Hitchhiking in sheer luxury

[vilakins]

To thank Greg for my day out, I took him to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last night. That's a bit poor, you may think, but I booked seats at the Circle Lounge, a luxury cinema which opened this year. Each person sits in a leather armchair with controls to set the back- and leg-rests to suit them. Between each pair is a little table with a lamp on it, and you can order food and drinks to be brought to you during the film. A waiter brought us wine (pinot gris) and the salmon cakes and feta pancakes we ordered at the start of the film, and half-way through, ice-cream (toffee and chocolate) served with elegant dessert forks. They even gave us linen napkins. Very cool. The basic seat prices are only about 50% more than normal so it's worth going back, even if we just order coffee next time.

Before the film, we went into Whitcoulls and happened to find seasons 1 and 2 box sets of Farscape for two thirds the price they'd been, so at last I have it all. Yay!

I enjoyed the film, more than I thought I would after some of the reviews. The SFX were amazing, especially the destruction of the Earth and Slartibartfast showing Arthur the construction yards. Martin Freeman was excellent as Arthur (I so want to see him play Vila), Bill Nighy understatedly British and very funny as Slartibartfast, and Stephen Fry great as the book. Zooey Deschanel actually moved me in the scene where she shoots Zaphod with the POV gun, and Marvin was cute and lovable with his huge planet-shaped if not -sized head; Alan Rickman did his voice well. The Vogons were good (if a bit vinyl-looking in sunlit close-up) and oddly endearing en masse. Yes, some jokes just didn't work (notably the spades in the quarry scene) but in general I was very entertained.

The worst has to be the Zaphod's extra head popping up under his chin (why not the two-headed version we all know?) and Sam Rockwell's continual grinning got a bit much.

Someone's already given away one of the cameos (in the Vogon office queue), but I won't tell you who does the Magrathea defence system (and very well too) or the whale's voice. :-)

I think it's definitely worth seeing.

Comments

[steverogerson.livejournal.com]

I want a cinema like that near me.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's not that close to us--the Berkeley by the sea at Mission Bay is our local--but we've decided it's worth the 20 minute drive.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

What a good idea! And the cinema sounds brilliant - we have some like that here, I think, but I've never been to one.

I'm glad you enjoyed the film. I'm hoping to see it this week, and I'm getting quite excited by how many of my LJ friends have come back and said that they've liked it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It was fun and there were some very nice (and mice which I originally typed!) touches. I was surprised to read that it was all completely new to a lot of the younger viewers.

The cinema's worth the extra money not to have kids kicking the back of the seat and toddlers whining or crying. All they need to do now is ban anything wrapped in foil or cellophane, but I suppose that's infringing people's rights. Oh well, there was only one guy who had a bag of crunchies and he opened them fairly early on even if it took him what felt like five minutes.

[trixieleitz]

That sounds like a great cinema :)

We saw Hitchhiker's yesterday, and I feel a bit disappointed by it. Haven't quite mananged to articulate why, though. I'm with you on the second head - I think that was a clumsy attempt to bring in a plot point from later in the books, but I remember it so vaguely that I'm just going to have to read them again. Oh, gosh, darn it.

I did like Bill Nighy, the cameos, Stephen Fry, and Alan Rickman, and I got to like Martin Freeman after a while. The Earth destruction was very well done, and rather sinister.

One of our party commented that the Vogons looked like Rygel. They did have quite Hynerian noses.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Huh! I didn't even think of Rygel! You took a while to warm to Martin Freeman? I liked him in The Office and even Hardware in its awful early eps.

Yes, there's something indefinable missing, but it's still a fun night out with some spectacular scenes. The happy ending was a bit too perfect though, even for me.

[trixieleitz]

You took a while to warm to Martin Freeman?

That was the first time I'd seen him - I saw ads for The Office and that was enough to tell me that I wouldn't enjoy it, and I haven't heard of Hardware.

But I can see him as Vila.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He was the most likeable guy in The Office which was horribly funny, and was Vila in Blake's Junction 7 which I so long to see.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that Adams didn't like the Wing-Davey heads, and thought they should either be one above the other or the spare in a pocket and only bought out for consultations. Which would explain why Arthur didn't notice anything peculiar about Zaphod when he met him at the party a few months earlier.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a fancy-dress party. :-)

I hadn't heard that about Adams. That makes sense then. I suppose I've been influenced by the TV series and the usual image evoked by 'two-headed'.

[trixieleitz]

Well, it was a fancy-dress party. :-)

Arthur said something like, "Well he only had the two arms and the one head...", so I just accepted that the second head was something that grew/was installed later.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I listened to my tapes or read the books. It's probably time again.

[trixieleitz]

Gosh, darn it ;)