Hitch Hikers was definitely a family movie. Special effects wise it was, of course, better than the BBC version. Kudos to them for using puppets and models instead of the CGI garbage that everyone else uses today. [i]CGI is only bad because in a few years it won’t look that realistic.[/i] Unfortunately any acting talent was wasted in this film. I could tell that most of the cast was desperate to actually act, but were somehow held back (I blame direction, or some other PTB). Mos Def especially; I think that if the script or direction let him, he could have done an absolutely terrific job. A lot of potential wasted.
Sadly the BBC was better for laughs and invoking higher brain functions. The beeb series was also better at capturing the feel of the universe. The movie just seemed to imply it. Despite that, they did a nice job with the Vogons, (love the grunt Vogons in the gimp suits) and their bureaucratic culture. There was a good scene with lots of good bureaucrat jokes. On the flip side, the Vogons had too large a role to play in the movie.
Lastly, the movie left out the latter certain parts of the book and BBC series. It ended in a good place, especially since it was a relatively long movie (and really long for a family movie), so its not that bad.
For sadgeezers: 2.5 stars out of 5
For kidgeezers, 4.5 stars out of 5