Let your reviewer first point out that he has not actually read the book the movie is based on. From memory, he did read it from a library about fifteen years ago, but it did not make enough of an impression to either buy or remember much from. Therefore any changes from the book to the movie, as have been mentioned in other reviews, will not be dissected below.
There is something about the British sense of humour, almost anarchic, that is so different to the overwhelming Hollywood version of the phrase. Only the Brits could have done Monty Python, the Goodies, and the Young Ones. Or, as in this movie, created a depressed robot, made galactic elections as bouncy, peppy and cheesy as the Eurovision Song Contest, and make poetry reading a form of torture.
The acting is pretty good as well, with Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent doing a suitably bemused person who has just had his planet destroyed, being changed into all sorts of things in hyperspace due to the improbability drive, Mos Def and Sam Rockwell are great as drinking buddies Ford Prefect and pompous Galactic President, and Alan Rickman provides further comedic relief. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian doesn't get much beyond wide eyed pretty though, and I am not sure why John Malkovich was called in to play such a minor, almost cameo, role.
The main gripe with Hitchhiker's though is that although it does certain parts of itself well, it doesn't seem to be able to pull the strands together to provide any sort of central core to the movie that most audiences would care about. The comedy, good in parts, is patchy overall, the sci fi is covered by well we are in space and there are aliens around, and the romance, what there is of it, underwhelms the rest of the movie.
If you want British sci fi comedy at its best, rent or buy Red Dwarf. What could have been Monty Python does Star Wars tries to cover too many bases and loses at most of them. Much more a typical popcorn movie than should have been expected.
There is something about the British sense of humour, almost anarchic, that is so different to the overwhelming Hollywood version of the phrase. Only the Brits could have done Monty Python, the Goodies, and the Young Ones. Or, as in this movie, created a depressed robot, made galactic elections as bouncy, peppy and cheesy as the Eurovision Song Contest, and make poetry reading a form of torture.
The acting is pretty good as well, with Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent doing a suitably bemused person who has just had his planet destroyed, being changed into all sorts of things in hyperspace due to the improbability drive, Mos Def and Sam Rockwell are great as drinking buddies Ford Prefect and pompous Galactic President, and Alan Rickman provides further comedic relief. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian doesn't get much beyond wide eyed pretty though, and I am not sure why John Malkovich was called in to play such a minor, almost cameo, role.
The main gripe with Hitchhiker's though is that although it does certain parts of itself well, it doesn't seem to be able to pull the strands together to provide any sort of central core to the movie that most audiences would care about. The comedy, good in parts, is patchy overall, the sci fi is covered by well we are in space and there are aliens around, and the romance, what there is of it, underwhelms the rest of the movie.
If you want British sci fi comedy at its best, rent or buy Red Dwarf. What could have been Monty Python does Star Wars tries to cover too many bases and loses at most of them. Much more a typical popcorn movie than should have been expected.
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