'HITCHHIKER'S' NEEDS HIGH-OCTANE LAUGHS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

'THE HITCHHIKER'S Guide to the Galaxy'' has finally been turned into a big special-effects movie.

Fans of the late Douglas Adams' BBC radio plays, books and low-tech TV series will be gratified to hear that the satire's funky English humor and smart, loose-limbed goofiness have been beamed intact onto film.

This doesn't necessarily make for the funniest space movie, though, nor one that engages from start to finish. Whimsical and episodic, the feature needed more coherent comic hyperdrive to really blast through.

Some of the actors try to create that energy. Sam Rockwell, as the dopey, literally two-faced President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, is often left flailing in the attempt. The always-beguiling Zooey Deschanel is more successful at making Trillian, last remaining Earthwoman in the universe, a dynamo of smart, skeptical survival instincts who's also always up for fun and adventure.

Perhaps the film's fundamental, unavoidable problem, though, is that its hero and his sidekick are primarily recessive creatures. English everyschlub Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman, whose character on the original BBC ``Office'' was similarly unassertive) wakes one morning to discover his house being demolished for a motorway bypass. Soon, his planet gets the same treatment for an intergalactic shortcut.

Fortunately, Arthur's alien friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) gets him off Earth just in time. But as they hitchhike around space, they find themselves at the transportational mercy of whomever picks them up. Simon Jones, who played Arthur on radio and TV (and who makes a delectable cameo appearance here), was able to invest Arthur's profound discombobulation with a strong point of view. Freeman, rather, comes off as more passive and a whiner, while Def misplaces the best, world-weary (worlds-weary?) aspects of Ford's personality - and, often, his personality altogether.

Most of the fun bits, in fact, come from side characters such as the Alan Rickman-voiced, depressed robot Marvin; Bill Nighy's planet-building artiste Slartibartfast; and John Malkovich's creepazoid cult leader Humma Kavula. Jim Henson's creature shop makes the grotesque, bureaucratic Vogons, well, grotesque, and rather tedious after awhile.

As for other effects, the Guide itself, a kind of video book, boasts terrific-looking and sometimes hilarious silhouette animation. The spaceship's storied Improbability Drive doesn't always live up to its surreal comic potential, but it does yield a brilliant sock puppet sequence. And the whale gag still works beautifully.

The real reason to make the movie, though, is visualizing Slartibartfast's planet factory. The incredible extended tour of the facility does not disappoint. It doesn't matter that a lot of the spaceflight and action scenes look cheesy once we glimpse this truly awesome tableau of creation. Novel uses of CGI are getting rarer and rarer in big-budget movies, but this really puts the technology to striking, original use.

A real mixed bag, then, ``Guide to the Galaxy'' was directed by music video person Garth Jennings from a script begun by Adams and completed by ``Chicken Run's'' Karey Kirkpatrick.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY - Two and one half stars

(PG: violence, language)

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy.

Director: Garth Jennings.

Running time: 1 hr. 48 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: Mildly amusing big-screen version of the late Douglas Adams' beloved science fiction satire. Consistent giggles, few big laughs.

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John Malkovich is half the man he used to be as Humma Kavula in ``The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.''