Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Let me start off by saying that A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an absolutely visually dazzling movie and it's as wryly witty as can be. The casting is quite good, with Martin Freeman (Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually) playing the Walter Mittyish Arthur Dent; Mos Def playing the alien contributor to The Guide, Ford Prefect; Zooey Deschanel playing Trillian, the love interest to both Dent and Zaphod Beeblebrox,who is ably played by Sam Rockwell. The voice of the depressed (and depressing) robot, Marvin is done by Alan Rickman, a stroke of casting genius. Inside the robots Warwick Davis (Willow).

The story is absurd, and it's not sci-fi at all, but rather a spoof of sci-fi. Basically, the story in a nutshell is that Arthur Dent wakes up one morning to discover that a demolition crew is outside his house preparing to demolish it for a new freeway bypass. While he's in the midst of an act of civil disobedience in an attempt to stop the demolition, his best friend, Ford Prefect happens along with a shopping cart full of beer. He gives the construction crew the beer to stop the demolition and drags Arthur off to the pub, where he tells Arthur that the world is about to be demolished by a Vogon demolition crew in order to create a hyperspace bypass. Ford is there to save Arthur from the fate facing other earthlings, which he does, and which propels Arthur off into a very funny (if not exactly hilarious) galactic adventure.

Along the way, Arthur meets the President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is more insane rock star than politician, and is on the lam after stealing the spacecraft Heart of Gold in order to discover the question regarding life, the universe, and everything. (You see, the answer is already known, but makes no sense apart from the precise question. Coincidentally, aboard the ship is Trillian, the girl Arthur met and fell in love with at a party, but lost because he wasn't willing to drop everything and go to Madagascar with her (haven't we all had that experience?). Coincidences are omnipresent in this story, to the extent that even the spacecraft has an "infinite improbability drive," dangerous to use but handy to get out of tight spots.

I think perhaps the weakest casting has to be Zooey Deschanel. Trillian could have been played better by any number of other actresses. Zooey seems best in stoner-type roles such as the one she played in The Good Girl. Roles, in other words, where not much acting ability is required.