April 30, 2005 -- “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” evokes fond memories of the cherished Douglas Adams book, but the movie fails to deliver more than a pale shadow of its promise. The film has a bit of that sly British humor from the book, a hint of the absurdity, a dash of vivid imagination, and some game performances, but it doesn't deliver the goods. It is a likeable, lighthearted film, but it doesn't really work as a movie. It is more like a series of dull Monty Python skits.

The story begins with the destruction of the earth by a Vogon fleet clearing the way for a hyperspace bypass. The story gets more absurd from there, of course, as our hero, Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman of “Shaun of the Dead”) and Ford Prefect (Mos Def of “The Italian Job”) hitch a ride on a passing spaceship to escape the demise of the earth. Eventually, they team up with Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell of “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”), the president of the galaxy, and Trillian (Zooey Deschanel of “Elf”), a girl that Dent would like to know much better. Actually, Dent met Tillian shortly before the destruction of earth and it is a sheer coincidence that she survived.

The four take off in the stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold, looking for the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, not to mention a gun every wife would like to have. Everywhere they go they are pursued by the relentless bureaucratic villans, the Vogons.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the universe is just like the earth, controlled by pinheaded idiots (like Beeblebrox, the president of the Galaxy, who is living proof that two heads aren't better than one) and literal-minded bureaucrats like the Vogons, who won't do anything unless the proper forms are filled out in triplicate. This view is reinforced by the opening sequence in the film when Dent's house is bulldozed by the orders of the very same kind of bureaucrats who order the destruction of earth, and for pretty much the same reasons.

The look of the film is bright and cheery. The special effects are intriguing. They are impressive and cheesy at the same time. The Vogons, for instance, could have been digitally animated, but instead are played by guys wearing Vogon suits. There are impeccable Henson Workshop puppets with animatronic controls for the expressive Vogon faces. One of the most impressive scenes in the movie is the planet-building facility at Magrathea, and how Dent and planet designer Slartibartfast (Bill Nighy of “Love Actually”) seem to zip through the complex on a kind of super carnival ride.

Douglas Adams himself worked on the screenplay for this movie, but unfortunately, he died of a heart attack four years ago. I'd like to think this film would have been a lot better had he lived to see the project to completion. Adams' books have a wonderfully wacky, but subtle kind of British humor. It doesn't translate well in this film, perhaps because the humor in the book is so delicate. The explanation for the infinite improbability drive, for instance, is so clever in the book that it almost seems to make sense. The abbreviated explanation of the same thing in the film is funny, but it doesn't work nearly as well as it did in the book. Like an overbaked comic soufflé, the heavier-handed humor in the movie falls flat.

The film seems very episodic, more like a series of barely related skits than a complete story arc. If you haven't read the book, forget about trying to follow the plot. The character of Ford Prefect seems bland in the movie. He doesn't seem to have much of a personality. This would not be so bad, but he is a major character in the film. Martin Freeman is effective as Arthur Dent, and Zooey Deschanel is equally so as Trillian. Alan Rickman's voice talents are perfect for Marvin, the depressed robot. Sam Rockwell puts a lot of comic energy into the Zaphod Beeblebrox character, but the payoff is surprisingly slight. That sums up the problem with the movie. This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2005 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .