Screenplay by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick
Based on the Novel by Douglas Adams
Directed by Garth Jennings
“Just wait a sodding minute! You want a question that goes with the answer for 42? Well, how about what’s six times seven? Or how many Vogons does it take to change a lightbulb? Here’s one! How many roads must a man walk down?”
If only Douglas had lived long enough to see this…he would have approved.
The best-selling SF-comedy author, and former Doctor Who script editor, had been working for years (and trust me…based on his ability to miss deadlines faster and more efficiently than ANY human being in existence…I DO mean years) to try and get a film version of his outrageously popular radio series & novel to the big screen. After all this time, it’s finally been made…and I must say, it was worth the wait.
The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…even with a new, movie-version to play with, WHAT is there a person can say that hasn’t been said already…no doubt by more articulate and cultured critics. I’ll settle for saying it was an all-around, funny-bone-tickling adventure…complete with doors that sigh when they open and shut! That said, the film version also contains THREE of the funniest moments in movie history:
(1) “He has a towel! Run away!” Mos Def chasing away a batallion of giant Vogons with nothing more than a white bath towel…well, you had to be there…
(2) Improbability drive moment #1: everyone being turned into crap British yarn animation…and YARN VOMIT!
(3) Improbability drive moment #2: two nuclear missiles being turned into a pot of petunias AND a very confused sperm whale. And what was the sperm whale thinking? Well…the revelation made me laugh and cry so hard, I thought I was going to expire in my seat. In fact, the very memory of what that damn sperm whale was thinking as it fell through the sky was enough to set me off for the rest of the night!
There was a small group of us laughing beyond reason at these brilliant scenes (oh, we certainly made fools of ourselves)…surrounded by people who simply didn’t understand WHY it was funny! This, to me, is completely incomprehensible…why see a movie that is the epitome of blazing British wit and humour, if you don’t know what you’re in for?
SIGH…
No wonder it’s doing such crap box office. The lowest-common-denominator-nimrods don’t deserve this movie.
The morale of this screed: you either GET Douglas Adams, or you DON’T. I pity the latter…
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