(Cert PG, 108mins): Starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, John Malkovich and the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey. Directed by Garth Jennings.

Dedicated to the memory of its creator, Douglas Adams, who shares a screenwriting credit with Karey Kirkpatrick, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is an energetic tribute to the great man and his zany imagination.

Unfortunately, for all its visual invention and occasional strokes of genius, Garth Jenning's film is rather muddled and, fittingly perhaps, rather scatterbrained.

Many of Adams' flights of fantasy are crammed into the 108-minute intergalactic flight time but at the expense of coherence and fluidity.

Arthur Dent (Freeman) makes a startling discovery: Planet Earth is about to be vaporised by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

Beaming on to a passing spacecraft with his best friend Ford Prefect (Def), who turns out to be an alien incognito, Arthur eventually finds himself in the company of the president of the galactic government, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Rockwell), a paranoid android called Marvin (voiced by Rickman) and Trillian (Deschanel).

Aboard Zaphod's state-of-the-art spaceship, the adventurers embark on a journey of a lifetime, encountering a menagerie of strange beings.

En route, Arthur discovers a towel might just be the most useful item in the universe and that if he ever gets stuck, he can always refer to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (voiced by Fry).

The film begins promisingly with a dolphin song and dance number which perfectly captures Adams' irreverent sense of humour.

Special effects are impressive throughout The Guide is now a smart computer laptop complete with cutesy graphics and Fry's pitch-perfect commentary. And there are some great set-pieces, such as the surreal sight of a giant sperm whale (Bailey) falling through the air to its doom.

Freeman exerts an undeniable charm and innocence as Arthur, Def is also sporadically amusing as Ford Prefect, Deschanel makes something out of her nothing support role and Marvin is adorable.

Unfortunately, from the moment Rockwell gallops on to the screen with the swagger of a faded rock star, the film never achieves lightspeed. Despite the wisecracks, he appears to be acting in a galactic vacuum. Damon Smith See page 14 for an interview with Martin Freeman.