| legeros.com > Movie Hell > 1999 > Reviews |
GALAXY QUEST, which opens on Christmas Day, has *the* best comedic premise of the year: the cult cast of a defunct "Star Trek"-like television series is mistaken for real intergalactic heroes by a race of channel-surfing aliens. And not only have they come to Earth to enlist the aid of the convention-hopping has-beens, they have also built a working replica of the show's starship! (Aye, there's even an transporter, thought it's never been "successfully tested.") Adventure ensues, much of it expectedly hilarious. Such as when Tim Allen's Commander Peter Quincy Taggart instructs his helmsman to "take her out" and the ship starts scraping the sides of the docking bay. Or an amusing search for fuel on one of those ever-popular, California desert-looking "rock planets." The ensem- ble cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and Tony Shaloub, and they're great bickerers. (Gotta love Weaver's ever-lowering zipper, too!) The mechanical mannerisms of the silver-clad, human- impersonating aliens are good for quite a few laughs, as well. In fact, the film's only glaring "off" moments are those increasingly frequent times that the story takes itself (too) seriously. Syrupy strings start playing, characters threaten to get moisty-eyed, and entire sequences are rendered unwatchable. Beam me outta there! Dean Parisot (HOME FRIES) directs. (Rated "PG-13"/110 min.) Grade: B Copyright 1999 Michael J. Legeros Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros