Ah, the one gag feature comedy. So common, so
mediocre, so pointless. It seems like every time you check the
listings, there's at least one more of those movies out there
where they stretch 5 minutes worth of funny into 2 hours of crap.
All too often, the plug is made, the stars are secured, and somewhere
down the line the fine points of substance are sloppily drafted
in.
But it doesn't have to be like this! What if a creative team was allowed to take a funny idea and work with it and play off of it and develop it into two hours worth of really clever material?
"Galaxy Quest" is such a movie, wherein the cast of a Star Trek-like show find themselves yanked from the school gym sci-fi convention circuit and thrust into a scenario where the spaceships are real and the aliens are playing for keeps. It is easily the most fruitful application to date of the Tim Allen "smug pompous guy gets cut down to size" formula. Of course, alongside Tim's persona, there's the whole Star Trek mythology, which is an entire universe that could use a real good trim.
This movie addresses many of the pulpy sci-fi mainstays: silly lines, crappy props, absurd set architecture. All the supporting cast resent the lowly secondary cliches they suddenly find themselves living out. The bit appearence "crew #6" guy is especially unhappy because his character typically vanishes in 10 seconds and is never heard from again! And don't forget those hardcore trekkie trivia fanatics. Plenty laughable in real life, they do not escape the movie's piercing gaze.
Believe it or not, for excitement value, Galaxy Quest actually surpasses a lot of the material it spoofs. The writing is clever enough that it backs up the premise with a lot less suspension of disbelief than you would expect. Interestingly, this comedy reconciles it's reality gaps better than most of the serious sci-fi movies do! The special effects are exceptionally sharp, and they serve an important comedic function. The more vivid and intimidating the real space world becomes, the more the gang realizes that they're a long way from that school gymnasium.
And after all, it's really about the laughs. The film delivers what you want to expect from a good lowbrow comedy: 2 hours of hard-won snickering. (In a vague but wicked jab at the Tellytubbies, I almost hit the floor; that moment alone was more than worth the price of admission.)
Tim Allen is fun as the same character he plays in all his other movies. It works well enough without trying to do a Shatner imitation. Sigourney Weaver eschews all the masculine toughness she spent 20 years refining with her serious sci-fi output, and plays more of a straight ahead ditzy blonde with big boobs. Poor Allan Rickman goes through the whole movie with an omelette glued to his head. The good "real" aliens are more than a little amusing with their truly bizarre speech and motion patterns. They are much more credible as aliens than the typical B movie actor with a bad makeup job.
It's nice to see that the "Ken doll" Holywood movie moguls can occasionally allow a big mainstream comedy project to turn out smart, sharp, and (heaven forbid) funny. Jeff sais: more movies like this one, please!!