Galaxy Quest (1999)

I saw Star Trek again the other day (in German, no review until I get it all in English), which naturally sparked a heavy hankering for Galaxy Quest. And now that I'm a bit more knowledgeable about Star Trek in general, I got more of the jokes! The story follows Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), general asshole and former star of Galaxy Quest, a popular Star Trek-type sci-fi television series. He and the rest of the cast (who hate him) spend most of their days going to fan conventions or ribbon-cutting ceremonies. There's Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), the Spock-type character and former stage actor, Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub), the ship mechanic, Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell), the precocious kid pilot who's now all grown up, Guy (Sam Rockwell), who played the expendable "Crewman Number Six" in one episode, and Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), the woman. When Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), a pale stranger with odd body movements, shows up requesting help, Jason thinks it's a job offer.

Turns out Mathesar and his cohorts (including Missi Pyle and Rainn Wilson) are actual aliens, and when a hungover Jason puts on his Commander swagger and tells off an ugly green alien Sarris (Robin Sachs), it's for real, and now everyone is in danger. Jason rounds up the rest of his "crew" for a pretty exciting space adventure as they play their characters in real life, due to the aliens' belief that the tv episodes are "historical documents" of actual events. Of course it turns out they're in way over their heads, but gosh darnit if they won't use all of the fake skills they learned on the show to get out of several sticky situations, after some extra assistance from devoted fanboy Brandon (Justin Long, in his first onscreen role). This harrowing experience will surely give them all a better appreciation for their lives and help them learn to put up with each other.

This movie is pretty hilarious, you guys. It's a loving parody of that show some geeks kind of like, but can easily be enjoyed by regular people too. The script, written by David Howard (and his only screen credit to date), is top-notch, filled to the brim with witty dialogue and ridiculous conversations that are only made better by the superb cast. Tony Shalhoub, though with less screen time than many of the others, has some of the best line deliveries of the film. And Alan Rickman, my goodness, so spot-on as a disgruntled stage actor constantly lamenting his one famous role. His deadpan "By Grapthar's Hammer... what a savings." gets me every time.

Sigourney Weaver, whom I'm beginning to realize I kind of love, is hilarious but I felt bad for her. I get that she is playing the only female character in a sci-fi spoof and so it's for the sake of comedy that her shirt is ripped like crazy and she is super blonde, etc, but it was just sort of like awww Sigourney Weaver, you are so funny here but also this is a little bit below you maybe? And I'm usually not a big Tim Allen person, but he is pretty good in this. It helps that he's surrounded by such awesome people all the time. Mix in Justin Long, Sam Rockwell, Missi Pyle, and a bunch of adorable aliens and basically every scene has something to like!

Story-wise, Galaxy Quest has a great premise and it does a lot to expound upon the relationships between the actors and their characters, and beween the actors themselves. The effects are just ok, but you don't expect that much. Some of the sci-fi stuff they threw in gets a little silly, feeling overly dramatic (apparently this was originally written to be a more serious film) compared to the rest of the story, but it's not enough to be very detrimental. Overall, I totally dig this movie. Good times, all around! And it's even got a new super-shiny edition just out, to sort of tie it in with the Star Trek mania going on, I'd imagine. Notice you can totally buy it together with Mystery Men for just $16.48! Hell yes!

4/5