Hey, it's That Guy!

So, movies. Love them, simply don’t see enough of them and I love to talk about them. I have a freakish memory for actor names and what movies they have been in. For example, last night Indie Rocker took me to see “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” wherein I discovered that one of the characters was in fact Duckface from “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Awesome.

Anytime Indie Rocker wants to see me get all wrapped around the axle, he mentions the movie “Lords of Dogtown.” Now, I watched “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” which is a brilliant documentary. So brilliant, in fact, that I should really buy it. I feel like a fictionalized version of this particular story is pretty unnecessary, given that the original documentary covered an amazing amount of ground, so I don’t really see where casting Heath Ledger was particularly necessary. Argh. It’s not a fight I have a dog in, so it’s not like I should care, but it’s sort of why I get so indignant about “Fever Pitch” being turned into a baseball movie. It’s about soccer, dammit, and specifically Arsenal soccer. Well, football. Wow, totally shot myself in the foot with that argument, didn’t I? Back to “Dogtown” for a second. I just checked Imdb.com and it would seem that I probably should stop getting so irritated about the movie. Stacy Peralta, who did “Dogtown and Z-Boys” wrote the damned screenplay and the kid playing him is from Portland. Plus, the kids who play the other Z-boys are all nobodies, which is a bonus. I don’t know that any of them can actually skate, but at least they aren’t casting a bunch of people who have no business being in the movie. But I can still bitch about Johnny Knoxville, because that’s fun.

“Hitchhiker’s Guide” was particularly fun, because I’ve been a longtime fan of the books. The greatest part is that while the film does diverge from the book, it’s on purpose. Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay and didn’t like to have his adaptations match the books. He figured if he was going to do something new, he’d tweak it a little so that nothing was exactly the same. I have a lot of respect for that. The author is totally allowed to have that kind of creative license.

And with that statement, I just destroyed my entire anti-“Dogtown” argument. Sweet.

And yes, I'm painfully bored at work today. Can you tell?

Quote of the Day: "Trill, are you wearing my underwear? 'Cause I'm wearing yours, and it ain't doing the trick." Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.