Tag: Reviews (N)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of its movie trailers…

It’s lucky that I have said remarkably little on the subject of the cinematic version of Hellblazer, ‘Constantine’ because I might have had to eat crow. Thoroughly enjoyed the film and really only had issue with two characters, acting wise, and neither was Keanu Reeves. I’d see it again, and if that was my first directorial effort I would be very pleased.

But enough about comicbook films; it’s back to the ‘…Guide…’

As well you know I was not entirely fond of the first proper trailer. I’ve now seen the other two trailers, which are both Guide entries on the subject of movie trailers, which is much more DNA in flavour. You get to hear Stephen Fry as the voice of the ‘Book’ and Alan Rickman as the voice of ‘Marvin.’ All in all, a far better experience and one that gives me more hope in re the film.

Not as much hope as I had expected to gain, though.

Alan Rickman as the voice of ‘Marvin’ will need time to grow on me; Stephen Moore’s voice is so iconic that any other will need to become an acquired taste. Stephen Fry sounds like Stephen Fry; a little to confident as the ‘Book’ I feel (Peter Jones always sounded as if he didn’t really feel conident in what he was talking about and thus made the ‘Book’ seem like it was the hastily-cobbled-together-by-vagrant-reporters text it was meant to be.

Still, I did hear a snippet of ‘Journey of the Sorcerer,’ which made me vaguely happy. All in all I don’t know that this marketting campaign will get the established fan-base rocking in their… towels? But I suspect that isn’t what they are looking for anyway. True fans are not new fans, and I shouldn’t complain. I converted to the ‘…Guide…’ via the TV series, oft thought to be the weakest of the various versions of the story.

Also, must start writing on subjects other than that of the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’ Really must.

02/28/2005

This is the Story of the Review of the Trailer of the Film of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’

Over at ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ official movie site you can now view the first proper (i.e. non-teaser) trailer to the film of the book of the radio series.

I’m not convinced that it is good. The trailer, that is; I have heard good things about the movie itself, including a description of a second, more English, trailer that instead of mkaing the film appear to be an action comedy portrays the story as being about epic, weird things, usually about people with names that, if not faintly ridiculous, are wildly apocraphyl.

Marketting the ‘…Guide…’ film was never going to be easy because it is not your average story. It starts with the Earth being destroyed and ends with a riff on the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, with the pun being that we know the punchline but not the rest of the joke.

Thus we have what I will call the ‘American’ trailer… Still, I have hope. Apparently one of the deleted scenes on the already planned super-DVD release of the film is of Martin Freeman (the silver screen Arthur) playing his role as that of an action hero.

I suspect DNA would have liked that.

02/19/2005

The State of the (Local) Art

I must admit that when I see the words ‘Local content’ in re TV I tend to run for the hills (or valleys). For, you see, I have been burnt by local content. However, this has meant that I have not allowed myself the pleasures of recent note that have graced our screens.

I should have known better; two of my favourite films of all time are New Zealand productions, and many New Zealand television shows, in the past, have captured my attention and made me think ‘Wow; we can compete with the bigger markets.’ Unfortunately, a few modern sitcoms have found me contemplating the state of my navel, or, in extreme cases, inspecting the back of my occipital socket with a rusty screwdriver.

Thus I have seen only one episode of ‘The Strip’ and only heard the good news that is ‘The Insider’s Guide to Happiness.’

Of the former I had had doubts; having been to school with Jodie Rimmer and knowing her family has made it difficult to adjust to her as an actress. All I can keep thinking is that her grandfather is a good Catholic and that the fruit store Bill owned in Belmont was down the road from a butchery I have very fond memories of. Hardly the kind of critical appraisal you want to stick with you when her character goes off chasing some businessman’s third leg. Of the latter show I just didn’t even consider giving it a chance, condemning it ‘Category: Crap’ without a by-your-leave.

Which is all very bad of me, since as a writer I really should be seeing what my country is producing.

