The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Usually the criteria for reviewing a comedy is covered by one question: Is it funny? This film defies that criterion, however, because while often funny, it is a wholly unsatisfying movie-going experience. The whole film is a paradox every bit as confusing, but nowhere near as whimsical, as the metaphysical musings in the novel by Douglas Adams. One the one hand, the movie will be lost on anyone who hasn't read the book; yet Adams (before he died) and co-screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run) introduced new characters and made substantial plot changes that added nothing of value to the overall story. The end result is like an inaccurate cliff notes version of the novel on film—hurried and barely capable of fooling your book-of-the-month club into thinking you read it. One thing the movie version has going for it is the cast, which was assembled brilliantly (with the exception of Zooey Deschanel), particularly Sam Rockwell, who simultaneously embodies the spirit of President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and the film—moving 100 miles a minute to nowhere in particular.