Galaxy Quest (1999)

Galaxy Quest: 1999, dir. Dean Perisot. Seen on DVD (Oct. 22).
After tiring of gruesome horror movies, this was just what we needed. Galaxy Quest is funny and cute and pretty smart too, smarter than I would have guessed.
Yeah, I know everyone else has seen this movie already, including my boyfriend, who promised I would like it. He mentioned something about Sigourney Weaver wearing a costume that gets more and more shredded as the movie continues, and that Tim Allen was pompous but that this fit his character perfectly and was actually enjoyable. That was about all I knew except that Star Trek jokes were somehow involved.

Then the movie started and I realized no one had told me Alan Rickman was in it, and I always enjoy watching Alan Rickman (he was the one thing I liked about Sense and Sensibility, which is particularly admirable because I hated that character in the book). And no one had told me about Sam Rockwell, either, although admittedly my boyfriend wasn’t sure who that was (“the guy with the hairy ass from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, dear”).
So Galaxy Quest has this delightful cast with wonderful comic timing, plus a lot of amusing jokes on the whole Star Trek thing, which you don’t have to be a Star Trek fan to appreciate (I am not). It was the perfect movie to watch on a Friday night after a tiring day in the office.
Galaxy Quest is the kind of movie you can watch with almost any group of people and they will probably like it, like The Princess Bride or Raising Arizona. I could watch this movie with my parents. It’s the kind of movie that appeals to mainstream audiences without pandering—smart without showing off about it.