The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Directed by Garth Jennings
Written by Douglas Adams & Karey Kirkpatrick

If the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's much beloved literary "trilogy" is flawed, the problems lie with the books, not the movie. That may be a "sacriligeous" idea to some nerds, and in any case it's not an opinion borne of conventional wisdom. Now, sure, I enjoyed reading Adams in junior high school, but I'm not one of those folks who particularly needed the film version to "get it right." I always associated the novels with a subculture I shall name "stonerds" (that is, stoner-nerds). These were the same folks who, in my burgeoning years, would turn me on to stuff like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spinal Tap, Illuminatus, D&D, and curling—all of which I loved, but none of which I really want to revisit as an adult. Except curling. Curling is, as then, the center of my life.

Curling is equal parts strategy, athletic prowess, teamwork, and … oh wait, I was talking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Damn good fun, I thought. The screenplay nicely collapses the best aspects of the books into a coherent, charmingly offbeat, storyline, well acted all around, and filmed with a visual flair that is as occasionally low-rent as the writing on which it is based.

Please, do not consider me a detractor of Douglas Adams by any means, but come now, names like "Zaphod Beeblebrox" are the linguistic equivalent of a Silly Walk. As are many of the "radical" conceits in Adams's cosmogony: dolphins are the most evolved beings in the universe! Humans are tragically, and humorously, disposable! It's the mice who were behind it all!

That is to say, we're not 13 anymore. So, unfashionable as it may be to admit, I had quite a bit more fun watching the film than I likely would reading the books nowadays. The cast is spot-on, especially Mos Def as Ford Prefect, Sam Rockwell as Beeblebrox, Helen Mirren as Deep Thought, and Martin Freeman (from "The Office") as Arthur Dent. Zooey Deschanel is a little enigmatic as Trillian, and kudos for casting TWO big stars to play Marvin the Paranoid Android (Alan Rickman AND Warwick Davis)! Big, BIG stars!

Review by Herakles Bosserman