Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) - Jennings' odd Brit adaptation space romcom adventure

3/10/2022

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) - Jennings' odd Brit adaptation space romcom adventure

♥♥

A man and a robot have their thumbs out on a spaceship runway on this poster for Garth Jennings' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A Brit (Martin Freeman (Carnage (2017))) named Arthur Dent flies around space looking for the meaning of life (it seems?), as he falls in love (with a very blue-eyed Zooey Deschanel (Eulogy (2004))) and gets planet-builder Slartibartfast (Bill Nighy (Stormbreaker (2006))) to recreate earth, which he accidentally destroyed.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is written by Douglas Adams (Doctor Who (1979-83)) and Karey Kilpatrick (Chicken Run (2000)), based on Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise, which began in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy, and directed by debuting music video artist Garth Jennings (Sing (2016)).

It starts fantastically with a sequence about the superior, planetary knowledge of dolphins and a warning to us about the impending end of the earth. Freeman is fun as the cautious über-Brit protagonist, who for some reason flies around in space.

There are good-looking Vogon suits (the alien villains of the piece) and an impressive but mostly wasted cast. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is enormously strange; an impressive, big bowl of twaddle.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 104.4 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.08 times its cost)

[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy premiered 20 April (London) and runs 109 minutes. A theatrical adaptation had been in the works since the franchise's beginning in the 1970s and continued after Adams' death in 2001, with the script taking its basis in his already created ideas and characters. Shooting took place from April - August 2004 in Spain and the UK, including London and Wales. The film opened #1 to a 21.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 51 mil. $ (48.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 20.3 mil. $ (19.4 %) and Germany with 8.1 mil. $ (7.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, corresponding with this one. Jennings returned with Supergrass: Low C (2005, music video), Beck: Hell Yes (2005, music video) and theatrically with Son of Rambow (2007). Freeman returned in The Robinsons (2005, TV-series), Round About Five (2005, short) and theatrically in Confetti (2006). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is fresh at 60 % with a 6.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

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William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

3/10/2022

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) - Jennings' odd Brit adaptation space romcom adventure

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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