The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Puccini's pizza and mope furniture!
Like most other geeks, Jessi and I paid our toll and saw The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy this weekend. We caught a late afternoon showing on Saturday, which was busy but not packed. We went to our favorite theater, the fairly new ShowPlace 12 at 86th St. and Zionsville Rd. on the northwest side of town.
Both of us are fans of the book and went into the movie with cautious optimism. It looked to be quite funny, and keeping in mind Douglas Adams' own assertion that each iteration of Hitchhiker was *supposed* to be different from the other, we were prepared for some pretty serious deviations from the book.
Oddly enough, it was not in keeping to the original plot that the film went wrong. It was, of all areas, casting that crippled the movie for me. From the trailers, I expected the casting to be spot on. It was not.
Martin Freeman does a passable job as Arthur Dent. It's not that he does a terrifically good job at it, it's just that playing a mild-mannered Englishman really isn't that hard a job.
(note: Yes, I know I said "job" a lot up here)
I like Mos Def. He was not an effective Ford Prefect, IMHO. He was too wooden.
I also like Sam Rockwell. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was one of the better movies to come out in the last few years. That being said, despite early hopefulness inspired by trailers, he didn't quite pull off the role of Zaphod. Honestly, I still contend that Eddie Izzard would have been a better choice.
Zooey Deschanel, while cute, is mostly expendable in this movie. Pretty much anyone could have played Trillian.
Alan Rickman's voice was perfect for Marvin, but it was too little to save the movie.
Honestly, the best casting in the whole picture was Billy Nighy as Slartibartfast. He was absolutely perfect for the part. Shame it was so brief.
It's not that Hitchhiker's Guide was a bad flick. It was funny (VERY funny in parts) and more-or-less stuck to the spirit of the original material. Honestly, if some different casting choices had been made it would have been much better. Still, I'd recommend seeing it (although a matinee might be in order).
Sunday night, Eric and I returned to his house after a grueling D&D session (in which I almost died...twice). Eric, myself, Jessi, Jolene and our friend Glasser all made the quick trip over to Puccini's for dinner. I had never been, but Jolene and Glasser had (and perhaps Eric, I'm not sure). It's billed as kind of a gourmet pizza place, which in my head sets off the "expensive and pretentious, yet mediocre tasting" alarm. I'm pleased to say that I was quite wrong.
While I did not partake of some of the more exotic tate combinations that my dinner companions tried (Jessi had a pizza with potatoes on it...potatoes), my pizza (a simple 8" affair with pepperoni and extra cheese) was delicious. The crust left a bit to be desired (could have used a bit more butter and a bit more crunchitude), the toppings were superb. From the thick layer of robust-tasting mozzarella, it was obvious that they grated fresh cheese for the pizzas rather than using frozen bags of shredded "cheese topping."
Adding to the quality of the food was the surprisingly cheap prices. My pizza was $4.50 before you started to add toppings (which should have put it to around $6 or $7 if my math is correct). Adding in a drink, I ate for under $10. In fact, I believe the total check for all five of us was just a shade over $40. Not bad, not bad.
Jessi thinks there is another Puccini's at 116th St. and Allisonville Rd. I hope so, because that would likely put us within their delivery range :D
Before hitting the movies on Saturday, Jessi and I took a trip down (over?) to Terre Haute to relieve some friends of excess furniture that they didn't want to bring back to Indy with them. We made off with a really nice coffee table and end table set, a lamp and a couple of random shelves. I think Jess got some miscelleneous kitchen items as well. A worthwhile trip, all-in-all. It reminded me how scary Terre Haute is, though o_O
I've promised myself that I'm going to try to avoid talking about work, because it's really just a source of frustration and anxiety right now. Instead, I'm going to talk about the fun I'm having building a home with Jessi and the other good things in life - food, entertainment, etc.
I'll talk about work if something important happens :)
-Sam
Home