SVS: “Galaxy Quest”

ALEXANDER DANE: Dear God… How did I come to this?

TOMMY WEBER: Not again…

ALEXANDER DANE: I played Richard III…

FRED KWAN: Five curtain calls…

ALEXANDER DANE: There were five curtain calls! I was an actor once, damn it. Now look at me … LOOK AT ME! I cannot go out there, and I won’t say that stupid line one more time. I can’t … And I won’t.

Remember that time when I said that everyone should watch The Emperor’s New Groove ASAP and that it was the most quoted film in the Susanka household? Well, the first part is still true (and still possible, so get on it!) but I realized that the second part might not be entirely true. Or at least not as true as I thought at the time.

See, I’d sort of forgotten about 1999’s Galaxy Quest, which is streaming on AMAZON PRIME, and also available from GOOGLE PLAY($), YOUTUBE($), SONY($), RED BOX INSTANT($), and VUDU($). (I don’t usually list all the rental options, but if any film is worth the spending of a few bucks to brighten your night, it’s this one.)

The alumni cast of a cult space TV show have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help.

The cast is brilliant, especially Rickman and Rockwell and Shaloub, who I could not pick between if you held a gun to my head. (You’re not doing that, though, right? So I don’t have to pick.) The writing’s fantastic, simultaneously skewering Trekkies/Trekkers and the ever-self-referencing, strangely-fascinating/bizarro world of Sci-Fi TV and showering it with genuine affection. (“I kid because I love,” anyone?) And there are literally pages and pages of quotable moments. (Interestingly, there’s a spoof documentary about the spoof show. That’s pretty “meta” for my tastes, but I get confused easily.)

Scanning through the creative team’s filmographies, I see that director Dean Parisot has worked pretty steadily in the TV world since the film’s release (and I also note the presence of “Northern Exposure” on his resume. Which explains a lot.) Interestingly, it’s the only thing from David Howard — half of the film’s screen-writing team and the fellow who came up with the original story — that has ever been produced. That should not be true.

UPDATE: As of October 1st, this film is also available for streaming on NETFLIX INSTANT! Excuses, you have none.

By Grabthar’s hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!

Attribution(s): Publicity images and movie stills are the property of DreamWorks Studios and other respective production studios and distributors, and are intended for editorial use only.