Hitchkiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The Movie): a brief review

No real spoilers here.

I actually really liked it.

Tamela (the former wife) saw a sneak preview of it about four days ago. She called me afterwards and her three word review was, "It was watchable." I'll go with that as well, but I'll embellish a bit more.

If you've read the books, seen the BBC tv series, listened to the BBC radio plays, and generally immersed yourself eyebrow deep in this work of fiction as much as I have, you just plain *know* that everything is not going to be *exactly* like the books. Hell, the tv show wasn't*exactly* like the books. BUT, this movie was done from D.A.'s own screenplay, so the bits that were accurate and the bits that were different (oh, say f'r instance, the very much more played up romance between Arthur and Trillian) honestly didn't bother me.

The casting and performances.

Martin Freeman did a good job as Arthur. I say "good" and not "great" because I really didn't think that Arthur conveyed as much panic and general freaking out about his situation as I thought he should've. That was a comic performance miscue from the director, methinks. Freeman was good, don't get me wrong, but I have to wonder how Simon Pegg (Shaun from "Shaun of the Dead") would've been in the role.

When I first heard that Mos Def was going to play Ford Prefect, I balked at this choice big time. Surprisingly, for me, it worked, he worked, and the fact that he was living/stranded in England without a British accent is noted briefly in the movie. Again, however, Mos's Ford seemed to lack the frenetic eccentricity that *I* thought the character should have, but that's the HHGTTG fanboy in me starting to get really nitpicky.

Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. What to say about Zooey? Zooey gives me hope that my sister, Holly will someday hit it big in Hollywood. Why? Because when she was a senior in high school, Holly could act rings around Zooey. Zooey is cute and she has a good singing voice. Only one of those traits is utilized in this movie and there was no singing part for her.

Sam Rockwell IS ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX!!! His toothy, shit-eating, ego-centric smile; his smarmy, somewhat half-degree-off-kilter GeorgeW.-type accent; his narcissistic, "all's great in the Galaxy as long as I'm in it" attitude; all of it is done to a mo-friggin' TEE! He's my favorite character in the book, and he's my favorite character in the movie.

I was pleased. There are more things to be said, for sure. Like the little attentions to detail such as the doors on the Heart Of Gold, to the little "in-joke" inclusions of references to the Hitchhiker's tv series. Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin was perfect. The Vogons (and all other aliens) being done as practical effects (i.e. real) from Jim Henson's Creature shop rather than being computer generated was refreshing.

Overall, I'd give it 3 3/4 stars out of 5. There were lots of real laugh out loud moments and, yes they did leave it WIDE open for the sequel. Go see it.

-- Mike