The Hitchhiker's Guide to Bad Moviegoers

Warning: Rant ahead.

A Seattle film critic and her noisy obnoxious friends utterly ruined my first viewing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

She and her rowdy friends took up about half of a row in front of us, and they began by bragging loudly about their knowledge of the books by Douglas Adams and their contempt for those who haven’t read them. They proceeded to revel in their expertise by laughing uproariously at everything that ever appeared onscreen — to exhibit their enthusiasm for the books, I can only assume.

They certainly weren’t laughing because the movie was funny, because they laughed immediately at everything before the scenes even had a chance to become comical. Heck, they laughed at the Chicken Little preview as if it was a stroke of comedy genius. Thus, I spent the entire film straining to hear what characters were saying. Instead, I received the dialogue second hand. These clowns in front of me repeated and commented on every punchline at a high volume.

It was a packed house, so Anne and I had no options to take other seats. It was either endure or eject. I was tempted to eject, but Anne and I had been looking forward to this for a long time. You see, we’ve read the books too. But we’ve never understood, apparently, that being a Douglas Adams fan gives you license to stir up civil unrest in a crowded movie theater.

(Sigh.)

I wish I could tell you what I thought of director Garth Jennings’ film, or Karey Kirkpatrick’s screenplay adaptation. It seemed like it was probably pretty funny. And Sam Rockwell certainly seemed to be having a good time.

But beware of Seattle film critics’ reviews of this film. One of them, at least, had her mind made up before the film even started. And her sense of judgment was off. She seemed to believe she was in her own living room where she could make as much noise as she wanted.