The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

8
1981 3 hr 19 min Adventure , Comedy , Science Fiction

An Earth Man and his alien friend escape an exploding Earth, and set forth on an odd adventure across the universe with a known fugitive.

  • Cast:
    Peter Jones , Simon Jones , David Dixon , Sandra Dickinson , Mark Wing-Davey , Stephen Moore , Richard Vernon

Reviews

Scanialara
1981/02/09

You won't be disappointed!

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RipDelight
1981/02/10

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

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Forumrxes
1981/02/11

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

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Bergorks
1981/02/12

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

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Muldwych
1981/02/13

'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' is the most remarkable television series ever to come out of the BBC between January and February of the year 1981. More authoritative on the inner workings of the Vogon Constructor Fleet than 'The Fall And Rise Of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz', more comprehensive on the early planning stages of the Norwegian coastlines than 'Changing Fjords', and more informative about the culinary offerings to be found at the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe than 'Can't Cook, Won't Cook, Because The Universe Is Collapsing'.In addition to this, due to internal wranglings by BBC planners preventing the commissioning of a second series, it is slightly smaller than other programmes of the genre and requires an attention span of only three hours, which for the convenience of the attention-deficit-plagued Artemisterons of Colferbelson VI can be broken up into six segments of half an hour (Artemisterons with especially short attention spans may wish to avoid the DVD release, which contains a bonus disc of behind-the-scenes material, the total running time of which will only cause unnecessary aggravation).By a not-entirely-strange coincidence, 'unnecessary aggravation' is precisely what Earth descendant Arthur Dent feels after his home planet is destroyed in order to make way for a hyperspatial bypass, and finds himself perpetually distracted in his quest for a decent cup of tea by the need to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Aided in his task by Ford Prefect, a man he is unprepared to discover is actually from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, Zaphod Beeblebrox, another man who once ruined his attempts to pick up an attractive blonde woman at a party in Islington, Trillian, an attractive blonde woman whom he failed to pick up at a party in Islington, and Marvin, very possibly the most intelligent robot in the universe and very likely the most depressed, Arthur attempts to come to terms with the reality of his situation. In the interests of providing an accurate summation of the plot, it is important to clarify at this time that 'aided' is the Calufraxian word for 'hindered', while 'come to terms with' is the Jagaroth expression for 'become increasingly bewildered by'.Less clear, however, is the information concerning the actors consigned to inhabit the characters of the story. But while little is known of their identities, a magazine clipping from the year 2005 claimed to offer insight with the names 'Martin Freeman' and 'Mos Def' printed in impressively large silver font. This has been summarily dismissed, however, as most right-thinking people are aware that the year 2005 never happened. Further clues later surfaced when the discovery of a torn sheet of notepaper taped to the back of a filing cabinet in the rodent-infested basement of a small publishing company in Islington listed the names 'Simon Jones', 'David Dixon', 'Mark Wing-Davey', 'Sandra Dickinson' and 'Stephen Moore', under the sentence 'Beware of the mice'. This information was also dismissed, given that the publishing company burned down in 1952, some 29 years before the programme was produced, because it also lists the name 'Peter Jones' as the book, which is unlikely since Jones. a household name in places as far away as Shropshire, would have been too in-demand to make time for such fiddling small parts, and because it claims the music for the series was provided by 'sorcerer Paddy Kingsland and a flock of eagles'. Recent attempts to contact series creator Douglas Adams with a view to shedding light on these and many other baffling conundrums proved unsuccessful upon the discovery that Adams had himself left the Earth in 2001 intent on making several highly improbable discoveries about the universe which he promises to share with humanity at some point in the future, preferably before teatime.This lack of understanding however should not perturb any newcomers to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', since the only thing you really need to know while watching it is the present location of your nearest towel and to avoid purchasing anything that costs 42p on Thursdays. Please note that both the BBC and Megadodo Publications may not be held responsible for the loss of any digital watches during the viewing of this programme.

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Joseph P. Ulibas
1981/02/14

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) was a mini-series adaptation of Douglas Adams' first three novels. I saw this B.B.C. mini-series on videotape about ten years ago. I was pleased with the show. Despite a small budget, the actors and the writing was enough to make this one a winner. It was cheesy enough to please me and the film makers captured the atmosphere of the novels. Too bad they never made a follow up to the series like the novels in the series. I was a little leery about watching this but after seeing the first episode I was fairly impressed.If you enjoyed the books then by all means watch this near perfect adaptation of Douglas Adams' Hitch Hiker's Guide series. The creator has a cameo appearance in the beginning. David Prowse (Darth Vader) has a guest spot as an enormous bar bouncer. Shot on video and 16 mm film. The ending is unforgettable.Highly recommended.

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uhforja
1981/02/15

Well, what can I say? After going to watch the utterly disappointing Hollywood version, this is the one screen adaptation, so far at least. I was lucky enough to buy the BBC series in DVD before and despite the cheap production, everything is more than made up for the witty script and the characters' depth. Douglas himself appears in one of the books' entries on episode 2. Things are not perfect, of course, specially on the effects department and in the questionable casting of Trillian, but overall this is much better than the Disney-influenced movie, whose Trillian itself is much worse. And Zaphod has actually two heads here, and the tea-induced computer jam. In words of Marvin, the film's "first half an hour was the worst, and the second as well, but from there everything went downhill". But the TV series is definitely worth watching.

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Eric Kuzma (earbird)
1981/02/16

THis movie was a very refreshing break from basically any other movie out there. I have never seen the '81 version and have never read the book so I was not sure of what to expect. I didn't even know that is was a comedy. The introduction scene set the par for what to expect. The dolphin montage was absolutely the greatest and most breathtaking dolphin sequence anywhere in film. Another factor that made this film stand out was the use of Unscripted dialogue. Again I have not read the book or anything, but this film had a satisfying and refreshing sense of unscripted dialogue that most movies should at least try to comprehend. What is unscripted dialogue you say? Well, it is where the actors or narrators or any other character in a production do not talk like they are reading a script line by line, but talk in a way that is actually more human. Just about actor in every movie ever made talks in a way that is so inhuman and robotic that is a sure giveaway that they are reading line by line from some manuscript buried somewhere. The actors acted human, the acted sporadic and made the whole atmosphere feel like every audience member was having a different experience. The cinematography was top-notch, the visual effects were stunning and having a huge cast of very imaginative and wacky characters didn't hurt either. All of Hollywood can stop whatever they are doing (especially the writers) and stop and take a note on the Hitchhiker's guide. You never know, they might actually learn something.

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