784. Galaxy Quest (1999)

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen, Alan Rickman

Director: Dean Parisot

Running Time: 102 mins

Galaxy Quest is an American film about a group of actors famous for a 1980s sci-fi TV series who are summoned by an alien race under threat of genocide to save them, thrusting their characters from the TV right into real life as they battle aliens across the galaxy.

I was absolutely amazed by this film. Going into it, it struck me as a bit of a cheesy, silly sci-fi movie, but coming out of it, I was stunned by how fantastically hilarious, hugely exciting, well-acted and well-written it actually was.

I just really didn’t expect to have such a blast when I was watching this film, seeing as I’ve never been a huge sci-fi fan, and it had the look of some sort of Mars Attacks!-like parody film where the comedy would be always be more annoying than funny.

But oh how wrong I was. If I could compare this film to anything, I would say Guardians Of The Galaxy, but even that isn’t up to the level of how fun this film is. Of course, having the main characters as normal humans unwittingly thrust into this situation helps to make it an easier watch, while their constant fear and confusion at almost everything throughout is another fantastically funny plot line.

The best plot line of the film, however, is how it takes the mick out of sci-fi shows like Star Trek as well as their fan bases. From criticising how illogical the writing of an episode is in real life to relying on superfans to save the universe, this is a hugely hilarious satire of sci-fi television that has become so popular over the last 50 or so years.

Beyond the brilliant comedy, this film has actually still got a really well-written and exciting story. Yes, it may be a little generic in its overall shape, but the adventures throughout the story are either again so brilliantly satirical or hugely original that it’s almost impossible to not be fully entertained by this fantastic film from start to finish.

Finally, you’ve got to love some of the performances here too. This is by far the best I’ve ever seen from Tim Allen, even though his character is very inconsistent, whilst supporting players Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell and others are all also absolutely hilarious and entertaining to watch weave their way through the ridiculous scenarios in this story, which just helped this to be an even more all-round brilliant film, so that’s why it gets an 8.5 from me.