Certainly, they neutered many of the textual jokes in the book and wimped out far too many guide entries, but they added several new elements of physical comedy. The infinite improbability drive was quite funny, in a visual way rather than a textual way. Zaphod's second head almost worked for me. The "great sneeze" ceremony was also quite funny. I also quite liked how they expanded out the role of the Vogons relative to the book.

I think the trick is not to compare it to the books or radio shows or whatnot, but to come to it on its own terms. They produced something entertaining, mostly funny, and (as Tony pointed out) with more story consistency in a few critical elements. Bonus points for the Star Wars references as well as the references to the original TV series.