Movie Review – “Galaxy Quest”

Never give up. Never surrender.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith

Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco

Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane

Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan

Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman

Daryl Mitchell as Tommy Webber

Enrico Colantoni as Mathesar

Robin Sachs as Sarris

Written by David Howard and Robert Gordon

Directed by Dean Parisot

Complete information is available from the
IMDB
.

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

Actors from a cancelled but popular sci-fi show find
themselves pulled
into a real life space adventure.

High Point

“Well, he’s outside.”

Low Point

If the Omega 13 is so mysterious and ill-defined, how
did the
Thermians build one?

The Scores

The idea of spoofing Star Trek is far from
original.
It’s too bad, really; they nailed every other aspect
of the movie. I
give it 2 out of 6.

The effects were well done, with
corny-looking bits in the
“historical documents” and good looking stuff in the
“real” parts.
The minefield chicken game was particularly well
done. I give it 5
out of 6.

The story was well written, and had only the
one significant
flaw mentioned above. The Star Trek lore
from both sides of
the camera is present and in full view, and the
characters actually
show motivated growth and change among the humour and
action scenes.
I give it 5 out of 6.

The acting is good, even from Tim Allen. I
was never
impressed with his acting on Home
Improvement
, but he did an
excellent job of his Shatner spoof. Sigourney
Weaver’s work has been
a bit erratic through her career, but this is one of
the good ones.
Alan Rickman and Tony Shalhoub are always great. Sam
Rockwell was
over the top a few times, but not immensely. I give
it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is great for the fans
who don’t take
Star Trek too seriously. (The Trekkies who
don’t like this
seem to be extremely rare.) This is a bloody funny
movie, with or
without a great knowledge of Star Trek. I
give it 6 out of
6.

The production uses the usual comedic
lighting and camera
choices, avoiding complicated set-ups or activities.
I give it 4 out
of 6.

Overall, this is a fun, entertaining comedy,
that should be
particularly effective for those with some knowledge
of Star
Trek
behind the scenes. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Galaxy Quest receives 32 out of
42.

14 replies on “Movie Review – “Galaxy Quest””

  1. Disagree about the low point
    That’s part of the joke as well :)

    My high point would be “let me put in a box for you”, which parodied the scene from Wrath Of Khan perfectly.

  2. Lots of high points
    “Its a rock, it doesn’t have any vulnerable spots”.
    Tony Shaloob’s character was also great, completely oblivious to anything else around him.
    I also really liked the part where they are transported to the ship and the Thermians come to give them weapons ‘n stuff but don’t have their appearance modifiers working.
    Good stuff.

    Damien

  3. Leaving Port.
    The Leaving Port had to be a high point. That was the funniest sequence I’ve
    ever seen. Dragging the nacelle along the wall making the god awful metal
    screeching noises.

    I laugh loudly at that part almost every time I see it, takes all the seriousness
    from the Enterprise leaving spacedock and just pokes big fun at it.

  4. I’m glad this got a high rating
    “Hey, guys… they’re telling me the engines won’t take it… ship’s breakin’ apart and all that… just FYI.”

    I love this show. It pokes fun at the sci-fi tropes that I love to poke fun at. I actually wish they would make a sequel to this movie.

    I also disagree about the low point; sure, the Omega 13 makes no sense, but neither does anything about the whole premise. Everything about the movie is ludicrous. Would Tim Allen’s character really be so stupid as to think that this multi-level spaceship was some kid’s garage? Of course not, but it’s great fun anyway.

    • Re: I’m glad this got a high rating

      I actually wish they would make a sequel to this movie.

      I’ve thought about that, too, but couldn’t think of where the plot would go. They did such a good job of thoroughly ripping a new one in the genre, what else can they do?

      • Re: I’m glad this got a high rating

        I actually wish they would make a sequel to this movie.

        I’ve thought about that, too, but couldn’t think of where the plot would go. They did such a good job of thoroughly ripping a new one in the genre, what else can they do?

