The most wholly remarkable movie in all of the known universe!

Ed. note So today, after waiting more than 20 years, I Saw Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG) - a kind of science fictionalization of the political Fahrenheit 911. For anyone who cares about Douglas Adams, and if you knew the radio series, you'll really love it. Before Douglas died, at least he had a hand in making the movie - to the extent that he wrote the oh so subtle politically charged 2001 screenplay - and it skyrockets upward from there.

Every scene is well crafted, I mean, the extended opening credits (which usually are saved for last) are up front as a need-to-know preview of the scenes that follow, particularly for people who haven't already memorized every line of the original HHGTTG. The individual scenes on their face and from start to finish are hilarious and are quite (improbable) by design - vehicles for the "presence" of Douglas Adams while he is waiting.

While some of the scenes we heard and read didn't make it into the movie, and other HHGTTG scenes are new, they nonetheless "work" ok, and align the spirit of the movie version to what we know is. The voice of Marvin, the depressed, verging on psychotic robot is as always was Alan Rickman, and Eddie the on-board Computer voice is the familiar Thomas Lennon.

Not counting the Tricia MacMillan and Trillian merge, uh? the only serious departure from the original is in the President Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) character, who instead of being a somewhat lovable pre-Lockerbie and disco-bombing Muammar al-Qaddafi, now Zaphod is portrayed as just plain stupid. Kinda like George W Bush. That too "works" ok though because George W Bush is just plain stupid. Remember it was Beeblebrox who signed the document that caused the Vogons to destroy the earth so that, well, I don't want to give away the plot - although I loved the place and sequence at-where-when Slartibartfast (Bill Nighy), designer of whole planets gives a HHGTTG tour of their manufacturing facilities. Very educational.

Remember Prostetnic Jeltz (Richard Griffiths), the wretched Vogon "poet", who ordered the tossing of Ford Prefect (Mos Def) and Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) out into space from the number three airlock? He's there, same as usual, but he ain't Toby Longworth.

Remember Questular Rontok (Anna Chancellor), Zaphod's Vice president, who? She's different, but not given so big a role as to matter. Remember Trillian (Zooey Deschanel)? Don't Panic at this part; Tricia MacMillan (Sandra Dickinson), is gone from the scene and the movie. And the real Trillian (Susan Sheridan), they did a make-over on her two. Instead of the (the smart) blonde bombshell wearing that snappy jumpsuit (in the BBC radio version), who offered Arthur the "How-To Repair Rocket Ships" pills to take like a college course, the new two-trillian has as "smart" a role throughout the movie but without the bombshell. Good though, wholesome. Shoot! Better than wholesome - a movie (and a real life) rarity, she's quite pleasant!

Remember too, Humma Kavula (John Malkovich) after giving Zaphod the improbability coordinates (so they could get on with their adventure); Humma Kavula keeps one of Zaphod's heads, as a kind of guarantee that Zaphod would return with the perspective gun or point-of-view gun, depending on your perspective or point-of-view. Either way, since he didn't return it (in this movie), that guarantees us an HHGTTG sequel.

The "happy ending" for Douglas Adams, on this side of The Matrix goes something like: He can now go home (to where Edward G. Robinson went in Soylent Green), to really rest in peace (as in "It is Finished!"), or he can hang around in movie theaters for the rest of the run, or he can just follow the crowd when the DVDs are released in video rental shops, and on Amazon and the like. A whole new HHGTTG generation could well emerge because of this movie. I only regret that it didn't make it to the big screen before the 2004 election because historically speaking, forever etched in the cosmic "ketchup" or the memory of "redwood trees", George W Bush will be remembered as being even more stupid than Warren G. Harding and Ronald Reagan combined, and due more to HHGTTG and Douglas Adams than our friend Michael Moore.

Politics aside, HHGTTG also has a Happy Trails to You ending that was crafted from bits and pieces of the original and woven into a complete beginning, middle and end "scene" that sorta just ends the movie... Some people were in tears leaving the theater and didn't know why. HHGTTG is a tribute to Douglas Adams. God, how we miss him, and for those of us who knew and loved his work, the movie makes us miss him all the more. Five stars! MORE HHGTTG REVIEWS ON AMAZON