Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6699 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-03-26
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
• Dubbed in: German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to enjoy Galaxy Quest, but it certainly helps. A knowingly affectionate tribute to Trek and any other science fiction TV series of the 1960s and beyond, this crowd-pleasing comedy offers in-jokes at warp speed, hitting the bull's-eye for anyone who knows that: (1) the starship captain always removes his shirt to display his manly physique; (2) any crew member not in the regular cast is dead meat; and (3) the heroes always stop the doomsday clock with one second to spare. So it is with Commander Taggart (Tim Allen) and the stalwart crew of the NSEA Protector, whose intergalactic exploits on TV have now been reduced to a dreary cycle of fan conventions and promotional appearances. That's when the Thermians arrive, begging to be saved from Sarris, the reptilian villain who threatens to destroy their home planet.

Can actors rise to the challenge and play their roles for real? The Thermians are counting on it, having studied the "historical documents" of the Galaxy Quest TV show, and their hero worship (not to mention their taste for Monte Cristo sandwiches) is ultimately proven worthy, with the help of some Galaxy geeks on planet Earth. And while Galaxy Quest serves up great special effects and impressive Stan Winston creatures, director Dean Parisot (Home Fries) is never condescending, lending warm acceptance to this gentle send-up of sci-fi TV and the phenomenon of fandom. Best of all is the splendid cast, including Sigourney Weaver as buxom blonde Gwen DeMarco; Alan Rickman as frustrated thespian Alexander Dane; Tony Shalhoub as dimwit Fred Kwan; Daryl Mitchell as former child-star Tommy Webber; and Enrico Colantoni as Thermian leader Mathesar, whose sing-song voice is a comedic coup de grâce. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Video Description
DVD Special Features (TO BE CONFIRMED):

Production notes
Theatrical trailer(s)
"On Location In Space" feature
Deleted scenes
Thermian language audio track
Cast and filmakers' biographies
Production notes
Widescreen anamorphic format

Synopsis
GALAXY QUEST is a satirical comedy that pokes fun at the influence science fiction shows such as STAR TREK have had on their audience. The cast members of the cult sci-fi television series GALAXY QUEST now earn their livings appearing at conventions and grand openings, led by their bomastic captain Jason Nesmith, played by Tim Allen. When an alien race--the Thermians--arrives on earth, it appears that they have mistakenly appropriated the show's culture as their own, thinking the series was actual fact. Desperate for help in battling the evil General Sarris, they bring the actors with them into space to save their planet. A surprisingly smart and funny send-up of the science-fiction culture and the influence television has on the world at large, GALAXY QUEST is a comedy that even non-genre fans can enjoy, with terrific turns by Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and Tony Shalhoub.

Customer Reviews

A galaxy of fun
.
What a surprisingly good film! Sci-fi stories, by their very nature are difficult to make into successful comedies but this is a rare example of how to do it perfectly.
This film is a genuine masterpiece. It sends up shows like Star Trek and Babylon 5 very cleverly without ever deteriorating into clumsy, high school camp parody.
Everyone has seen some Star Trek episodes at some time in their lives and this helps with the in-jokes.
Tim Allen plays a character that William Shatner will recognise, probably with some slight discomfort. The rest of the crew are top notch also, especially Alan " I am an ac-torrrr" Rickman and Sigourney Weaver who looked stunning.

The basic premise is that the cast of a long cancelled sci-fi romp series, Galaxy Quest, are reduced to appearing at fan conventions for a living. They feel degraded, bored and dislike each other and their persistant fans in varying degrees. Except "Commander Taggart" whose egotism allows him to revel in the attention these conventions bring the main star.
However, all things change when some typically quirky fans turn out to be Thermians who need the Galaxy Quest crew to help turn the tide in a cosmic war that they are losing to a lizard race. Having picked up the TV transmissions and thinking them to be documentaries, the Thermians re-create the ship of the series for real and take the disbelieving cast up to crew it.
Finally realising the predicament they are in, the cast try to get away except "Taggart" whose ego knows he can do it for real. The crew finally have no choice but to go along with it. The Thermians have painstakingly recreated the ship in every detail from the series. The helm controls work exactly as they appeared to do in the series, the weapons arrays are fired by the same buttons, etc. The cast merely have to remember what they did in the show to make it all work!
Even their quarters and food is the same, which is a shame for the alien Dr. Lazarus character.

The story pans out like a typical episode and the crew save the day in the end of course.

But this was so well done. The effects, expected to be low budget and cheesey, were superb. The script was excellent - witty and fast paced.

I don't know why this didn't do better at the cinema. It is one of the best spoofs ever made and is a must see film.

So good...
This is the only film I've ever paid for on pay-per-view. That's after I saw it in the cinema and before I bought it on DVD. If you've read the Amazon review above then you'll more or less know what it's about. It's something of a spoof on the reinvention of Star Trek which took place decades after the original show was cancelled. It's also an amazing film in its own right.

This begins with the casting: Tim Allen comes with all the comedy credentials to make this film fly, but the inclusion of SF icon Sigourney Weaver makes it more of an A-movie than any of the films or series it spoofs. Then there's veteran thespian Alan Rickman, who could raise the level of any production. (Interestingly, one of Alan Rickman's early TV credits was as Brownlow in Smiley's People, which also featured a certain Patrick Stewart as Karla).

Sigourney Weaver! Interestingly, Weaver went on record during the making of this film as saying 'I put on a blonde wig and didn't say an intelligent thing for six months'.

You should have gathered that this is not the usual Spaceballs/ Airplane 3/ Men in White type of sci-fi spoof. Although it accurately satirises the conventions of Star Trek (as well as Star Trek conventions), it has its own first rate special effects and a plot that would stand up just as well if it was played as a straight, if rather quirky, SF adventure.

This is a film that everyone could be proud of, including the people who were being satirised. Interestingly, Jeri Ryan (Seven-of-nine, Voyager) makes a point of including a couple of photos of her at the Galaxy Quest premiere on her fansite.

Is it worth buying? Well, it's more or less the most played and most borrowed DVD in my collection. This film is simply, so good ...

Altogether wonderful
I'd hardly heard of this movie and came across it very indirectly. It deserves to be much better known; it's streets ahead of the only intermittently funny Spaceballs type stuff. I guess you'd need to like SF movies to really go for it, and a nodding acquaintance with Star Trek would help. It's very funny and oddly large-hearted too; all the kitschy Star Trek platitudes turn out somehow to be true and valuable without the movie getting sentimental or kitschy itself. It's some trick. Characteristic is the line from Sigourney Weaver, something like: "I've only got one stupid job to do on the ship and by God I'm going to do it!". It _is_ stupid; but she really does mean to do it; and it turns out to matter that she does it, too.