The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Starring: Warwick Davis, John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def, Bill Nighy
Synopsis: I don't know how long you have been waiting for this...I just know I will be sitting in the theatre opening day with fear and excitement before that curtain goes up. And excitement never shares the popcorn.
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent (Freeman) is swept off the planet by his researcher friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def). On their adventure, the pair are inspired by quotes from the book The Hitchhiker's Guide and their encounters with fellow travelers Zaphod Beeblebrox (Rockwell), the two-headed president of the galaxy; Trillian (Deschanel), Zaphod's girlfriend; and Marvin (Davis), a depressed robot.
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| Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) | | NA | |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Review
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Ok, I didn't make it first day, it was the second day actually. I was busy shooting a sci-fi short myself. Well, my friend was shooting, I was being an actor a la horrible...but having discussed hyperspace and the lot all day, it was more than appropriate to follow it up with one the best sci-fi-comedy-with-a-character-named-Arthur-Dent movies ever written.
Let me state it plainly. I liked the film. It has an abundance of flaws but hell, so does the book. For example...the book has a real motivation problem. Certain characters run off and do things without a moment of reasoning and perhaps that is part of the charm but it has always bugged me that I don't know why Ford Prefect showed up that fateful day to tell Arthur he was an alien and take him off the planet. That is easily corrected in the film, but a series of pacing problems, vagueness and sometimes outright avoidance damage what is otherwise a funny little flick.
I watched this with a couple of fans and some who hadn't read a single of the novels. The non-fans didn't understand the relevance of the towels and were a little unclear about the whole improbability drive on the spaceship Heart of Gold. That tells me that the script doesn't quite get across elements needed for a wider audience to understand and enjoy it. On the other hand, having read the book I was almost in tears at some of the material. Some highlights:
A musical number called So Long and Thanks For All The Fish.
One insanely overdone series of cuts establishing the immensity of the Vogon fleet that would only work in a film.
An animation of the characters done in yarn that doesn't make any sense whatsoever unless you see it.
A Vogon waiting for a trolley to stop and his reaction when it doesn't.
And I'm sorry for being a geek but I though the factory floor sequence with Slartibartfast was gorgeous to look at and just, well, something that I think Douglas Adams would have been impressed with.
As for casting, no one in the little group I was with thought Sam Rockwell wasn't more than perfect as Zaphod Beeblebrox. Everyone else held up their bits too but he gets the flashier role and he more than flashed along with it.
Like I said, a flawed film, but I still found chunks that I liked. 3 stars out of 5.
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Copyright© Written By: Rob Paul
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