Sunday, November 11, 2007

Still needed more flying leg kicks: "Galaxy Quest"

Hey, those were Capt. Kirk's thing when fighting Klingons, Romulans, et al, and they were awesome.

I first saw this smart what-if homage of sorts to "Star Trek," its washed-up cast and its fans shortly after it came out. Honestly can't recall if I made it to the theater, but I know I caught it on video. Either way, I remember thinking, "Hey, I'd like to own that someday." I still don't, which meant I couldn't pass on another chance to see this movie when it popped up on one of the HBO channels the other day.

Our story begins at a sci-fi convention where the headliners are the former cast of "Galaxy Quest," a TV show about an intrepid starship crew. The show went off the air eons ago yet still claims a rabid fan base. Sound familiar? Oh, it gets better. Among the show's cast is an overacting blowhard as captain and a classically-trained actor forever typecast as a makeup-wearing alien with a silly catchphrase. No, there's no way William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were inspiration for these guys. Not at all.

Anyway, the cast is merely going through the motions at these conventions and other appearances when some bonafide aliens show up and kidnap the "captain." Soon enough, the whole crew is out there in outer space for real, somehow trying to pilot a real spaceship while fighting some bad guy lizardmen. They're all a little incredulous, as you might guess, that aliens would think they really are a starship crew, but there you go.

When you think about it, this is a great idea. Seriously, what would happen if the "Star Trek" actors had to do their thing for real? How great would it be to see the behind-the-scenes politics and backbiting come out in the open? How much fun would it be to see these jokers trying to use what they remembered from a cheesy TV show to solve real problems? How long would it take before everyone simply pounced on Shatner and put his head on a spike?

Upping the ante even more is a solid cast. Tim Allen was great choice for the captain role, even if he gets a little sappy near the end. Alan Rickman is better as the "Spock" character, a classically-trained actor -- "I played Richard III ... There were five curtain calls" -- doomed to wear crappy makeup and say one line over and over and over again. Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub and Daryl Mitchell round out the TV show cast, with Sam Rockwell -- a leftover from one episode -- hanging on for one more chance at glory.

There are other nice performances, too. Enrico Colantoni is hilarious as the leader of the aliens, with a singsong monotone that just killed me. Justin Long, who can be pretty annoying, finds a natural role here as a diehard (pun intended) "Questerian." When I think about it, there really isn't a false note among any of the actors.

Yeah, you could say I really like this movie, and not just because I was a "Trek" fan for a while. (Aw, hell, I'd still watch the original series if the right episode was on.) Not only is it a fun story with a great cast, but the dialogue was just really sharp throughout. Not in a "quoting 'Fletch' or "Caddyshack'" kind of way, but in the whole context of the thing. And if that's not enough for you, well, Sigourney Weaver shows some serious cleavage late in the movie. Maybe it's not those tiny panties in "Alien," but it's enough to get you at least to Warp Factor 6, maybe 7.

5 Comments:

At 4:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

They had to use Shatner and Nimoy, if they would have parodied Picard and Riker, then the movie would not have lasted that long since everyone knows that P & R + Data kick ass. STNG > ST > STV > STDS9 > STE. (Yeah I know this is WAAYY off course, but when you mention Star Trek there always has to be a better series discussion. Much like a Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate)

 
At 9:58 PM, Blogger Jefferson said...

Sure. Geek.

 
At 12:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What was that?

Algebra?

I've been working that problem STNG>ST>STV>STDS9>STE problem for like 45 minutes and I still can't find the value of T.

 
At 8:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Breaking out the TI-83 the calculation is......STNG is made of awesome.

 
At 10:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm still wrestling with that Superman vs. Batman thing. Nothing sadder than a 56-year-old geek.

 

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