Finally getting around to reading the actual review article, and I am glad to see that this viewer saw it too! The addition of John Travolta is interesting, and I can agree. I might have said George W. Bush, John Travolta, and David Lee Roth.
Finally getting around to posting my opinion of the movie, having seen a lot of negative reactions.
First of all, I am a fan. I have tapes I made of the original radio broadcast. I'm afraid I also have the official purchased tapes. And the DVDs. And the books. It's been about five years since I read or listened to any of these.
The most important thing to know is that these started out with the radio play. Everything had to be carried by the spoken word. Douglas Adams isn't Shakespeare, but he's a first cousin to Lewis Carole. When you make a movie from a work that depends on British verbal wit, you lose some of the words, and that hurts.
Aside from deleted speeches -- some of the best stuff -- the movie suffers from overly agressive editing. The good speeches are hurried up, which spoils the comic timing. The actors read their lines well enough, but the radio play gave some breathing room for the irony to sink in.
The only movie makers who didn't compromise on timing were the Pythons, and they did not have to recover a hundred million dollar budget.
The ending, of course, is quite different from the radio play, which was quite dark. Something to remember is that originally there were only six twenty-two minute episodes, and no plans for any more. The "plot line" for the original made no sense. Cliffhanger endings were just sometimes just dropped in the next episode.
Contrary to what you might have heard, the TV production is pretty bad. The Original radio actors were not particularly good on TV. Marvin, in particular, was wonderful on the radio, but did not translate well to TV. Zaphod was a mess. The actor had to lug around a thirty pound animatronic second head that never worked properly. The camera work and editing were second-rate. The sound mixing was a mess. Many speeches, including Deep thought's, are unlistenable. The only really great parts were the computer graphics for the Book.
The movie does a good job on Zaphod and on the Vogons. I also liked the Church of the White Hanky.
My test of a movie, particularly one that lasts two and a half hours, is: at any given moment do I want to see what's coming up next, or am I looking at my watch. This one was over before I was ready.
Quite frankly, I have never seen a movie that was as good as the book from which it came. Dr. Strangelove might be, but I haven't read the book. The original Tom Jones was a good movie, but not as good as the book. Clockwork Orange was a mess. LOTR, for all the care taken with its visual design, plays rather loose with some key plot points. And these are the good adaptations.