Overall, I must say that my kids and I heartily enjoyed this movie! It is nonstop silliness, with lots of goofy things happening. (Our favorite being when the heroes of the story were turned into yarn creatures by the Improbability Drive!) Now, I must admit that I never read the original Douglas Adams original stories, and only saw the BBC series once, a long time ago, so I cannot give any comparisons. But, just taking the movie on its own merits, I must say that it gave me and my family quite an enjoyable evening – we loved it! Is this movie a work of art and a joy forever? Perhaps not. But, is it a fun movie? You bet. My family and I loved it, and give it our highest recommendations!
Our Price: £3.41 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Don't panic! After twenty years stuck in development (a mere blink compared to how long it takes to find the answer to life, the universe, and everything), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has finally been turned into a movie. Following the radio play, TV series, commemorative towel, and books, this latest installment in the sci-fi-comedy franchise is based on the screenplay and detailed notes by Douglas Adams. For those unfamiliar with the story, everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up one morning to discover that his house is set to be demolished to make room for a bypass. Little does he know the entire planet Earth is also set to be destroyed for an interplanetary bypass by the Vogons, a hideous and bureaucratic race of aliens realized in the film by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Whisked off the planet by his best friend, alien-in-disguise Ford Prefect (Mos Def), Dent embarks on a goofy jaunt across the galaxy accompanied by his trusty Hitchhiker's Guide, which looks like a really fancy PDA. The guide itself provides some of the funniest bits of the movie, little animated shorts that explain the ludicrous life forms and extraterrestrial phenomena our heroes encounter. Along the way Arthur meets the two-headed party animal/president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and develops an unrequited crush on fellow earthling Trillian (Zooey Deschanel). The creatures and sets are inspired and answer to the sci-fi fan's primal need to see lots and lots of cool stuff. Where the story stumbles is in the telling--as books, the Hitchhiker's Guide was foremost about goofy and brilliant ideas that raised questions about our place in the universe while getting a laugh. The movie has enough trouble figuring out how to get the characters from one fantastical location to the next that Adams's funniest concepts often feel left in the dust. While the reverence the filmmakers felt toward Adams's legacy is apparent, one wonders what we could have expected had the creator of this science fiction universe lived to see it with his own eyes. --Ryan Boudinot, Amazon.com
Nonstop silliness
Review date: 2006-01-18 Rating: 10 out of 10
Arthur Dent (played by Martin Freeman) has been living his quiet life, which suddenly seems to be coming apart at the seams. First the local council wants to bulldoze his house, and then his friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) informs him that the planet Earth itself is going to be effectively bulldozed! Handing Arthur a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ford whisks him off into space, just in the nick of time. And so, the unlikely duo is off on a tour of the universe, having adventures, and learning just what is the meaning of life. [Color, released in 2005, with a running time of 1:49.]