Belgium.

Film I've been waiting for this. A little while ago, Empire magazine gave The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy film four stars and said:

"DON'T PANIC, fervent Douglas Adamites. This movie adaptation of the TV adaptation of the novelisation of the radio series is about as faithful as you can get. Yes, it's been tweaked and twizzled, with a romance inserted here, a new character plopped down there, but everything you love about The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy remains intact - not to mention reinvigorated by its big-screen reincarnation."

Great review and hopeful. But wanted to know what M J Simpson a long time expert on the series thought. All I can say is -- aw, fuck:

"The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie is an abomination. Whereas the radio show, TV show, books and computer game are all recognisably variations on a theme, this is something new and almost entirely unrelated. It's not even a good film if viewed as an original work: the characters are unsympathetic, the cast exhibit no chemistry, the direction is pedestrian, the pace plodding, the special effects overpowering (lots and lots of special effects, none of them funny mind you) and above all the script is amazingly, mindbogglingly awful. Oh, and they have taken most of the jokes out."

Simpson has also created a list of what's actually missing and it makes for grim reading. I wonder how these reviews can be so radically different considering both people saw the same movie. Well, that's blown the wind out of my sails. Unless they've prepared a shit version of the film especially for this preview and we'll be seeing something good on the release date. But I doubt it. Ho hum.