Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Captivating movie !

A Masterpiece!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' is the most remarkable television series ever to come out of the BBC between January and February of the year 1981. More authoritative on the inner workings of the Vogon Constructor Fleet than 'The Fall And Rise Of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz', more comprehensive on the early planning stages of the Norwegian coastlines than 'Changing Fjords', and more informative about the culinary offerings to be found at the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe than 'Can't Cook, Won't Cook, Because The Universe Is Collapsing'.In addition to this, due to internal wranglings by BBC planners preventing the commissioning of a second series, it is slightly smaller than other programmes of the genre and requires an attention span of only three hours, which for the convenience of the attention-deficit-plagued Artemisterons of Colferbelson VI can be broken up into six segments of half an hour (Artemisterons with especially short attention spans may wish to avoid the DVD release, which contains a bonus disc of behind-the-scenes material, the total running time of which will only cause unnecessary aggravation).By a not-entirely-strange coincidence, 'unnecessary aggravation' is precisely what Earth descendant Arthur Dent feels after his home planet is destroyed in order to make way for a hyperspatial bypass, and finds himself perpetually distracted in his quest for a decent cup of tea by the need to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Aided in his task by Ford Prefect, a man he is unprepared to discover is actually from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, Zaphod Beeblebrox, another man who once ruined his attempts to pick up an attractive blonde woman at a party in Islington, Trillian, an attractive blonde woman whom he failed to pick up at a party in Islington, and Marvin, very possibly the most intelligent robot in the universe and very likely the most depressed, Arthur attempts to come to terms with the reality of his situation. In the interests of providing an accurate summation of the plot, it is important to clarify at this time that 'aided' is the Calufraxian word for 'hindered', while 'come to terms with' is the Jagaroth expression for 'become increasingly bewildered by'.Less clear, however, is the information concerning the actors consigned to inhabit the characters of the story. But while little is known of their identities, a magazine clipping from the year 2005 claimed to offer insight with the names 'Martin Freeman' and 'Mos Def' printed in impressively large silver font. This has been summarily dismissed, however, as most right-thinking people are aware that the year 2005 never happened. Further clues later surfaced when the discovery of a torn sheet of notepaper taped to the back of a filing cabinet in the rodent-infested basement of a small publishing company in Islington listed the names 'Simon Jones', 'David Dixon', 'Mark Wing-Davey', 'Sandra Dickinson' and 'Stephen Moore', under the sentence 'Beware of the mice'. This information was also dismissed, given that the publishing company burned down in 1952, some 29 years before the programme was produced, because it also lists the name 'Peter Jones' as the book, which is unlikely since Jones. a household name in places as far away as Shropshire, would have been too in-demand to make time for such fiddling small parts, and because it claims the music for the series was provided by 'sorcerer Paddy Kingsland and a flock of eagles'. Recent attempts to contact series creator Douglas Adams with a view to shedding light on these and many other baffling conundrums proved unsuccessful upon the discovery that Adams had himself left the Earth in 2001 intent on making several highly improbable discoveries about the universe which he promises to share with humanity at some point in the future, preferably before teatime.This lack of understanding however should not perturb any newcomers to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', since the only thing you really need to know while watching it is the present location of your nearest towel and to avoid purchasing anything that costs 42p on Thursdays. Please note that both the BBC and Megadodo Publications may not be held responsible for the loss of any digital watches during the viewing of this programme.

Thanks to a friend, I've now become a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide. For what it's all worth- and it is all about Life, the Unvierse, and Everything, isn't it- Douglas Adams's creation is consistently clever and silly, a work of imagination where the levels of human idiosyncrasies that can always be reached by levels of ego, self-pity, paranoia, greed, super-intelligence, self-deprecation, awkwardness, et all, can make for some great, succinctly dry-British wit. Sometimes Adams can go for the laugh out loud (anything with the dolphins, the answer to Life, the Unvierse, and Everything, the mice, Marvin, or the pig at the restaurant who asks to be eaten, all parts over), or the more subtle (the many bits taken away from the 'Book' as narration covers all sorts of topics, not least of which the usefulness of towels, the power of one throwaway phrase that can ignite a war between two alien systems, and of course, Blartfast). But always, the Hitchhiker's Guide series is about the knowing eye for the cruelness, humanity, joy, and just plain stupidity of human beings, and how it can be conceivably out there in the rest of the universe- just look at the Vogons with their poetry (actually don't)! The series produced for BBC is, typical of the network, not of the high-caliber of budget. At a time when Star Wars expanded the proximity of what could be done, unfortunately Alan Bell, Adams and the producers had only limited resources (like, erm, plain old models and locations in Africa for some of Magrathea, oddly enough where A New Hope shot as well), and even the entries shown from the book with characters 'drawn' in green outline or the globes were all hand-drawn. But despite the limitations, the comic strengths of the actors pull the material very well enough, especially Mark Wing Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, David Learner as the voice of Marvin (albeit the way he talks he should be voiced by a Woody Allen type of neurotic), and Richard Vernon as Blartfast (not to mention bit players like the guys who play the cops in episode 4 or Clockwork Orange alumni Aubrey Morris as the bathtub captain). And sometimes it the production design itself is in on the joke; the restaurant at the end of the universe is funny just to look at, with its main little dark area for the 'announcer', and various creatures all abound at tables introduced like it's Las Vegas.It's a minor triumph for all involved that these episodes were this much fun and occasionally brilliant, and they'll likely impress fans of the book moreover than the 2005 movie did.

OK, I LOVE every book I have ever read from Douglas Adams, which happens to include all (was it 5?) books in the Hitchhiker "trilogy". This movie was great, it really was.From the horribly made second head to the distainable acting from Trillion, its a wonder I like this movie so much, but I did. (movie,...actually it was a couple of episodes). I did however like Arthor Dent, the mean who played him was perfect for the role. I also like the fact that much of the movie was line for line from his book. (one version of it anyway).The only thing I did not care for is the movie was both the first and second book combined. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see an entire series, but at least name them one by one.In all, I thought the movie was fantastic. Besides who doesn't love a clinically depressed robot?? "life,...dont talk to me about life.."

THis movie was a very refreshing break from basically any other movie out there. I have never seen the '81 version and have never read the book so I was not sure of what to expect. I didn't even know that is was a comedy. The introduction scene set the par for what to expect. The dolphin montage was absolutely the greatest and most breathtaking dolphin sequence anywhere in film. Another factor that made this film stand out was the use of Unscripted dialogue. Again I have not read the book or anything, but this film had a satisfying and refreshing sense of unscripted dialogue that most movies should at least try to comprehend. What is unscripted dialogue you say? Well, it is where the actors or narrators or any other character in a production do not talk like they are reading a script line by line, but talk in a way that is actually more human. Just about actor in every movie ever made talks in a way that is so inhuman and robotic that is a sure giveaway that they are reading line by line from some manuscript buried somewhere. The actors acted human, the acted sporadic and made the whole atmosphere feel like every audience member was having a different experience. The cinematography was top-notch, the visual effects were stunning and having a huge cast of very imaginative and wacky characters didn't hurt either. All of Hollywood can stop whatever they are doing (especially the writers) and stop and take a note on the Hitchhiker's guide. You never know, they might actually learn something.