Believe it or not, but New Zealand is a good place to be a writer. Oh, it has vices if you are interested in researching particular genres and the arts elite here is far more British than American, but New Zealand, as a location, is well regarded when it comes to produce drama. The Cinema of Unease, our particular speciality, is sufficiently different from the world’s fare that it has a cult status overseas. Not mainline success, true, but try and find a university student from the UK who hasn’t spent several weekends in a row watching ‘Bad Taste’ religiously and you will be in for a hard time. This extends, somewhat naturally and unnaturally, to the editors and producers of the media itself. ‘Postmark New Zealand’ can often mean the difference of ‘Won’t read’ to ‘Might read’, and when you consider just how much more opportunity that gives in the marketplace it suddenly takes on great value.

Still, location is not everything; mundane stories are mundane stories wherever you are from, and even the following line, ‘As far as I can tell, you may be the reason why God and the little baby Jesus cry at night’ remains better than Stilton sauce sex no matter which country you are from.

Back to TV.

‘The Insider’s Guide to Happiness’ was a show I was convinced, having seen or read nothing about it, would be a fluffy romantic drama. It turned out not to be, seeing that it dealt with time travel, resurrection from the dead and reincarnation. Brave stuff for prime time TV, and handled, so I hear (my watching of the show was limited seeing that it had an overarching plot and I came in late), with ease and a careful balance of pathos and bathos.

New Zealand, it seems, has matured (again) in re its TV production. Like all countries we continue to produce large amounts of fluff, but now you have the option, on at least one channel, to see quality Kiwi unease in 4:3 (or, for the more adventurous producers, 14:9 or 16:9).

Pity that it is somewhat harder to get into that writing game than it would be in Blighty…

Also, someone needs to hurry up and start releasing more local content on DVD.

02/17/2005

This is the Story of the Review of the Tertiary Phase of ‘The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy’

