Galaxy Quest
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Movie Reviews of Galaxy Quest
Movie Review: "Never Give Up! Never Surrender!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Almost 20 years after their phenomenally successful sci-fi TV show has been cancelled, the once proud cast of "Galaxy Quest" is relegated to making autograph signing appearances at science fiction conventions and strip mall openings. Only their faux captain, Jason Nesmith, who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart on the show (played here by "Home Improvement's" Tim Allen), still enjoys his fame among the obsessive fanatics. That is until Jason overhears what a joke he and his "crew" have become among the less enamored public. Jason's zest for life and his sci-fi legacy is renewed, however, when he is approached by a group of odd "Galaxy Quest" fans in need of help that turn out to be REAL aliens! Before long, Jason has the whole "Galaxy Quest" cast along for the ride of their lives in a spaceship designed to look and work exactly like the one on their old TV show. The benevolent Thermians believe the TV show "Galaxy Quest" is actual historical footage. Commander Taggart and his crew are their heroes, and they've modeled every aspect of their lives, and their highly advanced technology, after the hokey television fantasy. Now, they have sought out Commander Taggart and the crew of the NSEA Protector to help rid them of a villainous alien warlord (played by Robin Sachs) who has already destroyed the majority of their population! It's all a bit overwhelming for the group of mostly disgruntled actors who are both terrified and clueless about how to handle the situation. To defeat the evil General Sarris, each will have to adopt the talents and tact their characters had all those years ago, not to mention the bonds those fictional counterparts shared!
"Galaxy Quest" is unquestionably one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences the science-fiction fanatic can have outside the realms of his or her own obsession! Gently poking fun and paying tribute to everything from the obvious Star Trek to X-Files, Sailor Moon, Star Wars, Heavy Metal, and a million more, it does so gracefully and hilariously! Tim Allen leads a crew made up of Sigourney Weaver as the resident blonde bombshell (and I've never seen her look so good!), Alan Rickman as the bitter Shakespearian sell-out, Tony Shalhoub as the far too mellow Fred Kwan, Daryl Mitchell as the cast's junior member, and Sam Rockwell as Guy, the one-episode cast member with great fear of being killed-off in real-life as quickly as he was in the show! All make up an ensemble cast that plays perfectly together! Backing them up are Enrico Colantoni as Thermian leader Mathesar, the always hilarious Justin Long as obsessed fan Brandon Wheeger, fantastic music by David Newman, and glorious creatures and effects by masters Stan Winston and ILM. The sci-fi fan-pleasing ending is not to be missed! "Galaxy Quest" looks great on this widescreen DVD which includes fun animated menus, a behind the scenes featurette, hilarious deleted scenes, an actual Thermian language track (I'll have to check that out, I only just found out about it by reading the back cover), cast and crew bios, production notes, and the customary theatrical trailer. If you are a major fan of any sci-fi show or film that is popular enough to warrant a convention or lifelong devotion, "Galaxy Quest" should be added to your wish list today! Also highly recommended are "Free Enterprise," "Comic Book the Movie," and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back!"
Movie Review: Low Key But First Rate Comic Space Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
`Galaxy Quest' is an old, long discontinued TV space adventure series with an extremely geeky cult following. To put it another way, `Galaxy Quest' is `Star Trek' modified just enough to keep the intellectual property lawyers at bay. Its cast featured the macho captain Taggart played by Jason Nesmith played by Tim Allen; Lt. Madison played by Gwen DeMarco played by Sigourney Weaver, whose job on the ship is to repeat everything the computer says and have great breasts; Spock analogue, the alien Dr Larazus played by Alexander Dane played by Alan Rickman; and a few others. None of them have tasted remotely comparable acting success since, so they continue a little desperately to squeeze a living from their GQ celebrity. It's not something they mostly much enjoy, especially Dane who remains in his dreams at least true to his former self-conception as some great Shakespearean actor. Even the normally enthusiastic Nesmith is starting to find the whole business depressing. Meanwhile in a distant part of the universe, the Thermians pick up transmissions of GQ. Having no concept of fiction they assume they are watching reality: `historical documents'. Inspired, they model their society on the values they see embodied in the show. And then, endangered by a threat from evil alien Sarris, they turn up at a GQ convention to ask for help. Next thing our old troopers know they are on a very real replica of their fictitious spaceship and expected to take command in a serious emergency. A few large problems present themselves. Sarris, for one thing is desperate to know what the ships most spectacular hi-tech gizmo, the Omega 13, actually does. But of this Nesmith et al have no idea, they' re just actors after all. Indeed there is a pile of stuff about how everything works they have no clue about and they have to solve the problem by getting in contact with a few skinny geek schoolboys back on Earth with an unhealthy obsession with every obscure technical aspect of the TV show...
