Review of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) by Manny C — 23 Apr 2011

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, as everyone should know, was a brilliant tome from author Douglas Adams that could only be described as Star Wars meets Monty Python, and it spawned a host of other books, radio shows and even a television series.

In 2005 it finally made it to the big screen. It was a massive effort to get a film version done, and it shows on screen. First-time director Garth Jennings takes up the reins and manages to keep Adams' droll humor intact.

Sure, the movie is overflowing with monsters, visual gags and even a digital John Malkovich, but though it has a tendency to play it safe, screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick, who co-wrote with Adams, who died in 2001, still delivers inspired madness.

So what's it about? Arthur Dent, an average Brit (the wonderful Martin Freeman of the Brit version of The Office) wakes up one morning and finds bulldozers outside his home. His friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def, excellent) informs him that resistance is futile, because Earth is about to be destroyed by a race of aliens known as Vogons.

He also reveals that he, too, is an alien and also a best-selling author, whose book The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, is huge in the world of hyperspace. Ford and Arthur then stow away on a ship piloted by Zaphod Beeblebrox, (Sam Rockwell, in a delicious turn of comic prowess) and his Earthling passenger (Zooey Deschanel).

Purists couldn't care much for what they saw, but I was charmed. Especially by the iconic robot Marvin, voiced by the amazing Alan Rickman, a machine who seems to have the weight of the whole galaxy on his shoulders.