MOVIE REVIEW
Adaption takes viewers to another ‘galaxy’ BY NICK COOPER Daily Titan Staff
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a sofa? Or wondered what a sperm whale is thinking when it appears out of nowhere and plummets to the ground? Or why a pot of petunias would think ‘Oh no not again’ as it falls thousands of feet to the ground? Well look no further, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” has all the answers you need for life and the universe. Based on the radio play and books by Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” has a quirky plot that bounces from one area of the universe to the next, while still remaining true to Adams’ work. Everything from the smallest plot points to the Heart of Gold’s improbability drive jumps to life on the big screen thanks to director Garth Jennings’ film directorial debut. Specific details on the Vogon home world, to the interlude of the guide itself follows closely to the book giving fans their muchneeded fix of sci-fi zaniness. The film relies little on computer animated characters, instead it goes back to the roots of ‘muppet-
“Hitchicker’s Guide to the Galaxy” stars Anna Chancellor as Questular. tronics’ utilizing rubber suits and actors in costume to produce the expansive array of alien life forms like the slimy, rubbery skinned
Vogons and the manic depressed robot Marvin. Warwick Davis from “Willow” animates the character of Marvin
Touchstone Pictures
while Alan Rickman of “Dogma” and “Harry Potter” provides the voice. While eagerly trying to avoid
the destruction of his home, Arthur Dent is obliviously unaware that Earth itself is scheduled for demolition to make room for an interstellar highway or that his best friend Ford Prefect is actually an alien from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The adventure begins with the flick of a thumb as Ford and Arthur catch a ride on the alien vessels ready to destroy the planet. They are caught by the Vogons, made to listen to horrible poetry, and jettisoned into space where they are improbably picked up by the Heart of Gold thanks to the ship’s improbability drive. This is the beginning of the incredible adventure to find a single question to the answer. Yes that’s right, the ultimate question that fits the ultimate answer about life, the universe and everything. Rated PG, “Hitchhiker’s Guide” is a fun and wild romp through the universe that gains approval from the mass of fans to the ordinary person without an obsession. The film is sure to delight audiences of all ages with its British-style humor and cheesy sci-fi plot. And as the dolphins say. . . So long and thanks for all the fish.
Flashback lashback Favorite
‘Interpreter’ translates Tanner clan kept us laughing into suspenseful film BY NICOLE M. SMITH Daily Titan Staff
BY ELIZABETH ZULUAGA Daily Titan Staff
Suspenseful and entertaining, “The Interpreter” directed by Sydney Pollack is a riveting thriller that grabs you until it’s dynamic ending. Nicole Kidman’s and Sean Penn’s complicated roles are filled with mystery and sadness that lurk beneath the surface. Kidman stars as Sylvia Broome, an interpreter for the United Nations, who specializes in the Ku dialect spoken in Matabo, Africa, where she was born and raised. During an evacuation test Silvia overhears a plot, spoken in her native tongue, to assassinate African Dictator Edmund Zuwanie, the genocidal leader of Matabo. The plot thickens as it is revealed that he is on his way to speak to the American people at the U.N. Secret agent, Tobin Keller, played by Penn, is brought in to investigate the situation and to protect Silvia for fear she was seen eavesdropping. However, trust does not come easy for Tobin who is convinced Sylvia is a
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liar. Things get complicated when Tobin grows even more suspicious of Silvia as he becomes more enthralled in his eyewitnesses’ secretive past. He wonders if she is in fact a victim or a suspect involved in the conspiracy. Both Silvia and Tobin are faced with the reality that the assassins know who she is and where she lives. Pollack keep the mystery shimmering, but it is Kidman and Penn who keeps the audience entranced and on the edge of its seat. The film not only focuses on the political, but the personal as well. The thought of what may happen to the world brings a state of anxiety to viewers, but at the same time the film keeps us wondering what will happen between Silvia and Tobin. A love story is not in the script, but Kidman and Penn do a fantastic job at expressing their unusual bond through their eyes, inflections, and uncomfortable silences. Like the relationship between Silvia and Tobin, what makes “The Interpreter” great is what lies beneath the surface.
Daily Titan May 05, 2005
What happens when a recent widower coaxes his brother-inlaw and his best friend to move in and help raise his three young daughters? Sounds like a “Full House” to me. Meet Danny Tanner, a single father and sports-caster-turnedmorning-talk-show-host, who even cleaned his cleaning products and, on rare occasion, cracked a joke as only a character played by Bob Saget could. Then there was Uncle Jesse, the rock ‘n’ rolling, motorcycling, Elvis-obsessed cool guy who sported a sweet mullet during the early days, which evolved into a grease slick that transformed into the messy I’ma-daddy-now-but-my-hair-isstill-No. 1-do. “Have mercy.” And what about Joey? He was Danny’s best friend and the biggest kid on the show, always the odd-man-out. Throughout the seasons, he meticulously refined a vast repertoire of imperson-
ations we could count on for comic relief whenever a scene weighed a little too heavy. And sometimes scenes got heavy. Remember when baby Michelle went out on her horse but fell off while trying to complete a jump? And when she came to, she lost her memory and it took a whole extra half-hour episode for her to get it back? Or what about the time that Stephanie inadvertently ended up at an unsupervised make-out party? Feeling guilty, she tried to call older sister DJ to take her home, but Danny picked up the phone, sounding like DJ because he had laryngitis, and then he ruined the party when he picked her up and made everyone else go home too. “How rude!” Once a week, ABC invited us into the San Francisco town home of the unconventional Tanner family and company, which somehow managed to increase in size every season as the show increased in popularity. First came a refurbished base-
ment where Joey could be kept, then a studio where Jesse and the Rippers could rehearse and not be disturbed so long as the red light was on, then an attic for Jesse and wife Becky to live in with their twin boys during the later years when the Tanner girls became a little too old to be cute. At the end of each episode, the heart-warming, sappy music would cue and there was always a moral lesson to be learned like, ‘Don’t smoke,” or “Sharing is good,” or “You can’t make your boyfriend stay around instead of going to college across the country by buying him nice things for Christmas.” “Full House” deserves credit for the countless laughs and lessons it inspired during its eightyear run from 1987 to 1995. After all, it was the show that launched the multi-media, multi-million-dollar career of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen— the twins we have grown to love (especially since they turned legal). “You got it, dude!”
