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."
Although Hitchhiker starts out a total gas, it doesn't have enough fuel to sustain the ride, ultimately amounting to little more than some amusing gags strung together in search of a story.
– Teresa Wiltz,
Washington Post,
29 Apr 2005
fresh:
[The movie] captures the quizzical, quasi-spiritual nature of [Adams'] book and manages to nail a surprising number of his dry little jokes, even some that you think could work only on the page.
– Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com,
29 Apr 2005
fresh:
[It has] visual goofiness and flights of thespian bravura.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 May 2005
rotten:
The problem is not that the film debases the book but that movies themselves are too capacious a home for such comedy, with its tea-steeped English musings and its love of bitty, tangential gags.