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  #221  
Old 21st January 2017, 08:25 PM
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Default The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)


Putting aside any comparisons to the books,or the radio series or the television series,the film directed by Gareth Jennings who has directed whole load of music videos,is in partial a success.Based on a script by Douglas Adams and Karey (Chicken Run) Kirkpatrick,they manage to include pretty much all the major plot points from the original story and manages to give the viewer,even the one's who are un-familiar to the HitchHikers universe,a rather fun if watered down version of the book and the universe in general.The casting may of been controversial at the time,but Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent was probably a no brainer since his success coming from the tv show The Office,and way before he became a hobbit or Dr Watson.Probably more interesting was the casting of Mos Def as Ford Prefect,but apart from him having an American accent and not really coming from Guildford he is the funniest actor out of the whole bunch.Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Sam Rockwell,who normally is brilliant in most things he appears in,just does not do it for me as Zaphod Beeblebrox,and I was for ever comparing him to the rather better Mark Wing-Davey (oops I tried not to compare it to the tv show),even with the fake head Mark Wing-Davey just made the part his own.The other niggle was Marvin The Paranoid ANdroid,why they had to redesign him in the first place i really do not know,especially when he has a cameo appearance in the que on the Vogon planet,it makes you want to see him even more.And while the late great Alan Rickman does a rather good job of voicing him,and Warwick Davis is ok as the actual man in the suit,again I was wishing they had used Stephen Moore who was perfect as the voice of the depressed android. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian is good,but slightly underwhelming. But it is not all doom and gloom,the special effects are as you might of guessed pretty damn good,bringing the Hitch-Hikers universe to life,and especially the Vogon's,who look really great in all of there grossness,and voiced mainly by the chaps from The League of Gentlemen and Richard Griffiths,also Stephen Fry as the Narrator / The Guide was also a great choice and a good replacement for late Peter Jones,Hitch-Hikers the film was going to be a hard sell and even harder to make,my real gripe was that I did not find it funny,what was good was it made me go back and listen to the radio version and re watch the television show.
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Last edited by Inspector Abberline; 21st January 2017 at 09:44 PM.
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  #222  
Old 21st January 2017, 09:41 PM
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I didn't hate it, but I've never been tempted to see it again while I always go back to the TV version every few years.
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  #223  
Old 21st January 2017, 11:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iank View Post
I didn't hate it, but I've never been tempted to see it again while I always go back to the TV version every few years.
You and me both. However, I would rather read the books (or the Stephen Fry/Martin Freeman audiobooks).
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  #224  
Old 22nd January 2017, 12:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline View Post
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Probably more interesting was the casting of Mos Def as Ford Prefect,but apart from him having an American accent and not really coming from Guildford...
Damn straight that he didn't come from Guildford. It's not just the accent. I grew up in Guildford from 1985 to 1992 and I only ever saw one single black person in the entire town. It's a heavily Caucasian area.
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  #225  
Old 27th January 2017, 07:13 PM
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Default The Chimp.(1933)

The Chimp.(1933)

What is basically a remake of the classic Laughing Gravy,The Chimp is by far one of the silliest of the duos comedies,but still very funny,even if the plot is preposterous in the extreme.This time the boys are working in a circus,we first see them as a panto mine horse,then as Destructo's helpers in his cannonball act,unfortunately they manage to the blow the big top down and close the circus at the same time.With the circus in bankruptcy the owner has to pay off its employees with the circus's assets.Stan manages to inherit the flea circus while Ollie has obtained Ethel, a tutu wearing gorilla in a hat.From the offset Ethel is not to keen on Ollie but seems to have a crush on Stan,and pretty much does what ever Stan asks.The scene where Ollie tries to get Ethel into a crate he has been building for her,is priceless,especially the glances Ethel and Stan give each other,while Ollie looks on not knowing what to make of these new turn of events.While obviously Ethel is just a man in a suit ( the great ape impersonator Charles Gemora),they really do manage to get some great expressions and some nice gestures from Ethel,and this was a million years before Rick Baker and his long list of ape effects. There's plenty of funny little scenes in The Chimp,mainly when Ethel is chasing Ollie,even after Stan has coaxed Ethel into the crate,she (I call her she but Ethel does get referred to in the film a couple of times as a him?) manages to chase Ollie and get him in the crate instead. In the end the trio are chased away by a lion called MGM,who escapes the circus as well.The chimp has plenty of memorable moments,while being chased by MGM,Ollie manages to loose his trousers and end up wearing Ethel's tutu,or when Ethel climbs into the bed sitting room and snuggles up to Ollie in his bed,much to Ollie's annoyance. The Chimp is a really nice but silly film,there really is nothing dafter than having a man dressed as an ape chasing Oliver Hardy,then again there is nothing more dafter than having a man in ape suit dancing around the bedroom with Stan and Oliver and then managing to get hold of a gun.Ollie: Ethel! Come back to bed!
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  #226  
Old 28th January 2017, 09:58 PM
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Default The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.(2012)

