Movie 42 – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) – April 11th, 2010
Holy crap! Since I number the movies we’ve been watching, I really should have realized that today was #42, and I sort of did but I didn’t really think about it until we’d put in Ocean’s Thirteen this morning and I typed “Movie 42” and went “Oh damn! We should be watching Hitchhiker’s Guide today!” So we had a little discussion about how we felt about splitting up the Ocean’s movies and watching the last one tomorrow night instead of today, and we decided we felt just fine about it. And then we put in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Now, sadly, the original version of this is a miniseries and therefore not part of this project even though we own it, so it’s the 2005 version for us. But that’s okay! We like this version! It’s got Sam Rockwell and Mos Def and Alan Rickman’s voice and one of the best ad libs ever (“BUTTONS AREN’T TOYS!” which we say all the damn time). Personally, I think this adaptation is fantastic. I’m not sure how much of it is due to Mos Def, but I’m willing to credit him with a lot of it. He totally inhabits the character of Ford, down to always finding a way to use his towel. Also fantastic is Sam Rockwell as Zaphod. The performances definitely make the movie for me, because not only do I think the actors do a great job with the characters, but I think they had a lot of fun doing it. It seems like everyone enjoyed being a part of the project, and I like that. When the performances are good, it’s easy for me to get sucked into a movie. And I definitely got sucked into this one. Enough that I sort of stopped thinking about reviewing it.
Watching this, all I’ve done is grin at the references to the original miniseries and laugh at the fun bits and repeat lines that amuse me. I don’t have any really insightful commentary about the movie. I know a lot of people didn’t like it, because it wasn’t the miniseries or it wasn’t the book or it wasn’t British enough or it had the whole subplot with the point of view gun and Humma Kavula. And the subplot, okay, fine. It feels a little off to me, but I do love that gun and how it’s used at the end, so I can forgive the rest. Also, personally, I think that capturing the spirit is key to a good book-to-movie adaptation, along with an amount of respect and care for the source material. The little touches, like Douglas Adams’ face showing up, and the original Marvin? They cared about the original stuff when they made this. And in my opinion, the spirit’s there. Just my opinion, sure, but it means I like the movie. I won’t make any guarantees for anyone else.
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I think for this movie for people in the UK, there was a BBC series of it in the ’80s. You know how it is – these things become almost a sort of cult like Doctor Who and Blakes Seven, and anyone over 35 will always view things like this as an attck on their nostalgia! But the film was good – could have been a little darker and surreal, but the performances – as you say – were great and excellent comedy. Whis is what the late Douglas Adams was all about. 🙂
Oh, I’m well-versed in nostalgia. I won’t argue with anyone on that front. I mean, for me? Fifth Doctor, all the way, and bring on Adric. I’m well aware that’s nostalgia talking (at least about Adric). But I do so enjoy the newer HHG, so no arguing there either.