Although a generally entertaining film (one of those, "if it's on, you'll watch it" sorts), 2005's Hitchhiker's remake made a fatal flaw: it assumed it would be funnier than it actually turned out to be, relying purely on the comedy in the source material. The jokes are there, and they're easy enough to get along with, but the whole thing is just far too conventional. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but none of the magic of Douglas Adams' book, which was hyperactive, unpredictable, and such an attack on the literary senses that it remains only matched (just about) by the equally outlandish BBC series released in 1981. While that adaptation managed to capture a lot of the unorthodox weirdness of the book, the 2005 version comes across as little more than a watered down, generic Hollywood comedy. Basically, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is an alright movie, but absolutely unspectacular and completely forgettable. The book was the complete opposite, which means that something, somewhere along the path from page to screen got lost in translation.
