The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Review

cinemablend.com ^ | 4/28/2005 | Joshua Tyler

[MeanWestTexan]

I tend to make both uber-liberal and uber-conservative dour sets of folks mad, myself.

[tarheelswamprat]

I tend to make both uber-liberal and uber-conservative dour sets of folks mad, myself.

Good for you! After all, a day without sunshine is like......... night!?

[Junior]

Whereas libertarians are all for a good time.

[tarheelswamprat]

Whereas libertarians are all for a good time.

My experience has been that (most) "L"ibertarians abandon joviality if you criticise and disagree with them, too. The small "l" ones I've met seem to be much less tightly wound!

[bigjoesaddle]

Don't know if this was posted yet, but here's the book if you want to read it first.

http://www.fictionbook.ru/en/author/adams_douglas/the_hitch_hiker_s_guide_to_the_galaxy/

[2Jedismom]

So has anyone seen it yet? Can I take my jedis? (Ages 6 and 9.) I tried to get a sitter, something I have NEVER done and couldn't...reminding me of why I never bothered in the past.

I'll take 'em with me if it's not inappropriate...I like 'em and would just soon anyways.

[js1138]

The humor is mostly verbal and very British. Young kids might be bored. I won't have an opinion until I see the movie.

I rather doubt there is any sex or bad language. And with the exception of the entire earth being destroyed in the first five minutes, no violence.

But then Lucas did that already in the first Star Wars movie.

[2Jedismom]

Yeah, and both my kids sat through all three LOTR movies...if it's tamer than that, I'm thinking I'll take 'em.

Hey, they like going out to the movies too! :-)

[Slainte]

I just saw it over lunch. I'd give it a 3 of 5, a mixed bag. I enjoyed myself, but they really messed with the dialog, and left out some of the brilliantly funny bits I remember from the radio, the books, and the TV series. The dialog hasn't been aided by the screenwriter.


Can you take the munchkin's? I'm not going to take my 8 year old, but not because anything set my "objectionable" meter off, but just because I don't think she'd enjoy it.

---

Not meant to be spoilers, but may give bits away in the discussion of whether it's age appropriate. If you don't want to know before you see it, move on to the next post!

---

You were warned.


There's really not any sex in it. It is turned into a bit of a love story at the end (honestly to the plot's detriment) between Arthur and Trillian. Of course the story starts with Arthur and Trillian at a costume party, and Trillian leaving that party with Zaphod.

In one scene Arthur is talking to Trillian while she's in the shower, but they don't show anything. Another scene has Ford talking to an unnamed character in a pub, and the camera angle is from behind her feet, looking up at Ford. She's in heels and fishnet stockings, but you're only seeing her below the knees, and the only dialog you hear is from Ford explaining that he's been stranded on Earth, not avoiding her. I suspect she's Eccentrica Galumbits, but she's not identified in the movie.

When Arthur and Ford end up on the HoG, Zaphod's running around in his shorts, and at one point he asks Trillian if she's wearing his underwear, because he thinks he's wearing her's. Zaphod's a cad, and he's insinuating towards Trillian and Questular Rontok, but I don't recall anything specifically said that was off-color or blatantely sexual.

There's not much in the way of violence. At one point Humma Kavula removes Zaphod's second head to hold hostage for the POV gun. You see the second held held up in shadow, and then it cuts to it installed on a hula girl. Not really any violence. Marvin uses the POV gun on the Vogon's, but it only makes them depressed.

The mice want to cut open Arthur's head to get his brain, but as the spinning blades are approaching, they're foiled at the last possible moment.

There is alcohol. Ford's got a cart full of beer in the opening scenes, Ford and Arthur go to the pub and consume pints. And on the HoG Ford and Zaphod have pan galactic gargle blasters, and the guide entry talks a bit about the PGGB.

That's about the run down as I recall it.

[2Jedismom]

Sounds fabulous! I think they can handle it.

Thank you so much! None of your spoilers made a lick of sense to me as I have never even read the books, I appreciate you going to such a length for me.

[The SISU kid]

KD,

Could you add me to your Sci-Fi Ping list please?

Thanks!

p.s.
you should read the books (trilogy). D.G. is a grand author.

8^)

[The SISU kid]

Prefect timing to post the answer to life, the universe and everything on post 42.


8^)

[Kenny Bunkport]

Wow, I didn't notice that! Must be one of those cosmic coincidences.

[Kenny Bunkport]

And Trillian in the BBC series was (or hopefully, still is) Peter Davison's wife, as I recall.

[bigjoesaddle]

p.s. you should read the books (trilogy). D.G. is a grand author.

Here it is for FREE!

http://www.fictionbook.ru/en/author/adams_douglas/the_hitch_hiker_s_guide_to_the_galaxy/

[Cvengr]

Reminds me of those youthful nights, listening to National Lampoon's Radio Hour followed by the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe while falling asleep, taping them to listen fervidly during the week.

[LongElegantLegs]

Hey, if you sit quietly for a moment, you can sense a disturbance in Earth's gravitational field...Oh yeah, that's Douglas Adams SPINNING in his grave.
Crikey, this movie bit. They changed too much, tried to cram too much into one movie...And Trillian was horribly cast. And Zaphod's an unlikeable dweeb. Arthur and Ford were...Well, pretty much perfect.
Bad, bad, bad, though.
But everyone should go see it.

[js1138]

Hey, if you sit quietly for a moment, you can sense a disturbance in Earth's gravitational field...Oh yeah, that's Douglas Adams SPINNING in his grave.

Douglas wrote mostly for fame and money. This movie will send a few people to the books, maybe even to the original radio play. I like it better than the TV series, even though the comic timing is often better on the TV show. Oddly, the primitive computer graphics from the 1980s are as good as, or better than the Flash videos in the movie.

[The SISU kid]

Wow, I didn't notice that! Must be one of those cosmic coincidences.

I wonder what the improbability factor of that happening calc's out to???

Don't Panic!

8^)

[Kenny Bunkport]

I wonder what the improbability factor of that happening calc's out to???

I don't know, but it probably proves the existence of God; but since God can only be known by faith, it actually disproves the existence of God.