10 Best Space Movies Of All Time
6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005)
Way back in the yesteryear of 2005, Garth Jennings adapted Douglas Adams' book into a hilarious space flick that is quintessentially and definitively British.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy follows Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) in his dressing gown and slippers as he is unwittingly drawn into an effort to save the Earth, which is billed for destruction to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
To look at it, you wouldn't know that the film is a decade and a half old, and this is thanks to the production's liberal use of tried and tested practical effects (take the Vorgon and Marvin the Paranoid Android costumes, for example).
Jennings' decision to keep the effects intentionally imperfect - with an unpolished, impractical or everyday aesthetic to match the film's tone and characters - gives the film a timeless quality that feels at home alongside some of the country's best sci-fi and fantasy works, like the Terry Gilliam classic Time Bandits.
The film is one big, wacky, fast-moving space adventure with a gold-plated cast of UK thespians (Freeman, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren) and equally unforgettable aliens, planets and curious happenings - a very surprised looking sperm whale making friends with the ground, anyone?