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# Shouldbeasmoothroadfor‘Hitchhiker’sGuide’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/xxx-a-state-of-failure/
- Published: 2005-04-29T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:50:34.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

The late author Douglas Adams once claimed, “All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss.” Director Garth Jennings’ long-awaited film adaptation of Adams’ beloved five-part “trilogy,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” may not soar like a bird, but it certainly doesn’t land with a thud either … or miss very often, for that matter. Adams’ mind-bending epic adventures in the cosmos are brilliantly imaginative and laugh-out-loud funny, yet not the sort of source material very easily translated to the big screen. Though the books were begat from a highly successful play on BBC Radio, very few Hollywood producers were keen on backing a story that is equal parts science-fiction extravaganza (expensive), biting satire (risky) and whimsical view of the surreal side of an ordinary man’s life (surreal doesn’t guarantee big box office). Adams, who died of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 49, once famously remarked that the process of making a movie was “like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it.”

Though a long time in coming, the end result is well done and juicy — certainly the funniest and most outrageous film of the year to date. The story revolves around Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), an ordinary Englishman who awakens one morning and is informed by his pal Ford Prefect (Mos Def) that the earth is about to be demolished to make room for an intergalactic highway. Turns out Ford isn’t the out-of-work actor he purported to be, but rather an alien from a distant planet who’s a staff writer for the electronic travel tome for which the film is named. The two escape to the vastness of space where they team up with the rock-star-like Galaxy President Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell, channeling Jim Morrison and riffing heavily on George W. Bush), a brainy, beauteous earth girl named Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) and Marvin the paranoid android (exceptionally voiced by Alan Rickman). As they travel the galaxy searching for the meaning of life, the universe and everything in a ship propelled by an Infinite Improbability Drive, the group encounters bureaucratic creatures called Vogons, a disembodied religious cult leader (John Malkovich), and a super-computer voiced by Helen Mirren. Bill Nighy is also on hand as a planetary construction engineer named Slartibartfast, in cahoots with a couple of talking mice. Now, doesn’t that all sound like great fun? (Rated PG for thematic elements, action and mild language. Running time: 110 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 29, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042905.pdf?ref=smdp.com)