Product Description
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Here's the absolutely hysterical, wonderfully wild, cosmic
adventure comedy THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. Based on
Douglas Adams' worldwide best-selling novel, and starring an
outrageous intergalactic cast, this is one ride you don't want to
miss. Seconds before Earth is destroyed to make way for a new
hyperspace express route, mild-mannered Arthur Dent is whisked
into space by his best friend (an alien posing as an out-of-work
actor). And so the misadventures begin as he and fellow
travelers, including the cool but dim-witted President of the
Galaxy, the Earth girl Trillian, and Marvin the paranoid android,
search for answers to the mystery of Life, the Universe, and
Everything.
.com
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Don't panic! After twenty years stuck in development (a mere
blink compared to how long it takes to find the answer to life,
the universe, and everything), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy has finally been turned into a movie. Following the radio
play, TV series, commemorative towel, and books, this latest
installment in the sci-fi-comedy franchise is based on the
screenplay and detailed notes by Douglas Adams.
H a ride. For those unfamiliar with the story, everyman
Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up one morning to discover
that his house is set to be demolished to make room for a bypass.
Little does he know the entire planet Earth is also set to be
destroyed for an interplanetary bypass by the Vogons, a hideous
and bureaucratic race of aliens realized in the film by Jim
Henson's Creature Shop. Whisked off the planet by his best
friend, alien-in-disguise Ford Prefect (Mos Def), Dent embarks on
a goofy jaunt across the galaxy accompanied by his trusty
Hitchhiker's Guide, which looks like a really fancy PDA.
The guide itself provides some of the funniest bits of the movie,
little animated shorts that explain the ludicrous life forms and
extraterrestrial phenomena our heroes encounter. Along the way
Arthur meets the two-headed party animal/president of the galaxy
Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and develops an unrequited crush
on fellow earthling Trillian (Zooey Deschanel). The creatures and
sets are inspired and answer to the sci-fi fan's primal need to
see lots and lots of cool stuff. In particular, there's John
Malkovich's creepy, CGI-enhanced Humma Kavula. He's a guru
leading a religion that worships the gigantic nose that allegedly
sneezed the universe into existence (naturally all their prayers
end not with "Amen" but with "Bless you.") The aliens the team
encounters are inspired creations, eminently worthy of action
figure-ification, and the sets belie an attention to detail
worthy of freeze-framing. Fans of the other Hitchhiker
manifestations, namely the British TV series, will be amused by a
number of in-jokes sprinkled throughout the movie.
Concept art: The Heart of Gold pod on the planet Vogsphere Where
the story stumbles is in the telling--as books, the Hitchhiker's
Guide was foremost about goofy and brilliant ideas that raised
questions about our place in the universe while getting a laugh.
The cast seems at times bewildered, at least when Sam Rockwell
isn't picking pieces of scenery out of his teeth, perhaps a
natural reaction to an adaptation of a book with no traditional
plot. The movie has enough trouble figuring out how to get the
characters from one fantastical location to the next that Adams's
funniest concepts often feel left in the dust. While the
reverence the filmmakers felt toward Adams's legacy is apparent,
one wonders what we could have expected had the creator of this
science fiction universe lived to see it with his own eyes. --
Ryan Boudinot
A Guide to the Guide
The Soundtrack (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007Z9RDY/ref=d_ap_hitch_1 )
The Radio Play (CD) (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0563494212/ref=d_ap_hitch_2 )
The TV Series (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005YUNJ/ref=d_ap_hitch_3 )
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (Deluxe Edition) (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517226952/ref=d_ap_hitch_4 )
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (Paperback) (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345453743/ref=d_ap_hitch_5 )
The Filming of the Douglas Adams Classic (book) (
/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/155704676X/ref=d_ap_hitch_6 )
Interviews with The Cast and Director
Watch our interviews with the cast and director of The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and find out what they think of
other DVDs and books:
high bandwidth
( http://wm..usa.speedera.net/wm..usa/vid/HitchhikerStream_272K.wmv )
low bandwidth
( http://wm..usa.speedera.net/wm..usa/vid/HitchhikerStream_272K.wmv )
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Review
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"Every bit as smart and funny as the book that inspired it!" --
STEVE OLDFIELD/FOX TV
"Four Stars" -- TODD DAVID SCHWARTZ/CBS RADIO
"It should do for British sci-fi what Shaun Of The Dead did for
British horror." -- JAMIE RUSSELL/BBC.CO.UK
"It s firmly rooted in the grand tradition of English absurdity
bounded by Lewis Carroll and Monty Python." -- JAY CARR/AM NEW
YORK
" a massively epic and wonderfully improbable trip " -- DESSON
THOMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Set Contains:
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the book, not the movie,
or rather, the book within the--oh, never mind) is ideally suited
for DVD adaptation. Navigating menus designed to look like the
pages of the Guide itself, viewers can access such choice bits as
deleted scenes, scenes designed to look like they were meant to
be deleted but are actually little mini-spoofs of the movie, and
a short featurette documentary. The animated short about the
existence of God is hilarious and it's a shame it didn't make it
into the movie. The sing-along-with-the-dolphins sequence is
mildly amusing, and only die-hard fans will want to spend much
time with "Marvin's hangman game." Spirited commentary by the
cast and executive producer (and Douglas Adams's friend) Sean
Solle round out the generous grab bag of extras. Perhaps most fun
of all is the "Improbability Drive," a menu option that serves up
a random sampling from the extras.
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