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Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest

List Price: $12.99
Your Price: $9.74
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than you might expect
Review: An absolute side-splitter for Star TrekĀ® fans, but stands on its own as well as a well-written, well-acted film with a good, exciting storyline and empathic characters. DVD watchers be sure to check out the Thermian soundtrack option - you can watch the ENTIRE MOVIE dubbed in Thermian with English subtitles!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Never Give Up, Never Surrender"
Review: If you have never seen this movie, I must tell you now that you're missing out on one of the funniest movies ever made! The year 1999 has had some of my favorite movies, including "The Matrix" and "October Sky". "Galaxy Quest" is in that list.

There was a TV series called "Galaxy Quest" which is the story of the NSEA Protector and it's crew - "Commander Peter Quincy Taggart" played by Jason Nesmith (played by Timm Allen), "Lt. Tawny Madison" by Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), "Dr. Lazarus" by Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), "Tech Sergeant Chen" by Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub), and "Lieutenant Trek Laredo" by Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell). But after four years, the show was cancelled, leaving the actors and actresses without any jobs. Twenty years later, at a convention center, they meet up with aliens Commander Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), Teb (Jed Rees), Quellek (Patrick Breen), and Laliari (Missi Pyle). They are from the alien race Thermians (or Termites! (you'll have to watch the movie to understand!)) and having mistaken the Galaxy Quest TV show for 'historical documents', they request the 'crew' to help them negotiate the terms with the evil Sarris (Robin Sachs). But of course, things don't go they way they seem since the actors are now playing for their lives! And with the help of Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell), if you could call him 'help', and Galaxy Quest fan Brandon (Justin Long), they set out to save the universe.

Witty and funny, this movie will keep you in stiches throughout the whole 1 hour and 42 minutes of it! Acting is marvelous with Tim Allen as the 'raving ego-maniac', Sigourney Weaver as the beautiful Gwen (watching her you won't be able to believe that she's in her 50's!!), and Alan Rickman as the serious English actor.

Though there's nothing bad about this movie, there are some innuendos and some bad language henceforth the PG rating. But not only that I don't think kids will really understand it or even get most of the jokes. More likely teenagers and adults will enjoy this movie much more. I'm most certain by the time you've watched this movie a couple of times, you'll be reciting all of the funny lines from the movie (my family does all of the time!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie = great DVD, love the extras
Review: While this is my first DVD, I have rented a few and this one is fun. Got it for my wife who loves Star Trek - we both like the movie a lot and got a kick out of it. There are extra scenes included and a cool interface. Glad I ordered it. Classic movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very funny and very sweet
Review: Viewed simply as a parody of the "Star Trek" phenomenon, "Galaxy Quest" could be considered the most fiercely exact satire since "This Is Spinal Tap". Everything from the term "questers" to William Shatner's weirdly pompous body language (from wearing a girdle?) makes it into this very well written and acted comedy.

But what makes "Galaxy Quest" such a perennially entertaining movie is the sweetness at its core. The naivete of the "geeks", both terrestrial and alien, is portrayed with affection rather than ridicule - thus embracing the idealistic child inside each of us.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 'Spaceballs' move over!
Review: Wow, a sci-fi spoof that not only pokes fun at sci-fi/space opera shows, but also takes aim at the fans and conventions! It even goes after the actor's love/hate relationships with each other. Much like the original Trek crew's general dislike of William Shatner, the broken-down thespians of "GalaxyQuest" don't particularly care for the attitude of the 'captain' (Tim Allen). Then there's the 'crushy, chompy things' scene that rags on space opera shows' more implausible plot devices & gimmicks used to add suspense to the adventure. There's even a 'Thermian' language track (a very annoying language to listen to after 30 seconds, BTW), which I'm sure is a take-off of the unbelievable popularity of the Klingon tongue; a language that's actually taught at some colleges no less!

Although 'Star Trek' is never mentioned in the movie or 'making of' documentary, its influence can definitely be seen, especially by one who's immersed him/herself in the sci-fi/space opera culture, and has hit a few geek conventions. The con clips of the "Galaxy Quest" show had the exact look and style of the original series episodes. The cardboard bridge, the paper-mache rocks that made up the 'planetbound' scenes- it's all too familiar to the hardcore Trekkie. They even take a shot at the NextGen show, with a (then) twelve-year-old flying the ship a la Wesley Crusher! And the NSEA Protector looks like it could fit right in with any other ship in the UFP's Starfleet. All in all, "Galaxy Quest" is a really good poke at 'Trek's look and style, yet done in a way that also pays tribute to the show and its subsequent space-opera competitors & spin-offs.

I was also amazed by make-up/creature FX designer Stan Winston's work on this flick. Winston combines the various E.T.s' other-worldly 'realism' with a just a smidge of cartoonish Muppet-style silliness to make them look real, yet unreal at the same time. General Sarris and his minions exemplified this look to a T: threateningly deadly, yet yet a tad silly-looking, too. The pig-lizard thingy and the Thermians' 'true' appearances also displayed a neat combo of strange and ridiculous.

As for features & extras, this offering has all that one would pretty much expect from a big-budget digital video release. The picture & sound clarity are top-notch. And of course it's in widescreen so you can see the whole thing without missing what's on the right and left. Then there's the usual theatrical trailer & cast/crew career bios & production notes thrown in. Of course, ther's also those things that aren't always present in every DVD release, such as outtakes, cut scenes, and a secondary dialogue track (the aforementioned Thermian dub). I found most of the cut scenes rather amusing, and I was disappointed that many of them weren't restored to the movie itself. Some of them, however, had incomplete CGI effects, and a few were alternate scenes with different outcomes from what was shown in the movie, which likely made it hard for the DreamWorks powers-that-be to pick & choose between what should be restored and what should not. Oh well...

