Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I'm kinda like Marvin, our hum-bug robot in Hitchhiker, when reviewing this film. Oh, well....nobody expected much anyway.

I'm not a fan per se of the genre, Douglas Adams' fantastic sci-fi-esque ride into British humor. But I can appreciate the jokes, the visual humor, sometimes even the parodies. But most of the time it's lost on me.

So, that being said, and with Marvin looking over my shoulder, nodding, I can say that the movie has its splendid visual moments. For example, when John Malkovich glides across the table in little robotic feet, one had to marvel at the special effects efficacy, and even laugh out loud. There are many other eye-popping effects like that. They put their money where their mouth was.

And all your favorite characters are there, fleshed out. Well, they were never really fleshed out in the book, but you can recognize them. What they are, really, are travel guides into this fantastic realm. But there's really no there there (to paraphrase Oakland's sister, Gertrude Stein), no plot, no real story. Screenwriters (who included Adams before he died) tried to give us a common enemy, a real ugly one, but they failed.

I'll have to pass on the thumb's up for this one. This is probably a must-see for those who loved the book, and for those who love bitter British humor perhaps, but it's pretty much a nodding-off bore to the rest of us.

Oh, but be sure to stay until the end. Never leave until the credits have rolled.