Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
63
(37 sources)
63
(37 sources)
-
83
Portland Oregonian
They have been true to a classic source, using Adams' language and finding just the right actors, sets and costumes to flesh out his vision. Only the most persnickety cultist won't appreciate the effort. Read Full Review » -
80
Empire
Mostly harmless. A very British, very funny sci-fi misadventure that's guaranteed to win converts. Read Full Review » -
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Hits the screen with its disarmingly droll spirit quite intact. Read Full Review » -
80
LA Weekly
This very funny, very British movie -- directed by newcomer Garth Jennings -- has sci-fi effects that are impressive yet appropriately cheesy. Read Full Review » -
80
The New York Times
Mr. Jennings and Mr. Goldsmith have held onto a genuine sense of childlike wonder, which works as a nice corrective to what might otherwise come across as an overabundance of hip. Read Full Review » -
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's a pleasure to see and hear so much wit in a big-budget comedy, and the fine British cast of supporting actors makes every bon mot a tasty verbal morsel. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Tribune
Even if this new version of "Hitchhiker" doesn't quite capture it all, you'll still want to stick your thumb out and catch a ride. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Wildly imaginative, humane, playful and deflating of all pretense. Read Full Review » -
75
New York Post
The film is a loopy, family-friendly jaunt, with a perfect "Wizard of Oz" finale that isn't in the book, but like the book, it suffers from a chronic plot malfunction. Read Full Review » -
75
Entertainment Weekly
At selected moments the Pee Wee's Playhouse-scaled visual goofiness and flights of thespian bravura in this long-awaited movie adaptation of Douglas Adams' goofy-wise cult classic are in perfect celestial harmony with the existential tomfoolery of Adams' peerless (and peerlessly Monty Python-British) creation. Read Full Review » -
75
Rolling Stone
Go with the whimsical flow that includes a hilariously morose robot named Marvin, voiced by the great Alan Rickman with the weight of the galaxy resonating in every bored, cynical syllable. Adams would be pleased. Read Full Review » -
70
The New Yorker
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. Read Full Review » -
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Not every moment works, particularly in the draggy middle section, but the spirit of the thing still carries it along. Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
The singing dolphins opener is a giddy prelude to an imaginative romp that's helped along in the slow patches by mind-bending visuals. Read Full Review » -
70
Film Threat
Too often, the movie follows up Adams' chaotic humor with weak slapstick and the incongruous love story. Read Full Review » -
70
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70
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70
Slate
An extremely pleasant, consistently amusing diversion that is never as uproarious as you might hope. But don't panic, as the Guide would say. In a pinch, it will do. Read Full Review » -
70
Washington Post
This is a movie about improbability, randomness and absurdity. It almost goes without saying, you can't get in a panic about having everything. Read Full Review » -
67
Austin Chronicle
It's nonstop chaos, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style of comedy is taxing despite the frequent moments of pure comic genius. Read Full Review » -
63
Premiere
An enjoyable mess that aimlessly goofs like "Men in Black" when its script calls for "Black Adder." Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The charm of the movie's first 20 minutes soon turns shrill and manic, as invention is piled upon invention. Read Full Review » -
63
USA Today
Though the journey ends on some fun notes after a sagging middle, Galaxy never fully breaks out. Read Full Review » -
63
New York Daily News
Most of the film is way too goofy for all but the most thumbstruck Hitchhiker. Read Full Review » -
63
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63
Boston Globe
Visually playful and often good fun, it never settles on a convincing narrative shape. Read Full Review » -
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Lost in a time warp of its own doing (or non-doing), Hitchhiker's Guide just doesn't seem terribly original. Read Full Review » -
63
ReelViews
Boasts a strong ensemble of performances. Martin Freeman is the perfect choice for an ordinary, unheroic Earth guy. Read Full Review » -
63
Charlotte Observer
Except for the irritating Rockwell, the cast suits the characters. Read Full Review » -
60
TV Guide
Driven equally by big questions and the abiding desire for small pleasures, like a decent cup of tea, it's an eccentric, mind-bending head trip that greets every catastrophe with an endearingly goofy smile that embodies Hitchhiker's Guide's Zen mantra: Don't Panic! Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie was more of a revue than a narrative, more about moments than an organizing purpose, and cute to the point that I yearned for some corrosive wit from its second cousin, the Monty Python universe. Read Full Review » -
50
Washington Post
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. Read Full Review » -
50
Village Voice
Studiously harmless, Disney's long-in-development film rendition pasteurizes the book's renegade verve with typical means. Read Full Review » -
50
Miami Herald
The film's opening credits are terrific, and the first 10 or 15 minutes -- in which Ford and Arthur speedily load up on beer at the local pub -- are absorbing and funny. It's such a promising start that it's doubly deflating to realize that once they land on Zaphod's spaceship, the humor vaporizes. Read Full Review » -
50
Los Angeles Times
There are some inspired off-the-wall moments, but they are more than offset by a pervasive aura of tedium and the lack of any sense of the forward momentum necessary to sustain an adventure of this kind. Read Full Review » -
40
Dallas Observer
The droll has been made dull, a most inexplicable and unfortunate turn of events for so adored a genius, goofball work as this. Read Full Review » -
25
Christian Science Monitor
Amiably bland actors can be fun to watch, as Tom Hanks has proved. Freeman is no Hanks, though, and The Hitchhiker's Guide won't boost anyone's career into hyperspace. Or give your mind a workout. Read Full Review »
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