GALAXY QUEST (1999) ****

 

I avoided this like the plague when it first came out.  The previews looked terrible and made it  look like a kid’s movie.  Besides, the ‘90s were full of bad Tim Allen movies, and I had no intention of sitting through another one.  One day, I happened to catch it on TV and I was almost instantly hooked.

 

Basically, it's Three Amigos, but with Star Trek, except they had to call it “Galaxy Quest” because they couldn’t get the original crew together.  In fact, there’s a small part of me that kind of wishes they got the original Trek cast.  However, everyone is so good (even Allen) that it's a moot point.  They create likeable characters that immediately grow on you.  While the characters aren’t too far removed from their Trek predecessors, they still feel fresh enough to make them feel like something new.

 

The film is a blast, mostly because it simultaneously makes fun of and embraces the conventions of the show.  By “conventions” I mean the clichés that always seem to crop up and go unnoticed by the crew (like the Captain’s tendency to lose his shirt while battling an alien).  Although, since a lot of the film takes place at a fan convention and pokes fun at (but lovingly so) the Trekkie culture, I guess it does the same for the literal conventions of the show too. 

 

Allen has never been better.  There’s a tinge of Shatner in his performance, but only the faintest wisps (there are a few dramatic pauses, but not nearly as many as I was expecting).  He creates a character that is likeable, poignant, and ultimately heroic.  I was actually shocked how good he was in this.  Alan Rickman was awesome too as the Shakespearian trained actor who must play second banana to Allen while wearing a funny latex headpiece.  Sigourney Weaver, whose boobs are hanging out half the time, is both sexy and funny as the crew member whose basic job is to repeat what the computer says and have her boobs hang out half the time.  Sam Rockwell and Tony Shalhoub have their own moments to shine as the other crew members.  Justin Long is also excellent as a nerdy Trekkie who is called upon in the end to help save the day with his extensive knowledge of the show.

 

The crazy thing about Galaxy Quest is that it captures the spirit of the show better than most of the actual Star Trek films.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is better than twelve of the thirteen Star Trek movies.  Hell, I even got kinda choked up when Rickman said his most hated catchphrase to bolster the spirit of a dying crew member.  The only Star Trek that had that same effect on me was Wrath of Khan.  That is to say, Galaxy Quest is in some rather stellar company.