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83They 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.
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80Hits the screen with its disarmingly droll spirit quite intact.
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80Mostly harmless. A very British, very funny sci-fi misadventure that's guaranteed to win converts.
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80This very funny, very British movie -- directed by newcomer Garth Jennings -- has sci-fi effects that are impressive yet appropriately cheesy.
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80Mr. 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.
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75Go 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.
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75Even 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.
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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.
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75Wildly imaginative, humane, playful and deflating of all pretense.
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75At 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.
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75It'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.
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70Too often, the movie follows up Adams’ chaotic humor with weak slapstick and the incongruous love story.
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70Does so many things right, and still doesn't quite hit the mark.
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70Not every moment works, particularly in the draggy middle section, but the spirit of the thing still carries it along.
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70An 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.
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70More smile-inducing than laugh-aloud funny.
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70This is a movie about improbability, randomness and absurdity. It almost goes without saying, you can't get in a panic about having everything.
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70The 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.
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70The singing dolphins opener is a giddy prelude to an imaginative romp that's helped along in the slow patches by mind-bending visuals.
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67It's nonstop chaos, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style of comedy is taxing despite the frequent moments of pure comic genius.
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63Most of the film is way too goofy for all but the most thumbstruck Hitchhiker.
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63Lost in a time warp of its own doing (or non-doing), Hitchhiker's Guide just doesn't seem terribly original.
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63Though the journey ends on some fun notes after a sagging middle, Galaxy never fully breaks out.
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63Visually playful and often good fun, it never settles on a convincing narrative shape.
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63Boasts a strong ensemble of performances. Martin Freeman is the perfect choice for an ordinary, unheroic Earth guy.
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63An enjoyable mess that aimlessly goofs like "Men in Black" when its script calls for "Black Adder."
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63The charm of the movie's first 20 minutes soon turns shrill and manic, as invention is piled upon invention.
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63Part irritating, part inspired.
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63Except for the irritating Rockwell, the cast suits the characters.
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60Driven 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!
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50The 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.
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50The 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.
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50Studiously harmless, Disney's long-in-development film rendition pasteurizes the book's renegade verve with typical means.
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50There 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.
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50Although "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.
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40The droll has been made dull, a most inexplicable and unfortunate turn of events for so adored a genius, goofball work as this.
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25Amiably 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.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 70 out of 128
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Mixed: 15 out of 128
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Negative: 43 out of 128
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10
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StevM.5A mildly amusing yet bland film, that left a distinct feeling of unfulfillment.
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Andrew8