'Late

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun Movie, a perpetual classic.
Review: This is one of those fun movies that will be popular enough to re-run on cable forever, like "Jaws" and "The Shawshank Redemption". You don't have to be a "Star Trek" fan to catch the in-jokes. Watch Sigourney Weaver's lips when she says "Well SCREW THIS!" Don't know if that was intentional or not, but it is funny.
Plus, hats off the the DVD makers for including one of the most original bonus features ever!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's not Ben Hur but it doesn't have to be.
Review: Sometimes when I write a review and give five stars I pause. After all 5 stars makes a picture equal to THE GODFATHER or GONE WITH THE WIND, and BEN HUR etc. Thus when you have a light film such as GALAXY QUEST I think, "Can I really make this movie equal to them?"

The answer is easy: Most people don't watch movies for artistic merrits (Stop fainting you cultured ones) we watch it to be entertained. This movie is entertaining, in fact if you are not a SCIFI fan you will find it even funnier.

The plot is classic, every American knows somebody who goves a little overborad with their fandom (on any subject.) We joke about the actors who are typecast so we know this movie almost before we see it.

The characters are great, and the performances wonderful. (This is the closest thing to a sympathetic role that Alan Rickman has ever had.) Sam Rockwell almost steals the show with some great lines:
"Didn't you even watch the show?"
They may seem harmless now but in a second the'll turn mean and they'll be thousands of em."
"I'm the crewman who always dies to show the problem is serious!"
Sigorney Weaver however has the best one, when confronted with something she has to do because it was on the show:

"Well I'm not doing it this episode was badly written."

You can't help but smile here. Even the actors must have been tickled by that. She is also a parody of herself in the big chace scene near the end as her front zipper gets lower and lower. It is unclear if it is a parody of that situation on every Sci-Fi series or if it's just to show her clevage which is still attractive at age 50.

In the end Tim Allen and crew of course as humans always do adapt and succeed. It's a fun journey, that actually reminds me of Gilligan's Island, (which of course gets a plug here.) it that its a story of Americans who can make it anywhere.

Its clean, its fun and will bring you up, buy it and watch it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A desert movie.
Review: This is an hilarious movie full of childish and adult humour which makes it ideal for the family. The acting is great and the actors suit the characters perfectly. The dvd has a lot of special features including deleted scenes which are brilliant and is definitely worth buying for. The plot is incredibly funny and falls nothing short of the funniest movie i have ever seen and this is the type of movie you could take to a desert island and watch it over and over, though i don't think it would keep you sane. This is definitely worth watching!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clever Trekkie send-up
Review: Perfect casting and wonderful ensemble performances make this a good, clean and clever send-up of TV has-beens and their fans. As an aging but still somewhat nostalgic post-trekkie, this film really clicked with me. The "stuck in a time-warp" premise as a device to explore the dynamics of leadership, blind faith, dumb luck and circumstance, revealed remarkable depth in what could otherwise have be seen as just another throwaway "Hollywood" comedy. In addition to this movie being a real hoot, the actors display a refreshing depth of feeling and serious attention to their craft in making even the most outrageous characters believable. "Never give up, never surrender" will be etched in my memory for a long, long time. I got pulled into the fun and, as Guy put it best in the movie, "I'm just jazzed to be in the show, man".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An exercise in DVD genius
Review: I'd like to commend the team responsible for the creation of this one-disc DVD package. If it had a filming journal composed by the crew during filming (as Gladiator does) and DTS sound included (as Gladiator does), it would be the best DVD I've ever purchased. As it is, the sheer quality of this DVD is amazing.

First things first: the negatives. You get Dolby 5.1 sound with this edition, but you don't get a Dolby DTS track. However, for those who must have DTS sound there is a separate edition which provides it. Also, there are no alternate language tracks that will be of use to anyone (more on that in a minute).

But what this DVD does have is a great digital transfer, fantastic Dolby 5.1 sound-- and the best extras I've seen on any DVD in a long time.

The Galaxy Quest DVD includes a making-of featurette, production notes, bios on the entire cast, theatrical trailers, TV spots, a novelty audio track (more on that in a minute), and an amusing Easter egg (hint: there is a reason why you must wait thirteen seconds to access the beginning menu). More importantly, you get a slew of deleted scenes that are as entertaining in themselves as some of the full feature's best moments-- a testament to the ability of this excellent ensemble cast.

My personal favorite feature is the "novelty audio track" mentioned earlier. I'm still amazed that the producers had the guts to include it, but this movie is a comedy and including a Thermian audio track (Thermian is the odd squawking-noise language spoken by the aliens in the film), in place of something more conventional like Spanish or French, is very fitting.

As for the movie-- chances are that if you know how to use your computer well enough to read this review, you've seen Galaxy Quest, but if you haven't, then you certainly should. On the one hand it's a jab at the Star Trek phenomenon; on the other hand it's a very clever movie carried to extreme effectiveness by a fantastic ensemble cast. Sigourney Weaver as a ditzy blonde, Alan Rickman with a big rubber thing on his head... and Tony Shalhoub's performance here-- it's all part of some sort of underlying genius that I can't quite put into words except to say that it's funny even when it isn't trying to be, and it's always good. This is one of the few films that I enjoy more each time I see it.

Folks, this DVD is a must-own, and there aren't many of those. Get it now.


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