        Mock the obsession with sequels that is rampant in Hollywood by making their own? Given how dead-on and funny Galaxy Quest was, I think they’d be up to the task of poking holes in all of the standard sequel conventions.

      • Re: I’m glad this got a high rating
        There are lots of sci-fi tropes left to mock. The Holodeck Goes Crazy, the
        Self-Destruct, the Android With a Heart of Gold, Planet of Amazon Sex
        Slaves… that’s just off the top of my head. I think there’s a lot of material left
        to mine.

    • Re: I’m glad this got a high rating

      “Hey, guys… they’re telling me the engines won’t take it… ship’s breakin’ apart and all that… just FYI.”

      I love all the Thermians flying around in the background as Shalhoub is delivering that line. The scene behind him could not *possibly* be any more chaotic without severed limbs and gore, but he’s just groovin’. :) And then they have a group hug when they solve a problem. They have a lot of fun with actor stereotypes too. :)

      -Joe G.

  5. Disagree with low point
    I’ve watched this movie a number of times, and keep laughing out loud every time I watch. I can find no flaws with this movie…the plot, acting, and effects were all excellent. I actually wish they stuck some of the deleted scenes into the theatrical version…

    Too many high points to list.

    As far as the low point, that was part of what made the movie great! Here you got the Thermians (“or termites, or something like that”) watching “historical documents” from Earth…Earthlings know it’s fiction and nonsense…yet the Thermians go out and make IT ALL REAL! They take a beryllium sphere that was wire & plaster and turn it into a phenomenal power source! The digital conveyor worked even though the original was nothing but Christmas tree lights…so why couldn’t they make an Omega-13 that was mysterious?

    Funny trivia: to secure a PG-rating, they dubbed one of Sigourney Weaver’s lines. Right before they enter the large mechanical mashers, she says “Well, screw this!”…if you read her lips, she really says “Well, f**k this!”

    • YES! :)

      Funny trivia: to secure a PG-rating, they dubbed one of Sigourney Weaver’s lines. Right before they enter the large mechanical mashers, she says “Well, screw this!”…if you read her lips, she really says “Well, f**k this!”

      I’m not the only one who noticed this. I also love her line “This episode was POORLY WRITTEN!” Given the tone of the movie, even though it’s a Trek spoof, the first time I watched it I half expected an Alien-related joke of some sort.

      I loved some of Guy’s lines. In the shuttle descending to the planet, when the other characters try to reassure Guy, “of course you [have a last name].” “DO I?! DO I?!?!?!” And when Weaver’s character is getting ready to wave at the little “children” aliens, Guy stops her and asks “didn’t you ever *watch* the show?!”

      Great movie. :)

      I have a friend who insists this is one of the worst comedies he’s ever seen. He’s not a Trekkie, so a lot of the humor was lost on him. Are there any non-Trekkies in here who didn’t like this movie?

      -Joe G.

  6. Loved it
    Great looking bad guy, and a red shirt who knows he’s going to die. What’s not to love?

    • Re: Loved it

      Great looking bad guy, and a red shirt who knows he’s going to die. What’s not to love?

      The funny thing is even in “real life”, everyone *expects* him to die. On the alien planet, Signorney Weaver’s character says “let’s get out of here before they kill Guy”, despite the fact that they were *all* equally in danger.

      • Re: Loved it

        The funny thing is even in “real life”, everyone *expects*
        him to die. On the alien planet, Signorney Weaver’s
        character says “let’s get out of here before they kill
        Guy”, despite the fact that they were *all* equally in
        danger.

        SPOILER ALERT: Guy was also the only one to survive
        Sarris’ assault unscathed before the Omega 13 was
        reactivated.

  7. Deleted scenes

    I guess they removed the deleted scenes (on the DVD) to reduce the runtime of the movie. They could have left all of them in and it would have still been a great movie.

Comments are closed.