The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Adams would be pleased.

A disappointingly potholed ride.

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.

[It has] visual goofiness and flights of thespian bravura.

I was quite pleased with the not-too-Hollywood movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams might have been, too. Adams zealots might be a bit disappointed, but maybe they will be happy that the movie was, at least, finally made.

There were moments in Hitchhiker where I was mildly amused, including a musical number by dolphins right before they leave Earth, but for the most part, the dry British humor just fell flat.

Could surely be a lot better, but there's much to enjoy in the film that exists, with its organic mixture of comic tones, and generally upbeat attitude of breezy fun.

. . .there is something crucial missing from the mix. Some heart and soul that might make you care more about the plight of plebby Arthur and his gang of intergalactic pals.