Movie Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Stars: 5 out of 5 

Pros: If you like off the wall humor, this movie will leave you in stitches.

Cons: Not everyone will appreciate its bizarre style.

The Bottom Line:

Wacky, off the wall

Grab towel and don't panic

Just sit back and laugh

The Odds are 2,078,945,834,905:1 in Favor of You Liking This Movie

As if to prove that Arthur Dent never quite got the hang of Thursdays, it's a Thursday when his house is set to be demolished. But in a twist of irony, no sooner is his house gone then the Vogon's arrive with plans to destroy the entire planet. He only escapes because his friend, Ford Perfect, is really an alien.

Improbably, they make their way to the Heart of Gold, a new ship that has been stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the galaxy. Also on board are Trillian, the last surviving human woman; Marvin, and manic-depressive robot; and the ship's always-cheerful computer. Together, they set out to find the ultimate question to the universe. The answer being, of course, 42.

While I've read the first book, I've not gotten to the rest of the five-book trilogy, so come at this with only slight knowledge of Douglas Adams' work. As such, all I can say is I loved the movie. It remains true to the spirit of the books if not each individual page. The puns and gags came quickly, especially near the end. And anytime Marvin or the ship's computer say anything, it is sure to be funny. Since no two versions of the story can be the same, there have been changes made from the original. My favorite is the Point of View Gun. Having an outside narrator read us entries from the Guide is genius. It helps explain the action and it allows some of the wonderfully funny sections from the book to make it into the film.

The plot of this movie is rather weak. While there is a story, it's admittedly not the best. It worked well for the book, but making it work for the movie was part of what took so long getting this to the screen. Still, I will admit to liking this ending more then the original and it seems stronger then my memory of the plot in the book. The plot serves merely as a staging area for the humor. This works as I laughed out loud the entire way through and I normally don't enjoy British humor.

The DVD is what you would expect but nothing special. The movie looked fine on my TV, and the surround sound was nice. There's a brief making of featurette and three deleted scenes, two of which deserved to be in the movie. There are also two separate audio commentaries. The "fake deleted scenes" are rather stupid, however, as they are joke takes on two scenes, neither especially funny. I was especially disappointed not to find the trailers on the disc. This movie had some hilarious ones, and I want them.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a limited audience to be sure, but its audience will love it. The rest of the world will probably scratch its head and move on. But they probably can handle Thursdays just fine.