Monty Python meets Wars aving ready spawned a cult as a series of books, radio shows and a 1981 TV series, Hitchhiker finally thumbs a hot ride to the big reen. The mission impossible, which first-time director Garth nnings has bravely accepted, is to hold true to the droll, gressive, very British verbal humor of the creator Douglas Adams e died in 2001) in a movie that spills over with visual gags, ppet monsters and a digital John Malkovich. Even when the PG lm plays it safe, the script by Karey Kirkpatrick and Adams mself delivers the goods in inspired lunacy. Plot? Arthur Dent, e Brit Everyman perfectly played by Martin Freeman (The Office), kes up to find bulldozers ready to raze his home. Before he can op them, his pal Ford Prefect (a lively Mos Def) tells him not bother, since Earth is about to be destroyed by an alien race Vogons, and reveals that he, too, is an alien, whose book — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — is a big seller in hyperspace. rd and Arthur stow away on a ship manned by Zaphod Beeblebrox, ayed by Sam Rockwell with a mad glint befitting a galaxy esident with two heads, three arms and an earthling passenger dorable Zooey Deschanel), whom Arthur once hit on at a party. n't panic, you noncultists. Go with the whimsical flow that cludes a hilariously morose robot named Marvin, voiced by the eat Alan Rickman with the weight of the galaxy resonating in ery bored, cynical syllable. Adams would be pleased.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."