Review by judithfessbeggler

I really enjoyed the first act of this film, a film that goes completely awry after a promising set-up. A Brit (Martin Freeman) learns his home is scheduled to be bulldozed in order to make way for a new highway. Moments later, his best friend (Mos Def) arrives and reveals that he's actually an alien, whisking him away on a spaceship seconds before the earth is blown to bits. There are clever (if totally obvious) parallels between our own industrialism and the earth's destruction- but as soon as the third rock from the sun explodes, the movie goes downhill. The heroes bounce from planet to planet, meeting strange new extraterrestrials with cultures that all seem to be odd parodies of our own- but the good jokes are lost somewhere amidst a jumble of confusing ideas and gags that just don't work. Martin Freeman is especially annoying, John Malkovich is wasted in a scene that goes nowhere, and Sam Rockwell is the only cast member who gets any laughs whatsoever in a frantic and totally disappointing adaptation.