- Actors: Martin Freeman|Mos Def|Sam Rockwell
- Directors: Garth Jennings
- Format: PAL
- Language English
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 2
- Classification: 12
- Studio: Buena Vista
- DVD Release Date: 5 Sep 2005
- Run Time: 105 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0007TFIMY
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 11,743 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Don't panic! After twenty years stuck in development (a mere blink compared to how long it takes to find the answer to life, the universe, and everything), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has finally been turned into a movie. Following the radio play, TV series, commemorative towel, and books, this latest installment in the sci-fi-comedy franchise is based on the screenplay and detailed notes by Douglas Adams. For those unfamiliar with the story, everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up one morning to discover that his house is set to be demolished to make room for a bypass. Little does he know the entire planet Earth is also set to be destroyed for an interplanetary bypass by the Vogons, a hideous and bureaucratic race of aliens realized in the film by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Whisked off the planet by his best friend, alien-in-disguise Ford Prefect (Mos Def), Dent embarks on a goofy jaunt across the galaxy accompanied by his trusty Hitchhiker's Guide, which looks like a really fancy PDA. The guide itself provides some of the funniest bits of the movie, little animated shorts that explain the ludicrous life forms and extraterrestrial phenomena our heroes encounter. Along the way Arthur meets the two-headed party animal/president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and develops an unrequited crush on fellow earthling Trillian (Zooey Deschanel). The creatures and sets are inspired and answer to the sci-fi fan's primal need to see lots and lots of cool stuff. Where the story stumbles is in the telling--as books, the Hitchhiker's Guide was foremost about goofy and brilliant ideas that raised questions about our place in the universe while getting a laugh. The movie has enough trouble figuring out how to get the characters from one fantastical location to the next that Adams's funniest concepts often feel left in the dust. While the reverence the filmmakers felt toward Adams's legacy is apparent, one wonders what we could have expected had the creator of this science fiction universe lived to see it with his own eyes. --Ryan Boudinot, Amazon.com
Synopsis
Earthman Arthur Dent is having a very bad day. His house is about to be bulldozed, he discovers that his best friend is an alien and, to top things off, planet Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur's only chance for survival: hitch a ride on a passing spacecraft. For the novice space traveler, the greatest adventure in the universe begins when the world ends. Arthur sets out on a journey in which he finds that nothing is as it seems: he learns that a towel is just the most useful thing in the universe, finds the meaning of life, and discovers that everything he needs to know can be found in one book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
© 2005 Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2 Disc Edition) [DVD] [2005] (DVD)
I enjoyed the radio series and looked forward to watching this. If I'd been watching on my own I would have turned it off after half an hour but I thought my wife might be enjoying the film so kept quiet. Sadly I only found out she was thinking the same at the end of the film although at least she missed half of it having dozed off. One star given only for the presence of Bill Nighy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Was this trip really necessary?,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2 Disc Edition) [DVD] [2005] (DVD)
The film of the books of the stage show of the TV series of the radio show of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of those spin-offs that isn't as horribly disappointing as you expect it to be without actually ever being much good at all. The changes to Douglas Adams' admittedly constantly evolving and mutating storyline are not so much the problem, although the absence of Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the B-Ark and, most importantly, the ultimate question to the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is keenly felt. Even the fact that the script often loses the punchlines to the jokes in its efforts to bring the plot down to a manageable length doesn't deliver the coup de grace. Rather it's the casting that's such a problem, with Martin Freeman a particularly inadequate Arthur Dent (yes, Dent is an inadequate character, but that's no reason to cast an inadequate actor who seems even more lost on the big screen than the small), Mos Def a mumbling and uncharismatic Ford Prefect (thankfully the DVD comes with subtitles) who seems oblivious to the notion of comic timing, Sam Rockwell gives another of his trying-too-hard-to-be-funny performances as Zephod Beeblebrox and Bill Nighy is comprehensively underwhelming as Slartibartfast. Even the seemingly ideal casting of Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android falls flat, but then, ironically for something that started its life on radio, none of the vocal delivery in the film is particularly good. But it's not all bad news: the opening dolphin musical number, So Long and Thanks For All the Fish is fun, the visit to the Vogon's grimly bureaucratic homeworld has its moments, the falling whale has it's brief moment of sentient glory and the factory floor sequences on Magrathea are genuinely visually stunning. But there's still the feeling that for those in the know it's a trip that wasn't particularly necessary while the uninitiated will probably be left wondering what all the fuss is about as yet another joke falls almost as flat as a thermonuclear device that has suddenly found itself turned into a whale in midair. 42/100. Aside from the UK exclusive 63-minute documentary, the extras on the two-disc edition are disappointing - a few poor deleted scenes and two very unfunny fake out-takes and unenlightening commentary, with only Marvin's Hangman game showing much real feel for the material.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
All of the Characters - None of the Humor,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2 Disc Edition) [DVD] [2005] (DVD)
The planet Earth may develop a slight shift in it's orbit, due to Douglas Adams spinning in his grave. Some elements are OK and there is a cameo from original cast star Simon Jones. The start's the same but it's weak from there on in, 20 minutes in I was hoping the Vogons would turn up for real. It's difficult to tell in 90 minutes what took the BBC 3 hours on Radio / TV, but taking out the jokes was a bad idea even if you accept the fact that it has to tell a different story. Buy the BBC TV series DVD, the effects are lower budget and 20 years old but it's better than this.
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