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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Don't Panic! Written by [ Richard Sharp ] When you're trying translate something from one language to another online, chances are you'll run across Babelfish, the industry standard translation website that allows you to say things like "I was with your mother last night, and it was wonderful" in Swahili, French, Spanish or Russian. If you're an instant messenging guru, you might have heard of Trillian, an application that allows you to use AOL's AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger interchangeably. The techno-sphere, it seems, is chock full of references to Douglas Adam's surreal and absurd sci-fi classic "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Besides apparently having a devoted following amongst technology marketing execs, the wildly successful novel spawned four others like it, a television series and now a new movie starring Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich and "Shaun of the Dead" star Martin Freeman. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" follows the exploits of Martin Dent (Freeman), a haggard-looking, repressed young Englishman who is pulled out into the galaxy just seconds before aliens annihilate his home planet and (coincidentally) bulldozing bureaucrats are about to wreck his home. His rescuer is Ford Prefect (Mos Def), a savvy alien hitchhiker who instructs Dent on how to survive in a wild and wooly galaxy populated by garishly garbed kings with two heads (Rockwell), cult leaders with removable eyes and metallic spider legs (Malkovich) and massive, Jabba the Hut-like creatures with a fondness for bureaucracy and horrid poetry. Joining the fun is the doe-eyed Zooey Deschanel (aka Trillian), a woman Dent lusts for on earth and continues to chase after as they're flung across the galaxy in search of both the answer to and the question for life's biggest mysteries. Sound confusing? It is a little, but in a deliberate and delightful way. Adams' material is along the lines of Kurt Vonnegut or Tom Robbins, authors whose verbal acrobatics and convoluted plotlines haven't always translated so well to the screen. Adams wrote the screenplay for this one himself, choosing to focus on the imaginative essence of the story and character development rather than attempting to make a verbatim translation from page to screen. Director Garth Jennings draws out solid comedic performances from his cast, particularly from woefully underutilized hip-hop artist Mos Def (check out his performance in "The Woodsman") and wild man Sam Rockwell. In stark contrast to the season's dominant sci-fi blockbuster, "Revenge of the Sith," the film doesn't go overboard with CGI, instead relying on a wondrously conceived cast of alien beings devised by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Adams, who died in 2001, claimed to have conceived of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" while lying drunk in a field, and you can kind of tell. His galaxy is populated with ludicrously bizarre beings with ill manners and a wildly liberal approach to living. It's a fun galaxy to watch unfold, and the film is a fitting tribute to one of England's most talented and influential writers. Written by [ Richard Sharp ] [ Home ] |
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 Copyright 2005 . All Rights Reserved Editor // [ Richard Sharp ] Creative Director// [ Scott Lindenberger ] |