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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Interesting. I've been a huge fan of Douglas Adams for a long time, but my interest in his Hitchhiker's books declined after the first. The second and third had some great elements, and I really liked the fourth, because I think Arthur, regardless of how much of a nebbish he is, deserves to have a little joy in his life. Didn't care for the fifth book much at all, for reasons that will either bore the non-fans or be argued endlessly by "true fans". And I enjoyed the Dirk Gently books, I would have LOVED to have read a complete Salmon of Doubt, the initial chapters that were assembled were wonderful!
But we're talking about the movies.
For me, the latest movie was pretty good. I'll be impressed (and very surprised) to see if they continue doing film adaptations of the series. I can't call it great, but it was nice seeing the story in release in some form.
But there's a major point of argument here. Some fans moan "It wasn't the book!" Sorry, Charlie, only the best tasting tuna get to be Starkist. Adams himself sort of reveled in the fact that there were so many different versions of HGTTG, let’s count, shall we? There's the book series of five plus the short story, the radio plays, the TV series, and I believe there was a comic book series. That's four. And they were all different. Not substantially, the overarching meme (geez, does that sound pedantic or what?) carried through the variety of media well. Lots of details were the same, but lots of little things were different.
Now the movie comes along, and we have yet another incarnation of the Adams universe.
I have no problem with that.
So for people who are DA fans, go for it! For people who like sci fi comedy, go for it! If you like SF comedy and hate Douglas Adams, go for it! (in a discount theatre). Heck, go for it anyway and bolster the economy! It's good enough, it's pretty entertaining, and an excellent setup for the remaining books in the series to continue the new film franchise.
I have no specific complaint. There were many things that I would have liked to have seen, some things that did little for my interests, but overall it was good enough. I'm sufficiently mildly pleased to recommend it (damning with faint praise?) but I'm not jumping up and down trying to recruit people. Besides, by now, it's probably out of the first run cinemas anyway.
I will make one final comment about HGTTG, and that's to point to this Dork Tower comic.
Batman Begins. Saw it tonight. Quite liked it, definitely recommend it to Batman fans. Great casting, and no, Dr. Crane is not Superdude from Smallville. It's a new take on the Batman origin getting into details of how he gains skills and motivation. His parents are still killed by a street thug. There's a cop named Gordon. Alfred is very well handled by Michael Caine. Lucious Fox is in it who AFAIK is a relatively late addition to the Batman comic and very well filled by Morgan Freeman.
I make the following statement with the disclaimer that I did not see the Batman With Nipples (Clooney in Batman & Robin). Of the first three Batman movies, this is the first time that the emphasis was on Batman, not the villains. So that was very cool.
I don't think I'm going to say much more about it. I definitely recommend it. Good story, it had one plot hole that I caught and actively disliked, that's the way it goes sometimes.
And I'll close by saying that I'll definitely look to get this one on DVD.
In other news, not much happening in the funeral side today. Sunday is the visitation, we'll see how that goes. Thus we had time to be somewhat lazy today after a mad dash to get a photo of Brian scanned and emailed to one of the larger Ohio newspaper, the Plain Dealer.
One major crisis was averted, cue second crisis!
I bought a new suit at Men's Wearhouse Tuesday and took it to the front desk Thursday evening to get it and my two dress shirts pressed. This represents about $500 in merchandise. It would go out Friday AM and should be back Friday evening. It didn't come back. They said it should be here Saturday PM. I call down around 7pm and find out that it is still not here. Well, there's no way a dry cleaners is going to be open on Sunday, and I needed it Sunday afternoon and Monday AM for the Mass and graveside service. So I raised a stink. I made it quite clear the value of the merchandise that was missing and the urgency behind the need.
Housekeeping checked, couldn't find it. Duty manager checked, couldn't find it. Duty manager said she'd call the head manager or owner or someone equivalent and see what could be done. So we went to dinner.
Somehow I didn't notice my cell phone vibrating on the table. I checked my voice mail and it was the duty manager giving the 'profuse apologies' and an offer to FedEx the clothes to me, which I considered rather curious since we're staying into next week, and an offer to comp us two nights of our room. Two nights is about $200, that doesn't cover either the suit or the two shirts together. Clearly insufficient. So I didn't bother returning the call.
After dinner we decided to hunt up a bookstore that Russ had fond memories of, we eventually found it. Shortly after our arrival, my cell rings, once again the duty manager calls. They'd found my suit and shirts. The front desk clerk found the dry cleaner owner in the phone book and called him and explained the situation. He went back to his shop, found my suit, and delivered it to the hotel.
Definite kudos for the front desk clerk. She saved me a huge amount of grief, inconvenience, and probably $350+ to buy a new suit and shirt.
The book store wasn't quite the same as Russ remembered it. They had to bow to economic reality and retask themselves. They added a video side and made it the focus, relegating the used books to a side business. Russ found a book that she wanted, I didn't find anything in my first pass through sci fi/fantasy and didn't feel like digging deeper because they had one of my big weaknesses: used movie DVDs! I walked out with three: Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Ray. And I'm pretty happy that they were $7 each.
