The Hitch Hikers Guide...

...To The Galaxy! I saw this at the cinema just at the start of the period when I stopped blogging, so seeing it again on DVD gives me the chance to tell you what I thought about it... Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by how bold the film-makers had been and couldn't stop comparing it to the 80s TV series - there was a lot I did like but overall felt a bit, I don't know, cheated by it. Second time around: it's a Sunday afternoon, everyone's relaxed, there are no expectations... and I bloody loved it! Thought it was great! Couldn't wait to actually buy a copy and watch it again, again! I think it was the casting that threw me the first time - Martin Freeman, OK, was brilliant in The Office, but a bit of a one trick pony; Mos Def? (who I've since seen more of in The Woodsman) what was he doing playing Ford Prefect? Zooey Deschannel, I'd vaguely heard of but had no great opinion for; in fact, the only one that seemed right was Sam Rockwell, as Zaphod, a part he was surely born to play. On seeing it all again I had no such concerns: Freeman was spot on, Mos Def was actually very funny and Zooey Deschannel is both beautiful and totally believable as the only girl in the Universe worth caring about... The whole thing is fun and you have to go with it, that's the point. John Malkovich and Bill Nighy give great supporting performances to flesh out a terrifically well produced whole that more than lives up to the spirit of the book, the radio play, the TV series and, above all, the intentions of Douglas Adams. I had a hardback anthology of Hitch Hikers that rarely left my side when I was a teenager, and although the book will always be the best medium for the story, this is now in my mind the definitive adaptation, and I never thought I'd say that a few months ago - I must have been in a rotten mood or something. 9/10 Kx