Movie Monday - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I finally watched this movie on DVD this weekend. My son has wanted me to see it ever since it was at the theatre.

My opinion of the movie is undoubtedly tainted as I was a huge fan of the text adventure game, which I played for hours and hours back in the late 80’s. I never actually finished the game. I was aggravated by it because I got near the end only to learn that there was something I needed to do, much earlier in the game, that I had not done. To finish the game, I would have to start over.

If you read the book or played the game, you have probably already seen the movie. If you did not, you may not want to.

I suppose it depends on your love of “English” humor. If you think Monty Python rocks, you will probably like this movie. If you fail to relate to Python’s humor, don’t waste your time.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie, but felt a little disappointed that I could never quite decide if I was watching a farcical star wars clone, or if there was really some deep spiritual allegory, and I was just missing it.

The story, as it ends up, only lightly brushes the spiritual questions and becomes a love story with an improbability factor of 2 raised to the billionth power.

All in all, it was fun. Mostly because I watched it with my son (a huge Monty Python fan), and the fact that it invoked memories of the many hours I spend playing the computer game by the same name.

For me, the laughs were fewer and farther in between than I had expected, but my son seemed to find humor in places that eluded me.

What do I rate it? Hmmm. My son could probably persuade me to watch it again, but most likely I would only do so for the time with him. I will give this two and one half stars. There is some value in any movie the whole family can watch together without being offended.