Then we saw Batman, which we both quite enjoyed. And now I'm going to bed. Ta!
But we're talking about the movies.
For me, the latest movie was pretty good. I'll be impressed (and very surprised) to see if they continue doing film adaptations of the series. I can't call it great, but it was nice seeing the story in release in some form.
But there's a major point of argument here. Some fans moan "It wasn't the book!" Sorry, Charlie, only the best tasting tuna get to be Starkist. Adams himself sort of reveled in the fact that there were so many different versions of HGTTG, let’s count, shall we? There's the book series of five plus the short story, the radio plays, the TV series, and I believe there was a comic book series. That's four. And they were all different. Not substantially, the overarching meme (geez, does that sound pedantic or what?) carried through the variety of media well. Lots of details were the same, but lots of little things were different.
Now the movie comes along, and we have yet another incarnation of the Adams universe.
I have no problem with that.
So for people who are DA fans, go for it! For people who like sci fi comedy, go for it! If you like SF comedy and hate Douglas Adams, go for it! (in a discount theatre). Heck, go for it anyway and bolster the economy! It's good enough, it's pretty entertaining, and an excellent setup for the remaining books in the series to continue the new film franchise.
I have no specific complaint. There were many things that I would have liked to have seen, some things that did little for my interests, but overall it was good enough. I'm sufficiently mildly pleased to recommend it (damning with faint praise?) but I'm not jumping up and down trying to recruit people. Besides, by now, it's probably out of the first run cinemas anyway.
I will make one final comment about HGTTG, and that's to point to this Dork Tower comic.
Batman Begins. Saw it tonight. Quite liked it, definitely recommend it to Batman fans. Great casting, and no, Dr. Crane is not Superdude from Smallville. It's a new take on the Batman origin getting into details of how he gains skills and motivation. His parents are still killed by a street thug. There's a cop named Gordon. Alfred is very well handled by Michael Caine. Lucious Fox is in it who AFAIK is a relatively late addition to the Batman comic and very well filled by Morgan Freeman.
I make the following statement with the disclaimer that I did not see the Batman With Nipples (Clooney in Batman & Robin). Of the first three Batman movies, this is the first time that the emphasis was on Batman, not the villains. So that was very cool.
I don't think I'm going to say much more about it. I definitely recommend it. Good story, it had one plot hole that I caught and actively disliked, that's the way it goes sometimes.
And I'll close by saying that I'll definitely look to get this one on DVD.
In other news, not much happening in the funeral side today. Sunday is the visitation, we'll see how that goes. Thus we had time to be somewhat lazy today after a mad dash to get a photo of Brian scanned and emailed to one of the larger Ohio newspaper, the Plain Dealer.
One major crisis was averted, cue second crisis!
I bought a new suit at Men's Wearhouse Tuesday and took it to the front desk Thursday evening to get it and my two dress shirts pressed. This represents about $500 in merchandise. It would go out Friday AM and should be back Friday evening. It didn't come back. They said it should be here Saturday PM. I call down around 7pm and find out that it is still not here. Well, there's no way a dry cleaners is going to be open on Sunday, and I needed it Sunday afternoon and Monday AM for the Mass and graveside service. So I raised a stink. I made it quite clear the value of the merchandise that was missing and the urgency behind the need.
Housekeeping checked, couldn't find it. Duty manager checked, couldn't find it. Duty manager said she'd call the head manager or owner or someone equivalent and see what could be done. So we went to dinner.
Somehow I didn't notice my cell phone vibrating on the table. I checked my voice mail and it was the duty manager giving the 'profuse apologies' and an offer to FedEx the clothes to me, which I considered rather curious since we're staying into next week, and an offer to comp us two nights of our room. Two nights is about $200, that doesn't cover either the suit or the two shirts together. Clearly insufficient. So I didn't bother returning the call.
After dinner we decided to hunt up a bookstore that Russ had fond memories of, we eventually found it. Shortly after our arrival, my cell rings, once again the duty manager calls. They'd found my suit and shirts. The front desk clerk found the dry cleaner owner in the phone book and called him and explained the situation. He went back to his shop, found my suit, and delivered it to the hotel.
Definite kudos for the front desk clerk. She saved me a huge amount of grief, inconvenience, and probably $350+ to buy a new suit and shirt.
The book store wasn't quite the same as Russ remembered it. They had to bow to economic reality and retask themselves. They added a video side and made it the focus, relegating the used books to a side business. Russ found a book that she wanted, I didn't find anything in my first pass through sci fi/fantasy and didn't feel like digging deeper because they had one of my big weaknesses: used movie DVDs! I walked out with three: Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Ray. And I'm pretty happy that they were $7 each.
Then we saw Batman, which we both quite enjoyed. And now I'm going to bed. Ta!
