2005 / 110 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Ben Heckendorn

42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything else, so says a giant supercomputer after thinking about it for 6 million years in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Versions of it previous to the movie, and also in the movie) Thus, for quite a while now I have personally tried to work “42” into everything I do… I figure if it’s the “ultimate answer” it must be worth using, kinda like the Egyptians and how hard they were over Pi. I have circuit boards in my Phoenix game system that are 4.2 inches wide, I make special FX 42% transparency whenever possible, change bass levels in audio to 42% (instead of say 50%) and even if you go to Culver’s and look at their menu boards, which I did the layouts for years ago, all the yellow headers are set at 42% opacity. Yes, it’s quite the number, and has worked for me thus far…

So I guess that’s my level of involvement with HG2G, as I have never read the book but saw the ancient BBC mini-series as well as played the classic Infocom text game on my Atari 800 computer. However this allows me to rate it as a movie, rather than slavishly languish over every changed word and scene like some 20-sided dice throwing uber-geek.

For starters in a 2 PM matinee on a Saturday the theatre was quite packed, it was hard finding a seat (Though I got a better one than the front row “so close you get blood on you” seat I saw “Passion of the Christ” in) This was odd to me because the last 3 or 15 Ain’t-It-Cool-News uber-hyped movies I saw in the theatre (ie: “Hellboy”, “Sky Captain”) were fairly deserted opening weekend. During the course of this film the audience laughed a good amount, moreso than say Men in Black but less than the average “fart & poop” Carrey/Sandler shit-fest. Regardless, as a comedy judged by laughing HG2G seemed pretty successful, and a good number of people even clapped at the end. (So Douglas Adam’s ghost could hear it, apparently)

The basic plot of this movie is a guy (Martin Freeman) gets taken off Earth by his best friend (Mos Def) moments before it is destroyed by an interstellar construction fleet. This is one the film’s best visual moments, as we see a top-down shot of the two guys “thumbing a ride” on the surface of Earth, then the camera jumps back, higher and higher, past the ships in the atmosphere until we’re in space. This reveals ships surrounding Earth in a grid-like pattern, they all fire and Earth implodes with a wimper, gone forever!

The duo then hops from ship to ship “hitchhiking” and meeting strange creatures along the way. The Voguns (destroyers of Earth) are an overtly bureaucratic race that fill out forms before doing anything, even pursuing enemies. Their animatronics were very well done, though I wish their voices could have been made a bit clearer. Next up we meet The President of the Galaxy played by Sam Rockwell. His character alternated between cool and annoying, the annoying parts being when his “other head’ took over. Of course, had this movie gotten on track during the 90’s Jim Carrey was slated for this role, so I guess it could have been worse! When Rockwell is cool he’s like a doped-up rock star / smarmy Bill Paxton-esque scumbag womanizer, which is just as entertaining as it sounds! When he’s annoying he yells his dialog, stumbles around and punches people. (Thankfully his second head gets removed for a portion of the film)

Tooling around with this Paxton impersonator is a chick named Trillian played by Zooey D (I’m not gonna try spelling her last name) Long ago Dale said this girl should be “the new Lois Lane” and upon seeing this film I agree – she looks like a 25-year-old clone of Margot Kidder! (Only somewhat hotter) I guess that has nothing to do with HG2G, but I thought I’d throw that out for Dale. (I still think Kate “Not Bosworth” Beckinsale should been Lois but OH WELL)

Unfortunatly Trillian provides the movie’s weakest points (well, if you’re not counting the overall scattershot nature and plot developments, but I kind of attribute those to an overly British origin) in the form of a very forced love triangle between Sam Rockwell and Martin Freeman. See, about a week before Earth bought the farm Freeman was making the moves on Trillian at a party. It was all going well until Rockwell showed up and said “This guy boring you? I’m from outer space – wanna see my spaceship?” and naturally what girl could refuse! So based off a few hours of time together Freeman is trying to tell Trillian she’s the love of his life for a good part of the film, and she wants him as well despite Rockwell’s advances. Ok, granted they ARE the last 2 surviving Earthlings but the way the romance is played through the movie it acts like the one night at a bar is a “ton” of history for them, while in reality it’s basically all they had time to shoe into the movie (as a flashback) That said Zooey does a good job despite her underdeveloped character (Luckily there’s no “I love sand” “I hate sand” “Let’s get naked!” style scenes or dialog anywhere to be found)

There’s also a depressed android named Marvin who is automated by Warwick “Willow” Davis himself and voiced by the ever droll Alan Rickman. As an example of the weakness of the love story the moment when the audience showed the most emotional reaction was near the end when Marvin got damaged! Live and learn, Hollywood! Speaking of Marvin most everything in this movie is done practical (live) without all the CGI BS we see these days. In fact the only CGI creatures I can recall are some crabs that are seen once or twice.

Lastly let’s not forget the Hitchhiker’s Guide itself, which is a book that opens to become a large screen (probably comparable to the PSP) and can tell you anything you need to know about everything. It has a voice narration by Stephen Fry and the information is humorously animated looking like a cross between a Orbitz commercial, Flash web animation, Star Trek: TNG control panel and iPod ad. The narrated guide allows the most “book-like” moments (since it’s dialog) and probably could have used a bit more screen time – it didn’t seem like people found those sections dull, but the studio was probably worried they would. Also at times Fry narrates something onscreen without the Guide being shown or used, which also helps get the Guide into the movie more.

So overall this was a fun romp with great set design, special effects and gadgets. It’s not nearly as British as I thought it would be (probably has something to do with it being made by an American studio) but still has enough “across the pond” humor to please (A bit with a whale pondering his existence while falling from the sky towards certain doom is especially good) Don’t go expecting “Men in Black” or even “Fifth Element” - there aren’t really any action scenes to speak of – but if you’re looking for a enjoyable wacky film with lots of interesting imagery and quirky ideas you’ll probably enjoy yourself.

If you’re a fan of the book, sorry I have no clue what you’ll think. Go anyway!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 1st, 2005 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Ben's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.