[Inspector Abberline]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)


Putting aside any comparisons to the books,or the radio series or the television series,the film directed by Gareth Jennings who has directed whole load of music videos,is in partial a success.Based on a script by Douglas Adams and Karey (Chicken Run) Kirkpatrick,they manage to include pretty much all the major plot points from the original story and manages to give the viewer,even the one's who are un-familiar to the HitchHikers universe,a rather fun if watered down version of the book and the universe in general.The casting may of been controversial at the time,but Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent was probably a no brainer since his success coming from the tv show The Office,and way before he became a hobbit or Dr Watson.Probably more interesting was the casting of Mos Def as Ford Prefect,but apart from him having an American accent and not really coming from Guildford he is the funniest actor out of the whole bunch.Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Sam Rockwell,who normally is brilliant in most things he appears in,just does not do it for me as Zaphod Beeblebrox,and I was for ever comparing him to the rather better Mark Wing-Davey (oops I tried not to compare it to the tv show),even with the fake head Mark Wing-Davey just made the part his own.The other niggle was Marvin The Paranoid ANdroid,why they had to redesign him in the first place i really do not know,especially when he has a cameo appearance in the que on the Vogon planet,it makes you want to see him even more.And while the late great Alan Rickman does a rather good job of voicing him,and Warwick Davis is ok as the actual man in the suit,again I was wishing they had used Stephen Moore who was perfect as the voice of the depressed android. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian is good,but slightly underwhelming. But it is not all doom and gloom,the special effects are as you might of guessed pretty damn good,bringing the Hitch-Hikers universe to life,and especially the Vogon's,who look really great in all of there grossness,and voiced mainly by the chaps from The League of Gentlemen and Richard Griffiths,also Stephen Fry as the Narrator / The Guide was also a great choice and a good replacement for late Peter Jones,Hitch-Hikers the film was going to be a hard sell and even harder to make,my real gripe was that I did not find it funny,what was good was it made me go back and listen to the radio version and re watch the television show.