Websnark

Comment from: Aerin posted at May 9, 2005 4:15 AM

I hate the Twenty with a burning passion. When we saw Hitchhiker (midnight showing, baby!) I was tempted to use my towel to save my seat and wait in the lobby until it was done. (Though that one was somewhat redeemed by a very funny Scrubs commercial.) Of course, nothing can top the showing of Finding Neverland where they played that goddamn Fanta commercial FOUR TIMES. That was insane.

On the other hand, I don't really mind trailers, but that's probably because I'm a screenwriter. I like to know what movies are coming out, and generally you can tell by the trailer whether it will be worth seeing. But I wish they'd tighten up the demographics. 300 towel-toting Hitchhiker fans are more than happy to see trailers for Star Wars and Serenity, but don't give a rat's ass about Herbie Fully Loaded.

I wish there were theatres around LA like that.

Comment from: tynic posted at May 9, 2005 10:08 AM

Oh, I don't know - I was quite enthused about the Herbie trailer. Far more so than the Episode 3 shorts, anyway. ;-)

Comment from: Prodigal posted at May 9, 2005 12:09 PM

Glad to hear you also liked the HHGttG movie - Zooey Deschanel looked good in those nerd glasses, didn't she?

On a side note, there were Gossamer Commons flyers to be found at CAPE. Just wanted to mention. :)

Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at May 9, 2005 12:13 PM

The Twenty? What's the origin of that term (given that I doubt anyone gets twenty minutes of ads before the trailers).

Our theater showed a pile of Disney and cartoon stuff, but no Serenity trailer.

Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 9, 2005 12:17 PM

Dave, it is actually 20 minutes of ads before the trailers start. Honestly. It's like watching a 20 minute long commercial.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 9, 2005 12:25 PM

Christopher's right, Dave. It is a twenty minute TNT-produced advertisement for DVDs, candy, food, and whatever else, which has now replaced music and/or local slideshows at cineplexes nationwide.

It is horrible.

Comment from: Montykins posted at May 9, 2005 1:12 PM

At least around here, The Twenty is the lesser of evils. It's the twenty minutes before the listed showtime, so at least it doesn't make movies late.

All the non-20 theatres around here show a million advertisements starting at the listed showtime, which is a thousand times more annoying.

Comment from: Shaenon posted at May 9, 2005 1:38 PM

My husband really wants to see the Herbie movie. In a non-ironic way, I think. And a guy I knew in college is in it (Justin Long; he was also in "Galaxy Quest" and "Dodgeball," and seems to have found a niche as the nerd who gets hit in the head with stuff), so I may very well end up seeing this thing.

The Twenty is just so evil. The very name gloats over our suffering and powerlessness. It's a boot stomping on a human face for twenty minutes. This ugliness has become so common 'round these parts that the theater at which I saw "Hitchhiker's" has posters up advertising the fact that it *doesn't* show commercials. It does, however, show music videos and a ten-minute promo for "Beauty Shop."

Comment from: Arachnid posted at May 9, 2005 3:46 PM

I had the privelige of getting to a pre-release screening of HHGTG, a couple of days before it opened here (NZ). I, personally, was really disappointed. Probably a large part of that was because it simply bore very little resemblance to the books, the radio series, or the TV show. It was a totally different thing, it had a different plot, and it didn't have very much Adams in it at all (though that bit with Marvin and the POV gun at the end... genius).

Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at May 9, 2005 5:40 PM

The Twenty is just so evil. The very name gloats over our suffering and powerlessness. It's a boot stomping on a human face for twenty minutes.

I would so love to quote that. Might I?

I caught only 1en of the 2wenty when I went. I shall not be purchasing Matilda on DVD, shall not be watching the Today Show, and if I still want to watch anything on Cartoon Network, I will do so with a deep sense of shame.

Comment from: Lyndon W posted at May 9, 2005 5:44 PM

I read that the script was 99% Douglas Adams, almost exactly as it was before he died. That so many people complain about it being so unlike the book is kind of silly. The radio series, books, TV series, and game where all vastly different. That they where all written by Adams only goes to show that he didn't want to tell the same story every time. In fact, most of the plot element people didn't like where...Oh, I'll just quote an interview:

"The script we shot was very much based on the last draft that Douglas wrote....All the substantive new ideas in the movie...are brand new Douglas ideas written especially for the movie by him....Douglas was always up for reinventing HHGG in each of its different incarnations and he knew that working harder on some character development and some of the key relationships was an integral part of turning HHGG into a movie."

