Galaxy Quest (Widescreen)

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Can actors rise to the challenge and play their roles for real? The Thermians are counting on it, having studied the "historical documents" of the Galaxy Quest TV show, and their hero worship (not to mention their taste for Monte Cristo sandwiches) is ultimately proven worthy, with the help of some Galaxy geeks on planet Earth. And while Galaxy Quest serves up great special effects and impressive Stan Winston creatures, director Dean Parisot (Home Fries) is never condescending, lending warm acceptance to this gentle send-up of sci-fi TV and the phenomenon of fandom. Best of all is the splendid cast, including Sigourney Weaver as buxom blonde Gwen DeMarco; Alan Rickman as frustrated thespian Alexander Dane; Tony Shalhoub as dimwit Fred Kwan; Daryl Mitchell as former child-star Tommy Webber; and Enrico Colantoni as Thermian leader Mathesar, whose sing-song voice is a comedic coup de grâce. --Jeff Shannon

Can actors rise to the challenge and play their roles for real? The Thermians are counting on it, having studied the "historical documents" of the Galaxy Quest TV show, and their hero worship (not to mention their taste for Monte Cristo sandwiches) is ultimately proven worthy, with the help of some Galaxy geeks on planet Earth. And while Galaxy Quest serves up great special effects and impressive Stan Winston creatures, director Dean Parisot (Home Fries) is never condescending, lending warm acceptance to this gentle send-up of sci-fi TV and the phenomenon of fandom. Best of all is the splendid cast, including Sigourney Weaver as buxom blonde Gwen DeMarco; Alan Rickman as frustrated thespian Alexander Dane; Tony Shalhoub as dimwit Fred Kwan; Daryl Mitchell as former child-star Tommy Webber; and Enrico Colantoni as Thermian leader Mathesar, whose sing-song voice is a comedic coup de grâce. --Jeff Shannon

That is, until I began reading the reviews, and then saw the film as soon as it came out on DVD. This is one of those movies that I can't believe has taken me this long to write about on these pages. Make that rave about: GALAXY QUEST is one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and would be in my Top 30 Listmania List if I were allowed to go to 30. It does help that I'm a STAR TREK fan (although not quite a Trekkie; please read my review of the documentary TREKKIES for more exposition on this point), but I honestly think that anyone with a good sense of humor will like this movie. It is written with a knowing wink to the Trekkie phenomenon as well as to Star Trek, and has smart dialogue courtesy of David Howard; unbelievably enough, this was his first---and still his only---film for which he has written.

The film opens with a convention for the immensely popular "Galaxy Quest" series, which starred full-of-himself screen hog Jason Nesmith (Allen) as Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart (not dissimilar to James Tiberius Kirk), Gwen DeMarco (Weaver) as Lt. Tawny Madison, former Shakesperean actor Alexander Dane (Rickman) and former child actor Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell) as Lt. Laredo, the ship's (very) young Navigational Officer. Nesmith secretly hates the Conventions, but plays up to the shows' fans, whose attention he monopolizes at every turn. Naturally, this long-established practice has alienated him from his co-stars, who hate his guts but like participating in the Conventions (except for Alexander Dane, who rues the day he became more famous for his character, and his character's famous rallying cry, than for being a 30+ year veteran of the Shakespeare stage). Nesmith finally loses his cool when being overly nagged by a teenaged nerdy fan (Justin Long), and yells at him in a manner that instantly recalls the "Get a life!" mock admonition that William Shatner gave in a 1986 Saturday Night Live skit. However, on the next drunken-hangover morning, Nesmith is visited by a strange-looking and talking man (Enrico Colantoni) who introduces himself as Thermian Cmdr. Mathesar, whose people are under attack by an evil alien leader named General Sarris (Robin Sachs). He pleads for Taggart's assistance, having seen the "historical documents" of his crew's many victories over greater enemies. Nesmith hazily just assumes that this is another nerdy fan with no life and goes along with him just to appease, and perhaps he has nothing better to do at this point. But then he finds out...

Of course, Mathesar and the Thermians are real aliens who had picked up the TV-wave transmission of the "Galaxy Quest" show and, in their childish impressionability, have assumed that the crew, the ship, everything was real. They have replicated the ship in full, both inside & out (since you know, for example, that Star Trek has always been so detailed that exact replicas of the Enterprise have numbered in the thousands) and have modeled their society from their example. Nesmith exitedly gets back to his fellow cynical and unbelieving actors, who go along only because they think it may be a well-paying job. Then they find out...

