Galaxy Quest (1999)

George Takei called this film, "a chillingly realistic documentary." Okay, it's not quite that, but it is a very funny parody/love letter to Star Trek and the Trekkies who love it. Tim Allen (the Captain Kirk figure), Alan Rickman (the Spock figure), Tommy Webber (the Geordi figure), Tony Shalhoub (the Scotty figure), Sigourney Weaver (Kirk's love interest), and Sam Rockwell (a Red Shirt figure), play actors who were once the intrepid crew on a corny sci-fi TV series, Galaxy Quest, which is a not so thinly veiled analog for Star Trek. Many years after the show's cancellation, the actors make their living attending fan conventions and appearing at electronic store grand openings. The first act of the film where they contend with obsessive fans, petty hatred and jealousies towards each other, and basically hate their current stations in life, is hilarious. Once the the main story kicks in the film gets even funnier, which is when real aliens attending the convention think that Galaxy Quest was a real-life historical document and want to recruit the crew to help them defeat their real-life space alien enemies. The helpful aliens have even created an fully functional replica of the Galaxy Quest spaceship for the crew! Allen is terrific as the very full of himself Captain and Rickman is hilarious as the classically trained British theater actor who despises his fans and resents only being know for his pointy-eared alien role (actually he wears a different alien prosthetic head piece, but whatever). I also have to say that there wasn't nearly enough Tony Shalhoub, but the cutaways to where he's in the engineering section of the ship barely pretending he knows what he's doing is priceless. There's also some very funny moments when the captain has to call an obsessive fan back on earth, Justin Long, for advice on how to handle a situation involving ridiculous minutia about the ship. The movies does lose some momentum for a bit in the middle when the Galaxy Quest team are sent down to an alien planet, but it's still a good time. J.J. Abrams called this his favorite "Star Trek" film and he's not far wrong. Now that geek culture is much more celebrated in the mainstream, I can imagine what kind of a major hit this movie would have been if it had come out now instead of almost 20 years ago. Overall, this film is a terrific comedy that is irresistible, but it's something special for Star Trek fans.

Galaxy Quest is a comedy sci-fi film directed by Dean Parisot. I have done my research and I realized that this movie is basically a satire on science fiction/fantasy movies like Star Trek. I am not too familiar with Star Trek franchise. Probably that is the reason why I did not find Galaxy Quest as entertaining as some of the people have. However, I did like parts of it and some of the jokes worked for me.First of all, I want to give my view of some of the cast members and the characters. Tim Allen, who plays the main character of the movie was good enough but I have seen the same performances from him another 5 times at least and they are not that funny. Sigourney Weaver was decent and she looked nice. Although, this was not one of the main characters, for me Sam Rockwell's character Guy was the most entertaining one. The scenes in which he thinks that he will die because he is not the part of the Galaxy Quest team are hilarious. Sam Rockwell really shines in the movie despite the fact that he doesn't have too much screen time. On a side note, I want to say that for the movies like Moon, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Seven Psychopaths, Sam Rockwell became one of my favorite actors working today.The thing that I liked about Galaxy Quest was set design. The filmmakers of parodies usually do not take much time in making beautiful sets. However, this one was good to say the least. The scenes where the action takes place in other planet are beautiful. You can see that there was a lot effort put into those sets. I would not be surprised if the movie would have gotten Oscar nomination for it.The main problem I have with Galaxy Quest is that a lot of the jokes fall flat for me. I want to repeat – FOR ME. Everybody has a different comedy taste. As I said, I might did not get some of the jokes because I did not understand the references but, for example, the joke of Sigourney Weaver's boops was used over and over again and it was not funny at all. Also, Alan Rickman always being rude and emotionless, was that supposed to be funny? Watch Tim Allen 8 years later in Wild Hogs, he gives the exact same performance.All in all, Galaxy Quest was a huge disappointment for me. It had a few good scenes but that was not enough to make me feel good about watching this movie. I am a big science fiction fan but Galaxy Quest clearly was not made for me. Arguably, the year 1999 were one of the best in film's history and this movie would not be anywhere near my Top 10 of the year. I know, I sound very negative but I just don't understand how this movie contributed so much, that it is considered for the movie classes when there are so much more great science fiction films.

I watched this for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it. It is about a group of actors that are no longer preforming their show (which is much like Star Trek) but are at conventions and still well-known, yet sick of saying their classic lines and signing pictures. They get abducted and have to fight real creatures and aliens that they pretended to fight in the past. There were some rude jokes, as well as minor bad words (such as "dam*" and "hel*"), but it is an enjoyable comedy. There are some things that make me laugh just thinking about them--such as how human-like alien creatures think TV shows are historical documents and a character asks, "You don't think 'Gilligan's Island' is a historical document, do you?!" and her response is the creatures hanging their heads and one of them saying, "Those poor people." (Gilligan's Island is a 1960s TV show where seven people are abandoned on an uncharted desert island.) Another place that made me laugh is where the main character (played by Tim Allen) battles with a monster and accidentally has his shirt come off. He reunites with his team, and one of them (played by Alan Rickman) says in a sarcastic voice, "I see you had time to take your shirt off." The CGI was also excellent for the time it was made in.But though most of the humor was good, there was one joke that was rather cheesy. I was staring at the screen, thinking, "How can such excellent actors such as Tim Allen and Alan Rickman be doing this?" Speaking of Tim Allen, though he is a good actor, I did not like his role or acting much in this movie.So, though this has bad language, rude jokes, and that I didn't like the role Tim Allen did, it's great and still worth watching.

I didn't even know about this movie until a friend talked me and my family into seeing it. The title sounded like a low budget B-movie. It turned out that some of the funniest people in the business were in this. The premise is great. A group of actors are part of a "Star Trek" type show. They have gone their separate ways. They are tired of each other, and often not very friendly. Some have managed to earn a few bucks doing public appearances with nerdy people adoring them. This is certainly true of the real "Star Trek" cast. What happens is that some aliens who don't understand television believe that when watching "Galaxy Quest," they are seeing the real activities of real space explorers. The come and expect that these people will be able to do their will. Of course, there are the usual, "You are an idiot" moments, trying to explain what actors do. The charm comes from the great cast which finds themselves in over their heads, eventually having to submit to the will of these guys. Very funny movie.