This is one of the very best American movie comedies of the late 1990s. The idea is a splendid one and it is stuffed full of rich comic conceits. It works beautifully as a gentle affectionate parody of the whole `Star Trek' world. And it works beautifully too as a self-contained, character-driven comedy. Indeed, comedy aside, just as an adventure story with good guys in conflict with ugly green baddies, it's a lot more exciting and enjoyable than 100 other sci-fi movies that play it straight. It is intelligently written, ably directed and very well acted. Rickman and Allen are especially good among those playing human characters; Robin Sachs is a brilliantly malign Sarris; but the film is completely stolen by Enrico Colantoni as Thermian Commander Mathesar, at once the funniest and most lovable alien you are likely to encounter at the movies any time soon.
Movie Review: A must-watch for any sci-fi fan
Summary: 5 Stars
Some movies can be watched once and enjoyed, but forgotten. Other movies can be watched repeatedly and only get more funny with each watching. Galaxy Quest definitely is a multi-watch movie!
The basic plot is that the cast of a long-gone sci-fi series is living off the fan conventions. They are sick of each other but plod on for the cash. Suddenly, a group of space aliens - who thinks these actors are real spacemen - drag them into an interstellar war. The actors try their best to help out and to overcome their petty quarrels.
The cast is stellar. Alan Rickman is hilarious as the serious alien played by a "British Actor". "I had five curtain calls," he complains while sitting at yet another fan convention. The tiny details he pulls are are brilliant. Tony Shaloub, now best known for his up tight detective "Monk", is fantastic here as the kick-back, relaxed engineer. In one scene, they land on a strange planet and he blithely sticks his head out and smells the air to see if it's safe. Talk about an anti-Monk!
Sigourney Weaver, one of the most famous actresses in the "space world" because of her Alien series, is fantastic here as the blonde, busty "talker" who was only on the show for her looks. All she gets to do is repeat the lines the computer says.
There are definitely jokes here that make more sense if you've watched shows like Star Trek. One of the guys is convinced he'll die because he's the "spare crewman" and those extras are always killed off on shows like this. In another scene, the captain wildly does shoulder-rolls to approach the enemy. The other crew-members tease him about his showing off. The "chompers" which make no rational sense on a ship, and which Sigourney complains about quite vocally.
There are just so many tiny details that you pick up on subsequent watchings. The way all the "Thermians" walk with wiggly hand movements, betraying their octopoid origins. The way the watching Thermians try to be brave and stay in place even while Laredo nearly crashes the spaceship into them. There are lines I laugh out loud at no matter how many times I've seen the movie. "Rudimentary Lathe" gets me every time :)
The DVD doesn't have many extras - but I love that they have an ENTIRE soundtrack in Thermian! You can watch the entire movie with the squeaks and squalks of the Thermian language. Just in case they're watching!
One of my favorite movies, highly recommended.
