as an example of "the original source material" despite the fact that it was actually an adaptation of the third book, was not written by Adams, and was released in 2004 at which time this film was already in production.
I think they didn't literally mean it was at the other end of the universe, Marvin was just saying "You're going the wrong way, dipwads" in his own, depressingly sarcastic way. Granted, I'm a big of an apologist for this movie despite loving the books so.....
Question for you, Dommy.
Would you rather watch this movie or read all of the 50 shades of grey books?
turns out he's done both
I love the fact 42 people listened to the radio show - hitchhikers guide's original format.
Edit: I posted this at the beginning of the video, I'm glad Dom noticed too :)
I might have met Douglas Adams in London in 1971. I did meet a youngish 6'8" man who looked like him and was witty. ..
If you figure the probability, there is about 1 in 10 chance that the guy I met was D. Adams. This was before he went to Europe with his Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe.
My first exposure to the Adams universe was the TV show, which I saw while visiting cousins in England (my branch of the family had moved to the USA about 10 years before then). I think I was about 21 at the time. I absolutely fell in love with it, and bought the book - or maybe it was two books which were out by then. At any rate, I was completely hooked on Adams from the first paragraphs, and bought subsequent books as soon as they came out. Years later, I introduced them to my kids, and my daughter, in particular, loved them as much as I did (she is now a librarian, so obviously has a lot of literary taste! ). She was about 13 when the movie came out, and we were so looking forward to seeing it, then so disappointed. So angered, in fact, at what the movie had done to the smartness and subtlety of the humor in the books. Sometimes I am tempted to rewatch it, to see if maybe I overreacted, but cannot get the bad taste out of my mouth enough to try. Great review, Dom.
Every time he mentions “The Office” I have remind myself that it’s two different shows to keep from going on a rampage when it’s mentioned negatively
But he's talking about the superior version.
I consider the radio continuity to be the true continuity, in part because this was my first exposure to the series, it’s also the original (the books came later), and I just prefer the way things were presented. Also it is the one version which features alternate realities as early as series 2 and 3, eventually using this to explain that all versions (including the book and tv series) are all real (which I don’t think any other versions really address).
The film is fine, but definitely inferior to all other versions.
I love how the English longbowman's "fuck you" hand sign means "peace" or "see ya" in American. I just love profanity that doesn't translate into profanity between cultures.
You flip your hand palm-forward for the peace sign. I had to explain this to so many times..
Kaja Miletic no, not hippie-peace. Gangsta peace. Different sub-cultures in America.
@@Tang-qi6zw Oh wow, learn something new every day huh! I'm fascinated by comms differences between cultures but hadn't come across that one before - perhaps due to watching almost zero American rap music vids, I dunno...?
Every time I feel down I go back to watching all your h2g2 videos, I love them
It is SO refreshing to hear someone else - whom also read the books, listened to (and bought) the entire radio series, and watched same said TV adaption - criticise the film exactly the same way (that bricks don't?!) that I did when I came out.
I can't even sit through more than 30 minutes of it nowadays without turning it off!
Well done, Sir! (I enjoyed watching your review on MY 'big screen' - ie my TV- than I did watching the film adaption at the cinema!)
I thought the whole point of the shovels hitting people for thinking was to explain why the Vogons were so stupid and had their noses high up on their faces
Makes sense.
The Vogons have had their intelligence beaten out of them.
In this case the radio play came first. So isn't the book technically already an adaptation?
i saw the movie first and read the book second. never could find the radio show.
but i can understand where you are coming from, dom. you didn't like the movie. it's all cool.
i liked the movie and eventually decided to read the book afterwards. this gave me the idea to actually begin work on my own book and inspired me to take some new and interesting twists on it.
It's on iTunes, as are all the audiobook.
Here's a link to a TH-cam version of the radio show.
th-cam.com/video/ns6YODvDU3o/w-d-xo.html
Yeah we all want to "watch" radio shows.
To be fair "the restaurant's at the other end of the universe" joke is in keeping with Douglas Adams' tendency for clever double meaning humour. Like "what's so unpleasant about being drunk? Ask a glass of water." (A joke I never understood when listening to the radio play, but laughed out loud when I came to it in the book and suddenly realised what it meant.)
At 12 minutes in I made the door "Ahhh" sound as I finally got why you were in a robe for this review.