The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Movie Review

Imagine the madcap sensibilities of Monty Python applied to science fiction and you'll begin to have an inkling of the whimsically eccentric humor of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," an enormously successful cult-comedy franchise of which a new feature film is only the latest incarnation.

The story of Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), a nebbish Englishman saved from the demolition of Earth (to make way for a hyperspace bypass) by an alien he'd hitherto thought was a pal from Gilford, "Hitchhiker's Guide" follows his very reluctant and frequently absurd adventures in space.

In the first 15 minutes alone, Arthur and Ford Prefect (Mos Def) are jettisoned from one of the ships that blew up the Earth (after beaming aboard surreptitiously, being captured and tortured with alien poetry), then against all odds they're rescued from the vacuum of space seconds later by a passing vessel with a warp drive designed to exploit just such unlikelihoods -- the Infinite Improbability Drive.

Onboard Arthur is improbably reunited with Trish McMillan (Zooey Deschanel), a girl he fell for at a party some months before, only to see her run off with Zaphod Bebblebox (Sam Rockwell), a guy who claimed to be from another planet. Zaphod, even more improbably, turns out to be Ford's whacked-out semi-cousin (they share three of the same mothers) who became president of the galaxy just so he'd have the necessary clearance to steal this very ship (because he thought it was cool).

Oh, and did I mention that all this happens with poor, confused Arthur still in his bathrobe, before he could even get a morning cup of tea?

From this point on, things get a little weird.

Reinvented for the big screen by the late Douglas Adams -- creator of several hilarious "Hitchhiker's" novels, a 1970s BBC radio play and a low-budget 1980s BBC television miniseries -- this incarnation of Arthur's interstellar travels is designed to crack up both newcomers and fans while fiddling with the preconceived notions of Douglas Adams devotees -- and it succeeds wildly on both counts.

Narrated by the voice of the titular travel tome -- a tongue-in-cheek computerized encyclopedia on how to thumb your way through the universe -- and jam-packed with Adams' unique elements of silly sci-fi atmosphere, the plot meanders a bit and character arcs feel abbreviated, as if first-time director Garth Jennings needed another 30 minutes to really flesh them out. The movie also has a few awkward moments of Adams-askew incongruity, as when a crowd scene on an alien planet is inexplicably populated by very Earthy surfer dudes and tank-top-clad buxom blondes.

But the filmmakers, while offering a completely original take on the material, are clearly disciples of the author's daffy spirit (several subtle "Hitchhiker's" in-jokes attest to that), which comes through perfectly in the overarching tone of chipper screwball humor and in the terrific performances.

Martin Freeman (from the original English version of the sitcom "The Office") is an ideal choice for the blindsided and perplexed Arthur. Although a major departure from the character in Adams' books, hip-hop artist Mos Def ("The Italian Job") brings a space-smart, charmingly cheeky, understatedly alien quality to Ford Prefect, who can't quite seem to grasp the rhythms of English sentence construction and thinks hugs are humans' solutions to every problem.

Zooey Deschanel ("Elf") provides Trish (known as Trillian to fans) a sexy intelligence and appealingly vulnerable temperament, and Sam Rockwell ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") is all Id as the hyperactive Zaphod, defined by his wannabe-rocker wardrobe and his hidden, even more insane second head that pops up to wreak havoc from time to time.

The cast also includes John Malkovich as an interstellar evangelist (a character Adams created just for the film), Bill Nighy as the off-kilter foreman constructing a new Earth (it's a long story), and Alan Rickman as the drolly gloomy voice of Marvin, a clinically depressed pint-sized robot who waddles half-heartedly around most scenes hanging his giant head in woe. (Warwick Davis from "Willow" is in the robot suit and does a fantastic job of giving physicality to Marvin's blues.)

Enthusiastically odd, creatively amusing (the great special effects are often tapped as a source of comedy) and visually inventive (the bilious, bureaucratic, overweight, 8-foot aliens who destroy the Earth are brilliant creations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop), "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" may not be a masterpiece of sci-fi, but it's fantastic early-summer popcorn fun. Douglas Adams would be proud.