Comment from: DarkStar posted at May 9, 2005 6:02 PM

I had heard the same things. Douglas was very close to making the movie just before he died. It was unfortunate, a great loss. But he knew that every time the story was told it would change. It was the nature of H2G2. It was as much an evolution of story and character as anything the dear departed atheist could have wanted. And while he was primary to all incarnations of the story (including the game and the graphic novel adaptation - which he did not write, I belive) he always let it evolve.

There may even have been more to the tale if he had not died. Go read "Salmon of Doubt" to get a glimpse into the head of Mr. Adams. He wrote a lot of stuff and cared about a great many things. I look forward to seeing the movie (I know!!) and what parts of him exist in it.

Comment from: Tangent posted at May 9, 2005 7:07 PM

Sorry you're still feeling sick, Eric. Hope you'll be feeling better soon... meanwhile, I don't know if you ever read or snarked Ozy and Millie so I'm going to recommend it to you to help amuse you while you're sick. :)

http://www.ozyandmillie.org

Anyway, take care. Hope to see you snarking again soon!

Robert A. Howard, Tangents reviewer

Comment from: Kate Sith posted at May 9, 2005 7:25 PM

Oh, man. Being the only ones in a movie theater has to be one of the more awesome experiences out there. I saw Spirited Away in an older theater, near the end of its run, on a weeknight with my little bro and two friends. It went something like this:

"...dude, are we the only ones here?"

"..."

"...IS ANYBODY ELSE IN HERE?"

"..."

"...I get to be Crow!"

All the jokes, all the inane comments, all the mockery we could possibly muster. I will whisper the odd comment during a movie, but I usually feel guilty about disturbing other people. But in this case, I could sing the theme to Neverending Story and not think twice.

Most. Fun. Ever.

I don't think we have the Twenty yet where we are. We've got a slideshow of local ads and movie trivia, and then some commercials after start time, and then previews, etc. Sounds like this thing is much more obnoxious, though.

Comment from: miyaa posted at May 9, 2005 8:22 PM

A couple of random comments

1. Nice when you have a theatre all to yourself. Even nicer when the theatre owner lets you see the movie without commericals. I just may have to take a trek up to Gilford.

2. Tangent, I like the idea of battling it out with uncooked pasta. Beats getting whipped with a wet noodle.

3. Wonder what would the sequel to 2wenty be...4orty? 2wenty 1ne? (Insert Bugs Bunny joke here.)

4. Theme to the Neverending Story? How evil!

Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at May 9, 2005 9:01 PM

Whoa-a-oh

Whoa-a-oh

Whoa-a-oh . . .

Comment from: Alexander Krizak posted at May 10, 2005 12:18 AM

The Twenty sounds like one of those things that should make me very, very glad that I live in Canada, where it can't be imported. (Ads for The Cartoon Network alone would flop since, oh, we don't have that.) I've yet to see more than five minutes of commercials (not previews) attached to a movie.

Then again, I'm quite surprised to hear that any ads at all were attached to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy down in the states. Both of the major movie theatre chains in Canada (Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon) are contractually forbidden from splicing any extras other than their own "Coming Attractions" and "Feature Presentation" headers onto a film from Disney or one of its subsidary studios. They have the previews Disney distributed with them and that is it.

Comment from: Arachnid posted at May 10, 2005 5:27 AM

As I said, the movie differed by an order of magnitude more than the differences between the TV series, radio series and books combined.

Also, just because it's Adams doesn't mean it's good. As has been pointed out before, he's lousy at plot - he's basically a very very good skit writer, and has the ability to string from skit to skit fairly well. One of the major problems I had with the HHGTG movie was its concentrating on the plot way too much - its weakest point - and cutting out most of the skits that made it funny. I'm not sure if that was adams or the direction and modifications, but the result was a movie that I personally consider a disaster.

Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at May 11, 2005 8:37 PM

For the posterity of a comments thread: I quoted it.

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