The Blockbusters (Rate and Rant): Week #1 - THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

[bartleby]

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Director: Garth Jennings
Screenwriter: Douglas Adams, Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, John Malkovich, Warwick Davis, Steve Pemberton, Stephen Fry
Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG (for thematic elements, action and mild language)
Official Website: Hitchhikers.movies.com



Note: Feel free to talk about the movie as well as voting in the poll, but remember that there may be people reading this thread that have not seen the movie yet. When discussing story details, please use the spoiler or hide tags when appropriate.

[moonspider]

I'm hopefuly seeing it this weekend....but kewl of you to start the thread to get this rolling for those who will see it

[bartleby]

I watched it late last night.

Now I've never read the books or watched the television series or listened to the radio (basically the story and characters are completely foreign to me), but I absolutely loathed the movie. I'm typically much more a fan of sci-fi comedy than I am of actual serious science fiction and I really like the cast they've assembled, but the movie just fell flat on me. The completely random and irreverent humor mostly just annoyed me, and the result was a plot that didn't seem all that coherent.

Surprisingly, the highlight of the movie was Mos Def. To the best of my knowledge, he's done mostly dramatic stuff so far, but he shows a good sense of comic timing. Haven't to share the screen with Sam Rockwell and not get overshadowed can't be an easy thing to do, but I thought Mos Def pulled it off well.

I assume existing fans of the series will find lots of things to like, but I just don't see the movie working all that well with a broader audience.


My rating: **

[TIP]

A very well done distillation of the first book of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's 'Trilogy'...very pleased with it and I think the late Adams would have been too.

4 Stars

T

[alexlannin]

I didn't find it hilarious, but it was funny, and charming. It had the feel of the book, but seemed to be a very loose adaptation and about 1/3 of the way through.

[Cth]

Like all the other adaptations, it's unique and likely the best version to date.

All the other non-fans in the audience seemed to enjoy it.

As Ebert says, either you'll love it and seek out the books, or you'll utterly hate it.

It's not a film for everyone.. pretty random and hyper active..

Fans should definitely enjoy it.

Too bad some fans are going to be overly critical, like with all adaptations.

[Ray G.]

It wasn't perfect by a long shot. A lot of stuff in it just didn't work. But I'm giving it four stars, simply because it tried. I would much rather see a movie like this than a piece of dreck like XXX2, which simply doesn't want to be anything else than the piece of fecal matter it is. So the writers of the movie didn't capture Adams' genius. At least they tried, and there were a few moments they came damn close.

[Bandit Chimera]

4 stars i really like it ...im hoping it does well and we get to see Millyways next time

[BronxRonin]

i enjoyed it and i've never read the books pretty funny.

[Vroom_Socko]

I had a huge blast. From beginning to end, I had a huge smile on my face.

Of course, it helped that I was in a theater full of people that had brought along their towels.