Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

They have been true to a classic source, using Adams' language and finding just the right actors, sets and costumes to flesh out his vision. Only the most persnickety cultist won't appreciate the effort.

Empire Dan Jolin

Mostly harmless. A very British, very funny sci-fi misadventure that's guaranteed to win converts.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Hits the screen with its disarmingly droll spirit quite intact.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

This very funny, very British movie -- directed by newcomer Garth Jennings -- has sci-fi effects that are impressive yet appropriately cheesy.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Jennings and Mr. Goldsmith have held onto a genuine sense of childlike wonder, which works as a nice corrective to what might otherwise come across as an overabundance of hip.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's a pleasure to see and hear so much wit in a big-budget comedy, and the fine British cast of supporting actors makes every bon mot a tasty verbal morsel.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Even if this new version of "Hitchhiker" doesn't quite capture it all, you'll still want to stick your thumb out and catch a ride.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Wildly imaginative, humane, playful and deflating of all pretense.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The film is a loopy, family-friendly jaunt, with a perfect "Wizard of Oz" finale that isn't in the book, but like the book, it suffers from a chronic plot malfunction.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

At selected moments the Pee Wee's Playhouse-scaled visual goofiness and flights of thespian bravura in this long-awaited movie adaptation of Douglas Adams' goofy-wise cult classic are in perfect celestial harmony with the existential tomfoolery of Adams' peerless (and peerlessly Monty Python-British) creation.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Go with the whimsical flow that includes a hilariously morose robot named Marvin, voiced by the great Alan Rickman with the weight of the galaxy resonating in every bored, cynical syllable. Adams would be pleased.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The problem is not that the film debases the book but that movies themselves are too capacious a home for such comedy, with its tea-steeped English musings and its love of bitty, tangential gags.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Not every moment works, particularly in the draggy middle section, but the spirit of the thing still carries it along.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

The singing dolphins opener is a giddy prelude to an imaginative romp that's helped along in the slow patches by mind-bending visuals.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Too often, the movie follows up Adams’ chaotic humor with weak slapstick and the incongruous love story.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Does so many things right, and still doesn't quite hit the mark.

Variety Leslie Felperin

More smile-inducing than laugh-aloud funny.

Slate David Edelstein

An extremely pleasant, consistently amusing diversion that is never as uproarious as you might hope. But don't panic, as the Guide would say. In a pinch, it will do.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This is a movie about improbability, randomness and absurdity. It almost goes without saying, you can't get in a panic about having everything.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's nonstop chaos, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style of comedy is taxing despite the frequent moments of pure comic genius.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

An enjoyable mess that aimlessly goofs like "Men in Black" when its script calls for "Black Adder."

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The charm of the movie's first 20 minutes soon turns shrill and manic, as invention is piled upon invention.

USA Today Mike Clark

Though the journey ends on some fun notes after a sagging middle, Galaxy never fully breaks out.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Most of the film is way too goofy for all but the most thumbstruck Hitchhiker.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Part irritating, part inspired.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Visually playful and often good fun, it never settles on a convincing narrative shape.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Lost in a time warp of its own doing (or non-doing), Hitchhiker's Guide just doesn't seem terribly original.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Boasts a strong ensemble of performances. Martin Freeman is the perfect choice for an ordinary, unheroic Earth guy.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Except for the irritating Rockwell, the cast suits the characters.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Driven equally by big questions and the abiding desire for small pleasures, like a decent cup of tea, it's an eccentric, mind-bending head trip that greets every catastrophe with an endearingly goofy smile that embodies Hitchhiker's Guide's Zen mantra: Don't Panic!

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie was more of a revue than a narrative, more about moments than an organizing purpose, and cute to the point that I yearned for some corrosive wit from its second cousin, the Monty Python universe.

Washington Post Teresa Wiltz

Although "Hitchhiker" starts out a total gas, it doesn't have enough fuel to sustain the ride, ultimately amounting to little more than some amusing gags strung together in search of a story.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Studiously harmless, Disney's long-in-development film rendition pasteurizes the book's renegade verve with typical means.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The film's opening credits are terrific, and the first 10 or 15 minutes -- in which Ford and Arthur speedily load up on beer at the local pub -- are absorbing and funny. It's such a promising start that it's doubly deflating to realize that once they land on Zaphod's spaceship, the humor vaporizes.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

There are some inspired off-the-wall moments, but they are more than offset by a pervasive aura of tedium and the lack of any sense of the forward momentum necessary to sustain an adventure of this kind.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

The droll has been made dull, a most inexplicable and unfortunate turn of events for so adored a genius, goofball work as this.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Amiably bland actors can be fun to watch, as Tom Hanks has proved. Freeman is no Hanks, though, and The Hitchhiker's Guide won't boost anyone's career into hyperspace. Or give your mind a workout.