Forty Two
Despite what others have said I thouroughly enjoyed Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. (I may be a nerd but I'm not going to call it H2G2.) The books - all five of the trilogy - were all over the place and didn't follow on one from the other. I certain didn't expect a straight-forward plotline that necessarily made sense. Hitchhikers changes with each version and the books were a little contradicatory but it is something you just have to get used to and if more people we could just let go and accept that remakes have always happened long before cinema came along the better we will be able to enjoy the show. The first half banged along at a fair pace with lots of gags and I chuckled most of the way through. The infinite improbabilty drive was funny every time, especially the woollen dolls. Things slowed down later on and it was all over the place and I can understand why many people were dissappointed with the gags, the humour needed did need a little something extra for the modern audience. I realy wasn't expecting too much but I was just glad they didn't ruin the whole series. I had fun trying to spot things like the original Marvin the paranoid android and the Douglas Adams planet.
The casting of Mos Def was a little surprising at first and Ford Prefect didn't seem quite alien enough, and Zaphod Beeblebrox had a strange Yosemite Sam quality to his performance. Trillian has always been a horribly underwritten character as women in science fiction so often are but this was at least an improvement on previous versions and Zoe Dechanel was beautiful. I may be among the rare few who didn't watch more than a few minutes of the Office but the cringe inducing humour was to disturbingly close to reality for my liking. I had no preconceptions about the actor but I like this version of Arthur Dent well enough. (I have always thought Jack Davenport looked disturbingly like the Arthur Dent from the tv series, who also made a cameo as the recorded message for Magarathea.) It seemed a bit strange that Slartibartfast didn't have a beard this time round but if you casting Bill Nighy for name recognition then maybe showing his face makes sense from that point of view. Tim Fry eloquently provided the voice of the Guide but the visuals of the guide were less impressive. I actually liked the teletext like video graphics used for the guide in the tv series but it seems the film makers went out of their way to be different but in this case they ended up with what looks like Flash animations which will probably looked dated even before the DVD is released.
What you get in this film is a lot like a condensed version of the Hitchhikers tv series. Unfortunately it is heavy on the exposition and does rather leave you waiting for the next episode. If more of the series get made and I really hope they do I think people will be more forgiving of this outing when it forms part of a proper set. Adequate, good but not the spectacular some had been hoping for but if you haven't seen it yet I hope you can have fun and enjoy it for what it is.
One review suggested Terry Gilliam would have been the ideal director for this, now that would have been amazing can you even begin to imagine it?

P.S. Unless I'm in a mad hurry I almost always stay until the end in case there is something interesting in the credits (Ferris Beulers Day Off is the earliest example I can remember) and so I forgot to mention that you should stay until the end to see the extra scene from the Guide

The state of this!!!
XXX2: The State of the Union or the Next Level as it was partronisingly retitled for European audiences, but this rose by another name still smells like manure. I have not seen the first in this series but Vin Deisel must not be as stupid as Ice Cube looks. When I first saw the trailer for this I groaned and it is every bit as bad as you think it is. This movie is dumb, dumb, dumb. Not dumb in a fun way but dumb in a gansta, hip-hop, cliche laden, limp action movie way. Rapper Xzibit makes an appearance and yes he does pimp some rides. Does this count as blaxsploitation?
In Die Hard Bruce Willis became a wise cracking action hero for the ordinary working man and it was refreshing change from muscle bound action heros like Arnie and remains a memorable action movie classic. (This movie is so bad I some bad puns are appropriate.) Ice Cube is the least convincing action hero I can think of and a pudgy action hero doesn't cut any ice. Ice Cube is not cool, not funny, and not very clever. Maybe Ice Cube is clever enough to play dumb and take home a big fat paycheck because clearly that is what Samuel L. Jackson is doing again but he really comes across as a great big dumbass.
This was really awful, do not waste money renting this on video, only watch it on television if you have absolutely nothing better to do than watch a lame action movie. Zzz...

Update: Inconveniently late at night at the weekend on the ITV channel there is programme called Entertainment Now which reviews movies but pulls no punches. They generally takes the piss out of celebrities, mocking the banal tripe they spout while promoting their latest endevour and general make them look stupid. They have a fun gimmick the called the cliche alarm which honks loudly as they describe really bad movies like XXX2. Their review describes how deeply awful XXX2 was far better than I could, here is the gist of it:

formerly fat, former rapper Ice Cube ...
former Green Goblin William Dafoe [as the villian]...
Samuel L. Jackson phones in his performance...
... cost $118 million but some critics suggest the writer was paid by the cliche
Critics call it Triple Excrement and say you could find more convincing special effects in Donkey Kong.
One critic recommends that instead of watching this film you jab a stick in your eye or watch something more interesting like dirt ... or mildew.

Watching William Dafoe play the over the top villian I couldn't help think of the Incredibles where speech Sam Jackson gave about villians monologging ad nauseam. Brutal is an Irish turn of phrase to succintly describe how horrendously bad XXX is. XXX2 State of the Union is worse than Resident Evil 2 and Blade 3, yes it really is that bad.

Horribly formatted and impossible to remember link to Entertainment Now. For a group that makes such good use of the medium of television they have a lot to learn about the medium of the web.