Its hard not to like an Aardman Animation film, its even harder when you have Tenpole Tudor ,Supergrass and The Clash on its soundtrack and a rather funny Elephant man joke. Of course the film is littered with silly little in jokes and homages. It goes without saying that the animation is of the highest order like any of the Aardman films, and the standard of model making is wonderfully elaborate and some of the detail is truly stunning especially if your are watching it on Blu-ray, the degree of fine detail you see down to the very last nut and bolt on the Queen Victoria's QV1 ship is incredible. The story concerns Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant),who is trying to win the Pirate of the Year competition but due to being a bit rubbish at being a pirate he never seems to win. Even with the best animated movies the main thing is the voice acting, and again its of the highest order, Hugh Grant who probably isn't what I would call the most diverse actor in the world, does a great job as the voice of the Pirate Captain, sounding remarkably like Hugh Laurie from Blackadder the Third, which is not such a bad thing as the whole film feels like animated version of an episode of Blackadder with the humour very much in that ilk. Other great voice acting comes from Martin Freeman as the Captain's number two, plus Brendan Gleeson, Ashley Jensen and Brian Blessed are all great as assorted characters. But probably my favourite character is David Tennant as Charles Darwin, brilliantly voice acted and fits perfectly with animated character who sort looks a little like a chubby Tenant any ways, along with Darwin is his sidekick Mr. Bobo a chimpanzee come butler. What can make or break any animated film is how well the characters work, and there is some really great scenes between the Captain Pirate and his parrot Polly ,who is actually the last living Do Do and this is where a large part of the films humour comes from between Polly and the Captain, especially when the Captain presents Polly at the Scientist of the Year competition. Although this had come out in 2012,it has taken me awhile to actually get around to watching it properly, I had partially caught it on television previously, but this is the first time I had watched it in full, the blu ray is excellent although lacking in any substantial extra's, the actual film it self looks amazing, highly recommended.
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  #227  
Old 17th March 2017, 06:16 PM
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Default Mindhorn

mr 420 and nosferatu42 like this.
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  #228  
Old 22nd March 2017, 04:40 PM
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  #229  
Old 27th March 2017, 08:06 PM
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Vacation (2015)

A film that's basically National Lampoons Vacation remade. In this Clark and Ellen's son Rusty takes his wife and two children on the infamous cross country road trip to Walley World.

Whilst the film is brought up to date with more sexual humour there are also plenty of gags that could have come straight out of the classic films of the 80's. I certainly enjoyed it more than anticipated, indeed i laughed out loud more than once.

It also helps that Ed Helms is a likable Rusty Griswold as is the always sparkling Christina Applegate as wife Debbie. In fact Applegate completely steals the show on more than one occasion. It ends rather nicely with a visit to see Clark and Ellen and i felt it rather sweet seeing Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo again even if they were little more than cameos.

If you enjoyed the original National Lampoon Vacation films then i'd definitely suggest you give this a go. You just might enjoy it as much as i did.

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  #230  
Old 11th July 2017, 05:59 PM
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Default Fist Fight.(2017)

In the tradition of the great Animal House, there has been a slew of gross out comedies set around American high schools, some good some bad and some down right rubbish, Fist Fight come's in somewhere around average to good. And while the main story of two teachers squaring up for a fight after school is pretty good and original the rest is all the usual high jinks that we have seen before including a horse running amuck in the school corridors. The cast its pretty top notch, Charlie Day of Horrible Bosses and
Its Always sunny in Philadelphia fame, is of course the wimpy yet likeable English teacher who tries to win over the kids with kindness but fails miserably. And the legend that is Ice Cube is the psychotic history teacher who wields an axe to control his classroom. Ice Cube who lets be honest has a limited acting range plays angry pretty well, and does not have to say much but stare at you to get your attention. Charlie Day who is great at playing losers or people generally at odds with life, is as always likeable and in general very funny and has some of the best lines in the film. Although Ice Cube gets to utter the immortal line **** the police. Fleshing out the faculty is Tracy Morgan as an utter useless gym teacher and Jillian Bell as foul mothed drug taking and potential sexual predator. Perhaps I may be getting grumpier in my old age, or perhaps I'm not the demographic that this film is aimed at, and while there is a few chuckles along the way, I did find that the over use of the f word seemed redundant since it was in nearly every other sentence and also the shock value of these type of comedies has worn thin, even when Charlie Day catches a student masturbating in a toilet cubicle or Jillian Bell talking about having sex with a student its all wearing a bit thin, give me the innocent days of John Belushi spitting food at people or horse dropping dead any day.

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