Herein lie my thoughts on the Tertiary Phase of the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy.
     When it was announced over a year ago that Dirk Magg’s, Douglas Adam’s choice as the director for a new ‘Guide…’ radio series was going to write and produce a third series after twenty-five plus years of non-radio ‘Guide…’ I must admit that I was worried. That he was going to use all the surviving cast members was a good sign, but that he was going to base the series on ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ rather than do it was a sequel to the radio series I became very, very, very concerned.
     With knobs on.
     Anyone who is savvy with the ‘Guide…’ will know that the second series differs radically from the books, containing an entire sub-plot about birds, the power of art and the archaeology of shoes. It rids itself of Trillian and ends in a very interesting way that obviously shows that a third radio series was expected shortly. Whilst some of the plot made it into ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ many sections did not. It also ends in a slightly different way, making it very difficult to tie it into the books.
     Which they did, and not particularly well. The second radio series is now a pyschotic delusion Zaphod had, which not only doesn’t explain how and why certain things did or did not occur, it also demeans large chunks of the second series as well. The second series now seems to exist in a vacuum of non-existence, and I am not entirely sure that is quite the way the Douglas Adams would have done things…
     Only the first episode of the thrid series actually contained any scripting by Douglas Adams, hereafter known as DNA; everything after that point was adapted from the books by Dirk Maggs, and he does an admirable job of transferring the text to radio. ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ has a weird history, seeing that it started out as a Doctor Who script, became a book and now has been taken to radio (this might be a first for media history), but it suffers from being an adaptation, and that is a huge flaw for something associated with the ‘Guide…’
     The first two series of the ‘Guide…’ were, in structure, a rock opera. A huge and imaginative soundscape that moved along at a cracking pace.
     ‘The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy’ was a first in radio, by and large. It was one of the first recordings that used multiple channels (it was the first to record dialogue not only from separate mics but also from separate rooms) and soundwise it was something utterly and completely new. Much of what was accomplished was very difficult and extremely innovative; today I could produce a lot of that material on my iBook, which just shows how far we have come in sound design (which is not that far compared to work done in visuals). Luckily, there was hope; Dirk Maggs wanted to be as innovative as the original series was and decided that they would produce a recording in 5.1 Surround Sound. It was also to be webcast, like all other radio series that the BBC plays, which would have delighted DNA something chronic.
     Now 5.1 radio is not common, and to appreciate it I will need to await the DVD release and play it on the home sound system. The actual soundscape this time is interesting; some good, some average and one piece in particular quite aggravating (although that might have been the intention).
     I could bore you (very easily) with even more by the way of technical jargon and opinion… But I shan’t. All I will say that with my newfound interest in sound I was, by and large, interested by not stunned by the new series.
     No, for our purposes we want to talk plot, we want to analyse narrative and, by and large, we want to discuss sequels.
     The plot, with minor exception, is the plot of the book. It starts with only slight change, wrapping up the second series in an implausible and ugly blanket, and moves on to pre-historic Earth, then Lord’s, just as the book did all those years ago. It does not try to fix the bits that really didn’t work, such as the role of Slartibartfast (a character who should not be there and also a character whose original voice actor is dead). Everything zips along nicely… Until we get to the Starship Bistromathic.
     DNA started out as a script writer, and a lot of the plot of ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ actually sounds better than it reads. However, books have a certain structure and they also have a certain… Well, way of things. When given a page to fill with script you double-space, insert notes for SFX and generally produce a whitye canvas with funny black (or blue if you do it in biro). A book, however, tends to be denser, and thus the later scenes of the radio series ape the book far too much, slowing down the pace of the story substantially.
     Which lead to a last episode that can only be called frantic, and that’s on a good day.
     I won’t go through every detail; suffice it to say (and I am sure you will agree if you listen to all three series) that the middle of the story feels far too long whilst the last episode seems far too short. It races… No, it breaks the laws of sound to produce its three endings, one of which makes little sense. The first episode seems like a worthy sequel; the latter episodes contain scenes that are far too long, filled with exposition that seems a little too obvious, and a last episode that returns to the tremendous speed of the first series, but with a focus that is too narrow to the story and thus not wide enough to the mythos.      Still, adaptations are problematic, and reducing down a book to six episodes must have been difficult. Especially when it is a sequel…
     The history of the ‘Guide…’ starts with a radio serial, a set of records, then another radio series, then a set of five books. After that DNA died (the timeline is hideously truncated), having claimed that he would write a sixth.
     A sequel to the second series should really have been a sequel to the second series. This is not to say that the third series should ignore the other books but it should not, at the same time, try to be the third book by ignoring the second series.
     All of this sounds fairly negative and it might seem that I didn’t enjoy the experience. I did enjoy the fit the thirteenth to eighteenth and will be listening to it all again. I suppose I am bemused that after all this time they are making more ‘Guide…’ on radio. It seems like such a strange thing to do.
     Expect more of this next year when the final two books are adapted and we get the new, happy ending (that DNA wanted).
     And, of course, there is also the film to experience…

11/11/2004

Reviews of Books Not Yet Written

A token update; I’ve fallen slightly behind on the fiction front due to producing 10k of exciting academic material. I really should have sat down and mapped out where I am sending three of my stories to, but a slight (and by slight I mean rather major) hangover destroyed all drive today. So, instead of a ego-centric ‘Look at me’ update I present you the review of Mr. Iain M. Bank’s as yet unreleased forthcoming book, lifted straight off Amazon.

“In what can only be described as a book. Banks returns to his, by now familiar, trick of using the glyphs known as letters and punctation to describe scenes, events and characters. With words, scentences, paragraphs and even, on occasions, chapters Iain tells what one might call a story. This book should be treated with caution and under no circumstances should the reader attempt to read it out loud without breathing in at least as often as they breath out.”

     Reviewer: MR JOHN F W RICHARDS from Doncaster, S. Yorks United Kingdom

04/15/2004