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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Release : | 2005 |
Rating : | 6.7 |
Studio : | Spyglass Entertainment, Everyman Pictures, Hammer & Tongs, |
Crew : | Art Department Assistant, Art Department Coordinator, |
Cast : | Martin Freeman Yasiin Bey Zooey Deschanel Sam Rockwell Alan Rickman |
Genre : | Adventure Comedy Science Fiction |
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Reviews
not horrible nor great
Load of rubbish!!
From my favorite movies..
As Good As It Gets
I'm surprised that this movie has so many bad reviews. This movie is pretty loyal to the book. Its extremely entertaining with well-acted characters and well-timed jokes. The cinematography, effects, and costumes are all fantastic. I don't see anything wrong with this movie, and am confused as to why other reviews are calling them boring.
It is a little known fact that hiring hip music video directors is unlikely to result in a successful interpretation of a a popular 70s comedic novel. The Encyclopaedia Galactica defines the creators of this mess as "a bunch of tedious jerks who wouldn't know a punchline if it was written on the forehead of a ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal"
In case you don't know, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' was a science-fiction book by Douglas Adams which developed a major cult following. This was then immortalised during the eighties in the British six-part TV series of the same name which, despite its low budget, (seriously – the man with 'two heads' has to be seen to be believed, trust me, it's no 'Avatar!') was regarded very highly as a faithful adaptation and added to the following.Since then, the author, Douglas Adams, had tried numerous times to get a big screen version made, but, despite the fans supporting this, it took until 2005 for this to happen. And, despite the film also being written by Adams, for various reasons it received only mixed reactions.It follows the original book/TV show's format of a man about to have his house bulldozed to the ground to make way for a motorway, only to discover that aliens are literally about to bulldoze the entire planet Earth for similar reasons. While the entire planet are mercilessly blown up, our everyman – Arthur Dent – is rescued by his best friend (who conveniently turns out to be an alien on a research mission to our planet and in possession with the titular Guide to the Galaxy) and they end up on the run in a spaceship, piloted by various freaks of the universe.Now, first of all let me say the cast in – on the whole – fantastic. Martin Freeman (from the UK's 'Office,' but more recently 'Bilbo' from 'The Hobbit' is great as the long suffering last surviving earthling and Alan Rickman voices the 'paranoid android' Marvin to perfection. And, while we have plenty of good cameos such as John Malkovich and Bill Nighy, the overall cast are let down by Mos Def's 'Ford Prefect' and Zooey Deschanel's Trillion (aka the obligatory love interest for Arthur). These two seem to have little made of them apart from making up the numbers and drag the cast down.However, the overall feel lifts the film back up again. Of course most of the special effects are CGI, but there's a great feel for many of the monsters who are all there courtesy of Jim Henson's creature effects workshop. The sets are also amazing and the universe really does feel alive with weird and wonderful creations. Overall, I enjoyed it. However, I do wonder whether a lot of the dislike came from those who, like me, know the WHOLE story.You see, unless I'm really missing something, the film doesn't have an end. Or at least not a proper one. If you've read the book or seen the TV show, you know the answer to various major questions (and I'm not just talking about the number 42!). However, the film doesn't address many critical plot elements that are set up. Perhaps this is meant to be the first half and, because of its limited success, we never got to see the sequel/second half which would have answered the questions we die-hard fans were expecting. Therefore, it did leave me wanting more than the film offered.For all its plus points I wanted to see the end, which I only got a sort of ending that serves only as a midway gap that could be considered an ending if you haven't read the book/seen the TV show. However, I do own the film on DVD and watch it from time to time. Like I say, it does have enough going for it to make it nice and light-heartedly watchable. Although, I do wonder whether the 'big budget treatment' that's been afforded to this film wouldn't have been better spent on a new TV adaptation that could have fleshed out all the characters who seem a little one dimensional and also given us the ending that was a lot better than the film.
Aesthetically very beautiful; also the comic bits were well performed. However, it did not fail to be abundant of philosophical clichés, shallow humanitarian messages and stereotypical characters. And yes(!), one more film with Zooey Deschanel playing the indie 'oh lets quit our jobs do whatever our guts tell us'girl who ends up with the stereotypical sensitive, nervous, awkward guy.