Galaxy Quest

reviewed Thurs, 30 Dec 1999

I needed a good silly movie after the long, heavy ones I've been seeing lately, and Galaxy Quest filled that need nicely.  It's a goofy bit of fluff about a group of actors from an old TV show that has inspired a devoted and... uh... cloistered following, much like Star Trek, who get recruited by a race of aliens that think their TV show was a "historical document."  This movie is every Trekkie's wet dream:  the show comes to life, AND the characters need the help of their obsessive fans to save the universe.

Alan Rickman alone would make this movie worthwhile.  He's trapped in the role of perpetual second fiddle, sort of the Leonard Nimoy to Tim Allen's vainglorious William Shatner, and his haughtily rolling eyes wordlessly convey his weary disdain for Allen and the whole ridiculous cult that's sprung up around the show.  And when he speaks, he's even funnier.

The rest of the cast is almost all as entertaining.  For once, I actually liked Tony Shalhoub, probably because he's not using some horrible fake accent, and Tim Allen, probably because he's playing a self-absorbed dim bulb, which sounds like type-casting to me.  Sigourney Weaver smartly spoofs her Ripley persona as a character who's constantly in danger of spilling out of her bra and who has just one job -- and a useless one, at that -- on the ship.

Good, clean, silly fun that lets you put your brain on hold... hmmm, maybe I should have waited until the morning after New Year's Eve to see this.

 

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