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

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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

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3/10/2022

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

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