Ok if you haven’t read the book, its stilll a high quality film. Actually its a very good film, with the quirkiness that Douglass Adams was known for in his writing. Does anyone see The Restaurant at the End of the Universe coming to theaters? I actually loved the film and i’m still laughing over some parts, like Marvin at the End of the Blaster, even though it wasn’t in the book if i’m correct, it may of been one of the 3 funniest scenes in the book. If you like comedy this is a must.
Went with my towel and friends. Both those who’d read the books and those who hadn’t enjoyed it. Those expecting a remake of the books will be dissapointed, the movie wasn’t intended to be a remake, and roughly half the story line is not from the book. I love this series (and enjoyed the movie) for their sheer randomness, with the plot having no actual plot line, other than to see what random situation Arthur Dent can be thrown into next. The movie kept nicely to Douglas’ humor style.
My only complaint? The love story. Douglas Adams was never one for happy endings where things work out perfectly good. I was hoping for an ending where it would look like it was going to be one of those typical “everybody lived happily ever after” endings, only to have something more bizzare and inexplicable show up and just make a general mess of things.
I really do agree, the whole love story made the movie just a little cheesey. Still great though, and really funny. [edit: and at least now more people might understand exactly why forty-two is the answer]
I thought that it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It could have been improved if the romance between Arthur and Trillian were kept off to the sides and not replaced the ultimate reality of Life, the Universe, and Everything as the central theme. Also, time is not a valid excuse for cutting a lot of the good lines - the movie only ran 1 hour 50 minutes, so putting back some of the good bits that got cut would have not forced the runtime to be excessive. I’d still recommend seeing it, but it doesn’t meet the usual “See it as many times as you can” rating that I usually give to Hitchhiker’s.
I also posted a really thorough review at http://www.goobergunch.net/index.php/archives/2005/05/hitchhikers-movie - just be warned, it contains a lot of spoilers.
And yes, I did bring a towel. 