mostly harmless

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about film adaptations:

Film producers are the least creative individuals in the universe, second only to real estate developers in lacking insight or innovation. Thus, producers are keen to adapt popular works from other mediums rather than actually sit around and confront their utter dearth of creativity head-on. Adaptations take one of two routes – a slavish rendition intended to satisfy core fans of the original work, or a complete re-invention intended to inject sensational elements that pander to "the youth market." Neither approach is typically successful, since the former crumbles under the weight of expectation, and the latter is appealing only to the brainless herds of Testosterone Mules that roam the fetid plains of Betelgeuse IV.

Ironically, the film adaption of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy seems to suffer from both issues. I hope this is simply a case of the BBC being non-plussed by a Yank bastardization from their native son's prized work, because I really, really want this film to be insanely great.

UPDATE: Saw H2G2 last Friday at Alamo. Wow, what a disappointing mess that was. If you haven't read the books, there is basically no shot of fully appreciating the wit and creativity behind the well-meaning sheen of this film. And if you have read the books, you'll be left wondering "um, wasn't there a lot of funnier material they could have used?" Nice Guide animations, tho.