Monday, December 26, 2005

[DVD] Galaxy Quest (1999)

There are countless of Star Trek spoofs out there, but this one really takes the cake. It's funny, witty, thoroughly enjoyable, and stars Tim Allen of the Home Improvement TV series (which I am "proud" to admit I never saw an episode before *horrors*)

Directly spoofing the original Star Trek series, Tim Allen plays a William Shatner clone with wicked delight. Here, he's Jason Nesmith, a self-centered man who's Captain Peter Taggart on the show Galaxy Quest. Rounding off his main crew are Sigourney Weaver, who plays buxomy blonde Gwen DeMarco/Lt. Tawny Madison, whose only job is to repeat what the ship's computer says, and Alan Rickman, as Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus, the token non-human onboard the ship, making him the butt of many alien jokes.

While the cast and crew of Galaxy Quest are made to be all chummy and such, in reality, they are a bunch of quarreling has-beens whose show has been cancelled 20 years ago, and are now making ends meet by attending conventions, and opening electrical stores. Until one day, an alien race of Thermians come visiting. They have been watching the transmissions of Galaxy Quest episodes, and have considered them to be "historical documents" of earth and its heroes. Naturally, they bring on board the crew to their ship, the Protector, modelled after the TV series. Only thing is, it's real.

So the Galaxy Quest crew have to play what they have been playing for years, except that it's for real. The ship, the planets, and the enemies as well. They have to quickly learn that they can only survive the harsh galaxy by believing in themselves, since everything on the ship works as it's imagined to be, and by believing in one another, just like in the show. Which is a pretty nifty message inserted into a comedic movie.

It's extremely fun, and do watch out for Sam Rockwell as Crewman Number 6, an extra on the original series who somehow get caught up in the mess, and crossing his fingers each time that he won't die, like on the show.

I've regretted not being able to have caught this in the theatres when it opened, given that it featured 3 aspect ratios in the same film, it would have been an experience to have watched it on the big screen, only if they screened it properly. Nonetheless, the DVD comes packed with loads of extras, so you might want to pick it up and watch it.

Code 1 DVD extras: Deleted scenes, making-of documentary, trailers, and an entire audio track in Thermian!

Never give up, never surrender!

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