Hitchhiker's Guide: Fuuuuny!
Warning: Spoilers below...
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I never thought I'd be saying this about the only fiction book I have ever read cover to cover for pleasure, but I can honestly say that I thought the movie was at least as good as the book, with some very nice plot patchwork to make it fit in 2 hours and great visual commentary added. The "Guide Remarks" had cartooning that just made me laugh until I was in tears.
The casting for Arthur, Marvin's voice (Dr Lazarus from 'Galaxy Quest' also Snape from 'Harry Potter'), Trillian and Zaphod ("Guy" from 'Galaxy Quest') were exactly as I imagined. Ford (played an alien assassin in '5th Element') was a bit different than I had expected, but it really works for him. 'Jim Henson Animation' created most of the other aliens (without the recent Lucas Star Wars cheezy CG, thank GOD!!!!!!!!) and they were perfect!
Some of the effects seemed very high-end BBC - a mixture of the best of Dr Who and Red Dwarf effects, one one they must have blown the rest of the money on.
Oh, and the movie only covered a small portion of the story; it's only under 2 hours after all. I've not been able to dig out my Douglas Adams compendium yet, but it looks like that's all they did - just the first book, 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'... but the plot patchwork made it a perfect ending for a movie. I can't wait for 'Restaurant at the end of the Universe' - I will also be there on opening night!
There were a couple of parts where I started to feel the bore-tug (because of what I knew was going to happen, or NOT going to happen, as the case may have been), but a little plot-patch here and there and a scene I had thought was boring in the book, turned funny quick. Oh, and listen closely to the Dolphins singing at the beginning and at the end, "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" - It was GTA's favorite part of the movie, by far. We were singing it for hours after the movie was over.
Anyway, my recommendation is to see it whenever you can. It's my quess that Lucas will still find some way to push me into Star Wars mentality in 3 weeks when 'Revebge of the Sith' comes out. *Yes!, The Effects from the trailers have already blown me away... The guy must be dumping Buck$$$ into 'Revenge of the Sith'.
