0588 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 British-American science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon previous works in the media franchise of the same name, created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and the voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman. This is the ninth version of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide”. It has previously appeared as a radio series, two record albums, novels, a television series (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)), a computer game, a stage show, a comic book, a video game (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984)) and a towel. (The game version is not, in fact, a video game, but was an Infocom “interactive fiction” {text only} game, plotted/scripted by Douglas Adams, programmed by Steve Meretzky, which has been available to play free on the BBC Radio 4 website since 2005.)

Flyer for the 1979 stage production at the ICA of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

The producers have stated that this film is not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams himself. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.

Easter Egg: The DVD includes an “Improbability Drive” item on every menu. Clicking this leads to a random point in one of the bonus features. Used several times leads to a strange cartoon, which is the same one Deep Thought watches.

The Hitchiker’s Guide is a parody of “The Encyclopedia Galactica” from Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation novels.

imdb

572 – Jazzpunk (2014 video game)

spacetime coordinates:  year 1959B Americasia: The “United Prefectures of Japanada”

Jazzpunk is a comedy Environmental Narrative Game set in an alternate reality Cold War World, plagued with corporate espionage, CyberCrime, and sentient martinis. Gameplay is inspired by spoof comedy films and cartoons of yesteryear, with a focus on weird gadgets, exotic locales, and open-world style exploration.

Now, we want you to take on the task of describing this electronic first-person game by the name of Jazzpunk. (read)

tons of references * fourth wall breaks * easter eggs * mini games within mini games

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows XP SP2 or higher // Processor: 1.80GHz Processor // Memory: 2 GB RAM // Graphics: Video card with 512MB of VRAM // Storage: 2 GB available space

http://store.steampowered.com/app/250260/Jazzpunk_Directors_Cut/

0570 – Lost in Space (1998)

spacetime coordinates: 2058 Earth > Alpha Prime

Major West [Launching the Jupiter-1]: And the monkey flips the switch.

Lost in Space is a 1998 American science-fiction adventure / comedy film directed by Stephen Hopkins, and starring William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman.  The plot is adapted from the 1965–1968 CBS television series Lost in Space. The film focuses on the Robinson family, who undertake a voyage to a nearby star system to begin large-scale emigration from a soon-to-be uninhabitable Earth (due to the irreversible effects of pollution and Ozone depletion), but are thrown off course by a saboteur and must try to find their way home.

Several of the actors from the original TV series had cameos in the film. The television series Lost in Space (1965) was set in the future of 1997 – the year the film began production.

Major West: OK, last one to kill a bad guy buys the beer!

Lost In Space – Apollo 440

imdb

0566 – Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)

spacetime coordinates: Paris, c. 1912

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (French: Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec), released as Adèle: Rise of the Mummy in Malaysia and Singapore,  is a 2010 French fantasy adventure feature film written and directed by Luc Besson.

It is loosely based on the comic book series The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec by Jacques Tardi and, as in the comic, follows the eponymous writer and a number of recurring side characters in a succession of far-fetched incidents in 1910s Paris and beyond, in this episode revolving around parapsychology and ultra-advanced Ancient Egyptian technology, which both pastiche and subvert adventure and speculative fiction of the period.

The film incorporates characters and events from several of the albums, in particular the first, “Adèle and the Beast”, first published in 1976, and the fourth, 1978’s “Mummies on Parade”.

wiki   imdb

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“In Cairo ten years ago, in the museum, I saw all the mummies, torn out of their tombs, stripped of their flowers and gods, and laid out in plain wood cases under glass with their blackened faces exposed; on the walls an American scientist had put his X-ray photos of their skeletons, and the urn containing the entrails of Queen Hapshetshut was split open and brightly illuminated.”  Dangerous Emotions Alphonso Lingis

0543 – Lucky (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Arizona, USA

The spiritual journey of a ninety-year-old atheist.

Lucky is a 2017 American drama / comedy film directed by John Carroll Lynch from a screenplay by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja. It stars Harry Dean Stanton in one of his final on-screen roles before his death on September 15, 2017 (aged 91).

imdb 

505 – Downsizing (2017)

spacetime coordinates: near future Norway / NebraskaDownsizing is a 2017 american science fiction  / high-concept social satire / comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Payne and Jim Taylor and starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Kristen Wiig. It tells the story of a couple who decide to undertake a newly-invented procedure to shrink their bodies so they can start a new life in an experimental community.

Starting with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, there exists a rich literature as well as many films dealing with mini-humans usually called dwarfs. The idea of shrinking human bodies in order to reduce the consumption of raw materials available on earth necessary for the life of mankind was presented for the first time in the novel Das Miniatom-Projekt (2006) by Richard M. Weiner. In the novel the miniaturization takes place at CERN by decreasing the sizes of atoms with the help of the world’s biggest particle accelerator, while in the Downsizing film the shrinkage is performed by bio-medical methods, by decreasing the sizes of cells.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389072/

0504 – Jumanji

spacetime coordinates: New Hampshire 1869 / 1969 / 1995 / 1996 / 2016

Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston. It is an adaptation of the 1981 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The film was written by Van Allsburg, Greg Taylor, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Jim Strain and stars Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, David Alan Grier, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth.

The story centers on 12-year-old Alan Parrish, who becomes trapped in a board game while playing with his best friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later, in 1995, siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd find the game, begin playing and then unwittingly release the now-adult Alan. After tracking down Sarah, the quartet resolve to finish the game in order to reverse all of the destruction it has caused.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113497/

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner, from a story by McKenna. It is a part of the Jumanji franchise, serving as a sequel to Jumanji (1995). The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale.

Set twenty-one years after the first film, the plot follows four teenagers who are transported into the video game world of Jumanji, playing as the characters they chose. Uniting with another player, they must overcome the game’s magical power in order to win and return home.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2283362/

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