Movie Review: An exercise in DVD genius
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd like to commend the team responsible for the creation of this one-disc DVD package. If it had a filming journal composed by the crew during filming (as Gladiator does) and DTS sound included (as Gladiator does), it would be the best DVD I've ever purchased. As it is, the sheer quality of this DVD is amazing.First things first: the negatives. You get Dolby 5.1 sound with this edition, but you don't get a Dolby DTS track. However, for those who must have DTS sound there is a separate edition which provides it. Also, there are no alternate language tracks that will be of use to anyone (more on that in a minute).
But what this DVD does have is a great digital transfer, fantastic Dolby 5.1 sound-- and the best extras I've seen on any DVD in a long time.
The Galaxy Quest DVD includes a making-of featurette, production notes, bios on the entire cast, theatrical trailers, TV spots, a novelty audio track (more on that in a minute), and an amusing Easter egg (hint: there is a reason why you must wait thirteen seconds to access the beginning menu). More importantly, you get a slew of deleted scenes that are as entertaining in themselves as some of the full feature's best moments-- a testament to the ability of this excellent ensemble cast.
My personal favorite feature is the "novelty audio track" mentioned earlier. I'm still amazed that the producers had the guts to include it, but this movie is a comedy and including a Thermian audio track (Thermian is the odd squawking-noise language spoken by the aliens in the film), in place of something more conventional like Spanish or French, is very fitting.
As for the movie-- chances are that if you know how to use your computer well enough to read this review, you've seen Galaxy Quest, but if you haven't, then you certainly should. On the one hand it's a jab at the Star Trek phenomenon; on the other hand it's a very clever movie carried to extreme effectiveness by a fantastic ensemble cast. Sigourney Weaver as a ditzy blonde, Alan Rickman with a big rubber thing on his head... and Tony Shalhoub's performance here-- it's all part of some sort of underlying genius that I can't quite put into words except to say that it's funny even when it isn't trying to be, and it's always good. This is one of the few films that I enjoy more each time I see it.
Folks, this DVD is a must-own, and there aren't many of those. Get it now.
Movie Review: Galaxy Quest
Summary: 5 Stars
Moviegoers who liked EVOLUTION, MEN IN BLACK, SPACEBALLS, MARS ATTACKS!, MYSTERY MEN or THE FIFTH ELEMENT will find something to love in GALAXY QUEST, one of my favorite films of the past fifty years.
By now we all know the story, so it's hard to recall how difficult it was for most ordinary moviegoers to get their heads around the concept back in the year 2000: "They're actors in an old-time, cancelled TV sci-fi show and they get W-H-A-T?" People were walking out of the theater in droves the way that they used to walk out of Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, unable to take in the slightest detail due to a mental fog having set into their brains. You know what numbskulls the US public are, and how nobody ever went broke underestimating them. Well, writer Dean Parisot somehow made us sit up and pay attention and for once a "high concept" approach to metafiction paid off in a big way. Part of it was his concern for establishing the characters, the actors whom we come to love despite their general egotism (Tim Allen), narrow view of life (Sigourney Weaver), distaste for all things American (Alan Rickman), etc. On top of that, like a celluloid gel, was added our memories of STAR TREK and other cult shows, and on top of that, our generalized knowledge of fan bases--for even if we're not uberfans ourselves, we like to poke fun at those who are. However in this case, the fans themselves become heroic in a genuinely surprising and resonant way, led by the redoubtable Justin Long (so funny when his mother pressures him to take out the trash, while he's in the middle of saving an entire universe from slavery and collapse).
The actors are all uniformly good, except that this time around I was sort of "not so great" about Sam Rockwell, who seemed to be hamming it up for no reason, though his part (as a bit player on the original show, "Crewman #2) was perhaps more shallowly executed than the others and he might have felt he had to make up for it by a trunkload of smirks and gapes. Oh well, what would there be left to criticize if everything was perfect and everyone else practically was! Poor Tim Allen, imagine knowing that you had once appeared in a great movie like GALAXY QUEST and now you're making WILD HOGS, though I'm sure he's crying all the way to the bank.
And I didn't recognize Keith Mars until that spaceman makeup until the very last reel!