The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 258 Days to go: 256
Movie #119: Galaxy Quest
There’s not enough love for Galaxy Quest in the world. It’s a super smart, super funny, super wry comedy about a group of actors from an old sci-fi television show (called Galaxy Quest) reunited for a fan convention nearly twenty years after its heyday that get pulled into a real live interstellar battle defending the last of the Thermian race from the evil Sarris (Robin Sachs). It’s a layered story of fantasy and adventure filled with plenty of inside jokes about space travel shows, about sci-fi fans, and about actors. Even Patrick Stewart likes it, so you know it’s good.
Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) plays Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, and is the arrogant, swaggering star of the show. He loves the attention and the fame Galaxy Quest has afforded him, though he does get a bit despondent when he feels he’s not as respected and revered as he thinks. He even gets a little short with adorable fanboy Brandon (Justin Long, who is right in his wheelhouse of awkward enthusiasm here), who asks questions about the technical aspects of a ship that never existed. When Thermians, led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), come to Jason requesting he negotiate with their tormentor Sarris, he thinks it’s just another paying gig until he travels in a slimy pod through a black hole back to Earth.
Allen and Colantoni both excel in their roles, unearned cockiness being something Allen has built a career on, and Colantoni getting to be as self-seriously silly as he can possibly get, funny, stilted voice and all. And Justin Long is perfect, as always. “I know there’s no beryllium sphere, no digital conveyor, no ship.” “Stop for a second. Stop. It’s all real.” “Oh my God, I knew it. I knew it! I knew it!”
The rest of the cast is delightful as well. It features Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, who was on the show as sexy Lt. Tawny Madison — a busty computer officer who basically just repeated and paraphrased everything the computer said. “Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it’s stupid, but I’m gonna do it! Okay?” Alan Rickman is the classically trained actor Alexander Dane — he played Richard III (“There were five curtain calls.”) — who has been forever typecast thanks to his Galaxy Quest role as Dr. Lazarus, an alien crew member with superior intellect. He wants nothing more than to regain a little dignity and recognition for his talent, which nothing to do with this show will ever afford him. (“You will go out there.” “I won’t and nothing you say will make me.” “The show must go on.” “Damn you.”) Daryl Mitchell is Tommy Webber, the grown-up who used to be the show’s token child prodigy, Lt. Laredo, and there is nothing better than the moment the Thermians expect him to drive their ship (modeled entirely on the Galaxy Quest ship, with flight controls based specifically on Laredo’s movements) out of dock and he scrapes it against the wall of the spaceport, leaving a huge mark along the outside. Then there’s Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan, who played Tech Sgt. Chen, but unlike Star Trek‘s Scotty, Fred is eerily calm and zen about everything that happens — shooting through space in a gel pod? “That was a hell of a thing.” — except maybe his blossoming interspecies romance with Thermian Laliari (Missi Pyle, who continues to be Up For Anything in every conceivable role. She is so fabulously game). And Sam Rockwell gets to ham it up as Guy Fleegman, an extra on the original broadcast (“It’s … another shipmate!”), certain he’s going to be the first to die on this actual mission, just like in his role on Episode 81. “Guy, Guy, maybe you’re the plucky comic relief. You ever think about that?”
No sci-fi trope is left behind in the film, from needlessly elaborate chompers in the middle of the ship (“This episode was badly written!”), to a countdown clock that stops at one second left because that’s how it always happens on the show, to adorable childlike aliens who turn into vicious monsters in an instant (“Let’s get out of here before one of those things kills Guy.”). There are alien planets that are somehow habitable for humans. (“Hey! Don’t open that! It’s an alien planet! Is there air? You don’t know!” “Seems okay.”) There’s a transporter system that doesn’t always work. (“The animal is inside out.”) There is super advanced time-displacing technology nobody quite understands. (“Activate the Omega 13!”) There are shields and guns and enemies getting shot out into space, and there’s a perfectly executed ploy to get the better of the bad guy at the end. (“What you fail to realize is my ship is dragging mines!”) It even has a mantra: “Never give up. Never surrender.” And for good measure, there’s a big spaceship crash, a somersaulting gunshot, and a ton of exuberant fans at the Galaxy Quest convention. It’s a roaring good time, all around.
And if you care to look for a message, it has one of those too. Jason Nesmith and crew are as big a group of phoneys as can be, and yet when they have people believing in them, they’re able to be just as heroic and brave as they’ve pretended to be in the past. It’s the affirmation that faith in oneself, and faith in others, can lead to unimaginable success. Honestly, what’s not to love about that?
Viable Option 