GALAXY QUEST is smart, funny and has a lot of fun with the TREK phenomenon, as portrayed through this fictional TV show and its characters. It also has fun with all the conventions (that is, *customs*) of Sci-Fi TV shows, such as gigantic, death-defying devices being present in a starship's engine room, or that the fate of our heroes comes down to one final second. It nudges & prods at all of these (plus more) with a complete love for the Sci-Fi genre. It also manages to convey a *sense of wonder* through visual effects that are really excellent. As for the acting, everybody---yes, including Tim Allen---gives a terrific performance, including Sam Rockwell as a minor "Galaxy Quest" character who constantly fears for his life during the actors' real mission, because nobody knows his last name, which, of course, is a sure sign that he is going to die, just like his character did on the one episode of the TV show! Enrico Colantoni's performance as Mathesar is infectious, and is perhaps the biggest revelation in the entire film; it can be argued that he may have deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Robin Sachs creates an evil presence as the murderous, slimy alien General Sarris. Best of all, everybody's in on the joke.

GALAXY QUEST is a great buy on DVD. The "On Location In Space" feature is entertaining and informative. The deleted scenes are a hoot! All in all, this film is a great way to entertain the entire family, as it is among the few comedies that are intelligent yet can be viewed by children. I wholeheartedly give it a "thumbs-up"---wait, no, that's the other guy! In other words, I deem this movie to be

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED; AGES 8 & UP

Galaxy Quest mines a shuttle-full of sci-fi cliches for its banter, and while I don't remember anything laugh-out-loud rip-roarious, there is a good deal of congenial charm that permeates throughout. Which makes it a perfect family flick to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Apart from the spoof gags, what took me by surprise were the superb special effects, as octopodal aliens morph effortlessly into humans and back again in articulately designed space (the interior of the spaceship itself borrowed its staid cardboard looks from Star Trek of yore, perhaps as an intentional sardonic effect)

Overall, the film's affection for its audience (especially those weaned on Lost in Space, or The Next Generation, etc) and for the characters it parodies covers up for the gaping blackholes in its highly implausible and goofy plotline.

Great rental, and even a good buy because it lends itself easily to repeat viewing.

The premise is simple enough. "Galaxy Quest" was a TV show that rode the success of "Star Wars" in the late 70s to join "Battlestar Galactica," "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as the popular programming of the time. But like those shows, "Galaxy Quest" didn't survive through the early 80s, and now the cast is a bunch of washed-up has-beens who are lucky to be earning paychecks from convention appearances and electronics store openings. That is, until they are approached by a group claiming to be Thermians needing assistance with the interstellar bully in their quadrant of the galaxy. The cast takes the Thermians and their leader, Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni, "Hope and Gloria"), as ardent fans of the show wanting a private appearance of the cast, but the truth is, the Thermians are real aliens with a real problem; it seems the Thermians are a very naive race, believing the television signals from Earth to be real historical accounts of the NSEA Protector and it's gallant crew, and at the same time, gifted scientists and engineers capable of recreating the NSEA Protector as a real spaceship. But they aren't warriors, so they come to Earth looking for the "real" crew of the original Protector to man their version, and to help them in their negotiations with General Sarris (Robin Sachs, TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), the resident bully.

The actors that played the original Protector's crew are lead by Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen, TV's "Home Improvement" and the "Santa Clause" series), who played Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart, a character not unlike the original Star Trek's Capt. Kirk, constantly mugging for the camera and sleeping with every alien princess. Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver, the "Alien" series) played Lt. Tawny Madison, the buxom blonde kitten whose only real job on the show was to look sexy and repeat everything the computer said. Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and the "Harry Potter" series), a Shakespearean actor, is Dr. Lazarus, the alien science officer. Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub, TV's "Monk") is the laid-back engineering officer, Tech Sgt. Chen. Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell, "Sgt. Bilko") is the actor who as a child played the Protector's helmsman, Lt. Laredo. And Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell, "Matchstick Men") was Crewman #6, who died in his lone episode (in the original Star Trek, Fleegman would have been the crewman in the red shirt on the away mission), but who tags along on the mission anyway, constantly fretting that he'll die in real life on this mission just as his character died on the show.

These guys are in no way heroes. For example, none of the other actors can stand Jason Nesmith, for example, because of the constant attention he gets being the commander (which does much to fuel an already sizeable ego), but especially Alexander Dane, who sees him as a scene-stealing hack with no talent, and Gwen DeMarco, who's simply tired of him hitting on her all the time. Are you reading this, William Shatner? In the end, though, the prima donnas find their inner-strength and succeed against Sarris, but that much you already knew going in, right?

This movie should have been an instant classic. Seeing actors playing actors is always loads of fun, as we get a peek at how Hollywood really views itself. The sci-fi spoofing is dead-on accurate, and it really is an homage to the classic series as well, most notably "Star Trek." There are also great bonus stuffs on the DVD, including a "making of" special, deleted scenes that made me wonder why they were deleted, and an alternate soundtrack in the Thermian bark-and-squawk language.

If you love "Star Trek," you'll love "Galaxy Quest." If you hated "Star Trek," you will also love "Galaxy Quest."

• Genres > Comedy > By Theme
• Genres > Comedy
• Genres > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
• Genres > Kids & Family > 10-12 Years

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