Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Olga and I went to the cinema today to see a long awaited “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“.

Directed by: Garth Jennings
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Cast: Bill Bailey, Anna Chancellor, Warwick Davis, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Su Elliot, Martin Freeman, Stephen Fry, Richard Griffiths, Dominique Jackson, Simon Jones, Thomas Lennon, Mark Longhurst, Kelly Macdonald, John Malkovich
IMDB raintg: 6.8
My rating: 8.0

I really liked the film. It was much better than I expected. Actually, it was kind of difficult to expect anything, because the book seemed to me very unscreenable, so to speak. The book is one of those that I consider very hard to base a movie on. So, I was rather suspecious. But the film turned out to be great.

I don’t know though how difficult it was to find any sense for those who didn’t read the book.

First of all the Vogons. They were absolutely fantastic. They were even more disgusting than described in the book. Both Olga and I exclaimed a loud “Ewww, yuck!” when we saw the first one. That’s a compliment, by the way.

Secondly, I thought that the solution to the “second head” of Zaphod was great. It’d be kind of tough following a two headed guy with all the articulation and random stuff that he was supposed to do, but not having a second head would be unbooky. The way they went about it was creative, original and entertaining.

Thirdly, the whole planet building factory was unbelievable. It rocked. It was my favourite scene by far.

Fourthly, Marvin was something. Using the voice of Alan Rickman was the absolute genious thought.

Overall - the film was great. It is one of those film that keeps the audience glued to the screen. Mostly because the said audience has no slightest idea of what’s going to happen next. Even those few who read the original book. Not many movies do it these days. Eh, Hollywood…

Strongly recommended.