Hey Wanna B's hope everyone had a good Memorial day weekend here in the states. I did but who doesn't love a good three days off, plenty of time to go out to eat, watch some Netflix and perhaps a movie or two. I had a collection of DVDs a couple hundred or so don't know the exact amount, but a couple of binders full. Anyway I decided that as I have been buying most of my stuff digitally over the last year, I kind of wanted to get rid of clutter and I haven't really watched any of these movies in a long time anyway, so I gave them away to my brother. However there is one movie in that collection that my father loves, and I took that one out just for him, that would be Galaxy Quest starring Tim Allen (Home Improvement). We decided to watch the movie when I came over for a visit. Despite being fourteen years old, it actually holds up pretty well.
Galaxy Quest came out on Christmas day back in 1999, and yours truly who was a bit younger back then, twenty years old to be precise, went on Christmas day to go see it. I didn't go alone though, I went with my younger sister and my father and will never forget the events leading up to that outing. We were running behind on getting to the early showing and my sister was being a typical young girl taking her time, my father in a fit of rage yelled for my sister to hurry up and decided to punch the arm of the couch and in the process fractured his wrist. At the time my father didn't realize the extent of the damage and a little pain wasn't going to stop us, so off we went. Anyway every time we watch this film that story comes up and we all get a good laugh, well most of us, my father doesn't find it too funny.
So with that little trip down memory lane, lets get to the heart of the matter. What the heck is a movie called Galaxy Quest even about? Well it's a science fiction comedy that caters to fans of shows like Star Trek. Galaxy Quest was a TV show about a crew in a star ship that travelled the universe and shared in weekly adventures (sound familiar). In the show Tim Allen's character was the commander, Sigourney Weaver played the typical sex appeal character whose job was to show cleavage and repeat whatever the ship would say. Alan Rickman played Dr. Lazarus who is from an alien race known as the Mak'tar, and are known for being highly intelligent(pretty much Mr. Spock).
The movie takes place eighteen years after the show was cancelled and the actors are pretty much washed up at this point but make a career out of going to conventions, store grand openings and such. After one such convention Tim Allen's character Jason Nesmith is paid a visit by an alien race known as The Thermians, he thinks it's part of an acting job to play out some fans dream of reenacting the show but turns out these aliens are real and have built a whole society including a replica of the ship from watching old episodes they thought were archives of actual history. Needless to say that once the whole cast ends up on the ship facing off against a real alien bent on annihilating everyone things get interesting and comedy ensues.
After watching this past weekend I can truly say the movie has held up really well and is still a blast to watch. Rickman's dry sense of humor is great, and lines like "you broke the bloody ship" still make me laugh to this day. Considering this is a comedy the special effects are pretty high up there with any great sci-fi of the era. The ship and outer space scenes look great as well as all the creatures including little elf looking cannibal aliens and a giant rock monster. We also get a funny performance from the movie debut of the guy from the Mac commercials Justin Long who plays the nerdy guy that knows the details of the show and ship better than the cast who starred in it does. Sigourney Weaver still looked pretty good at this time with a blond wig and some cleavage showing, it also showed off her funny side as she took her part in the whole thing in stride. Bottom line this movie will always have a special place in my heart, and yes I am into sci-fi and love Star Trek, but due to the fact that this is a parody that makes fun of the whole thing I think even if your not a Trek fan you would still find plenty of enjoyment in this film. So with the review being done there's only one thing left to say "never give up, never surrender", later Wanna B's.
