The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Originally uploaded by Struthers.

If your home planet has just been destroyed and you find yourself transported aboard a hostile alien spacecraft, then you might require some information as to your new surroundings. Fortunately for anyone finding themselves in such a situation there’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, an easy to follow manual for those on the move throughout the universe.
For Arthur Dent, Martin Freeman (The Office), spending the morning laying in front of a bulldozer that’s attempting to build a bypass through his home, quickly becomes a moot point when his neighbour and friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def) informs Arthur that he is both an alien and that the planet has been slated for destruction in twelve minutes in order to build an intergalactic super-highway.
With grand themes of life, the universe and everything, Hitchhiker’s occasionally dips into sappy sentimentality, but it doesn’t linger there long, and it’s the wonderful silly British sense of humour shines through from beginning to end.
While he didn’t live to see his endeavours, Hitchhiker’s was written by Douglas Adams, and has already been a successful radio series, a trilogy of four books that sold in the millions and a six part television series. So there had to be something new for the old fans while not alienating any new ones and they pull it off.
There’s more action, snappier dialogue, and the fantastic Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the dim-witted, narcissistic president of the galaxy.
The advances in special effects technology add to the realism of the project without becoming burdensome and along with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop they’ve come up with some wonderful looking aliens and worlds to fill the screen.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wild nutty ride and it rates 4 1/2 stars.