Give him a big hand, he's British!

1999

". . . as the Shakespearean actor reduced to playing an alien crew member with a crustaceiod forehead, Alan Rickman continues his unbroken string of stealing every movie he's in."

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine, 7 February, 2000

I loved Galaxy Quest, pure and simple. It doesn’t hurt if you were ever a fan of Star Trek in any of its incarnations, as GQ not only parodies ST, it downright skewers it. Starting with the fan convention (yes, those conventions are really like that), through in-jokes about the life expectancy of series extras ("I’m the guy in the series who dies to prove the situation is serious"); from hammy acting to hokey plot devices like air ducts, staged fights and stunt-guy-in-the-rubber-suit monsters, it’s all there. If GQ were nothing more that a spoof, it would still be a wickedly funny movie. What I did not expect to find was an frequently poignant and uplifting film that often reminded me of a modern-day trip to Oz. Occasionally the plot gets a little thin in places, but the actors are obviously enjoying themselves, and they make it easy for us to go along on the ride.

Sigourney Weaver (Gwen DeMarco/ Lt. Tawny Madison) playing against type as the aging blond bombshell who can’t act, and Darryl Mitchell (Tommy Weber/Gwen DeMarco) as the grown-up child actor who really can’t remember a time pre-Galaxy Quest do excellently with rather thankless roles. Tony Shaloub (Fred Kwan/Tech Sergeant Chen) is wonderful as a decidedly non-Asian ("Kwan isn’t even my real name") burned-out stoner with a bad case of the munchies who learns to dare to fail. Sam Rockwell’s (Guy Fleegerman/ Crewman #6) Cowardly Lion impression is spot-on, and wholly believable when he finally finds his own brand of courage. But the two best character stories belong to Tim Allen and Alan Rickman. Allen’s Jason Nesmith/Captain Peter Quincy Taggert is a barely adequate actor, a man whose finest hours occurred when he sat on the bridge of the NSEA Protector. A failure in all other respects, Nesmith loves the conventions and loves the fans who can make him believe he’s still a hero. And it’s Nesmith who, when approached by the Thermians, drags his cast mates in over their heads, looking to somehow be a hero once more.

AR’s (Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus) role is a delight. A classically trained actor who in a moment of (probably financial) weakness accepted the role of fin-headed Mak’Tar warrior/scientist Dr. Lazarus, Dane has grown to hate the banal signature lines that now haunt him. "I played Richard III," he mutters in The Voice. "I was an actor once, dammit; now look at me. Look at me!" Embittered, neurotic, the melancholy Dane (sorry!) is convinced that Galaxy Quest and Jason Nesmith have ruined his life. We’re never really in doubt that both Dane and Nesmith will learn that being a hero comes from within, that Dane can find greatness in Dr. Lazarus, and that it’s only what you tell yourself about yourself that can diminish you. But oh, the journey!

Best movie line? When Dane first sees the Thermian’s fully operational NSEA Protector. "Oh. My God," he whispers. "It’s real." Whew! I got chills. The best scene? Oh, many; but I’m partial to Dane’s scene with Quillek in the barracks. It’s a pivotal scene for Dane, and played with a moving, funny honesty. I also love the final scenes at the convention, where the crew returns to where they started, yet are no longer the same people at all. Things to watch for? Notice the physical proximity of each of the characters to the other. Even when they’re arguing, even when they’re most irritated with each other, they still huddle together, often finding ways to be in physical proximity or contact with each other. Maybe no more than a touch, a hand on the shoulder or the waist, almost without thinking; but I like what that says about the characters and about their relationships.

Movie and Rickmaniac rating? By Grabthar’s hammer (you know I had to fit that in somewhere), 5 hands. No doubt about it.

Fausta thanks Mary for her review

Synopsis and credits

For four years, the crew of the NSEA Protector donned their uniforms and set out on thrilling and often dangerous missions in space--then their series was canceled. Twenty years later, the five stars of the classic '70s series Galaxy Quest are still in costume, making appearances at science fiction conventions for legions of die-hard fans. A group of aliens, however, has mistaken their intercepted TV transmissions for historical documents. They whisk the crew into space to help them in their all-too-real war against a deadly adversary. With no script, no director, and no clue about real space travel, the actors have to turn in the performance of their lives to become the heroes the aliens believe them to be.

The movie stars Tim Allen (Jason Nesmith), Sigourney Weaver (Gwen DeMarco), Alan Rickman (Alexander Dane), Tony Shalhoub (Fred Kwan), Sam Rockwell (Guy Fleegman), Daryl Mitchell (Tommy Webber) and Enrico Colantoni (Mathesar). Academy Award winner Mark Johnson (Rain Man) and Charles Newirth produced the film. Dean Parisot (Home Fries), who won an academy award for his short film The Appointment of Dennis Jennings, directed it. The screenplay is by David Howard and Robert Gordon, from a story by David Howard.

Reviewed by Fausta

27 December, 1999
Overall rating: 5 hands
Rickmaniac rating: 5 hands (or should I say, Danish rating, in honor of Alexander Dane?)

This is the first time I've dragged the whole family to the movies after Christmas dinner. Everybody thanked me: The sci-fi fans loved it, the action adventure fans loved it, we all enjoyed the comedy, and it's been the first movie I've seen since Young Frankenstein where the audience was laughing out loud throughout and applauded at the end.

Then on Sunday other friends wanted to see it so two of us went back, with the advantage that this time we were able to listen to some of the lines we had missed from laughing too hard the first time. On both occasions the film played to an almost-full house.

Those who want their entertainment to carry meaning will find this film a wonderful fable on the power of fantasy and imagination. Everybody will have a fun time. The movie is good action adventure, good science fiction, and good comedy.

The ensemble cast is terrific, with the good aliens getting great sympathy from the audience (little kids left the theater saying "You must save us"). Tony Shalhoub as the anti-Scotty engineer is great. Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman were magnificent in roles that are a (very welcome) departure from their more intense work. Tim Allen and Sam Rockwell were a riot, just like the rest of the cast -- bad guys included.

Rickman fans will adore his great sense of humor in this role as a fine actor who never receives the due credit for his work, and will be greatly pleased by the many scenes where he shines. Those who look for him in sexy garb will instead be pleased by seeing him be such fun. I'm thrilled to see him in a really funny comedy. This is a Rickmaniac must.

Galaxy Quest rocks!

From The Galaxy Quest Press Kit

Another cast member who underwent a unique transformation for his role is Alan Rickman, who stars as Alexander Dane. A self-styled Shakespearean actor, Dane is now forever identified with his series role as the half-humanoid, half-reptilian alien Dr. Lazarus from the planet Tev’Meck.
"Alexander torpedoes his carrer when he took this American television series and became permanently typecast", Parisot notes. "He can never go back to playing Hamlet, so he’s just mortified and depressed every time he has to get in back in that alien makeup."
Tackling his first science fiction film, Rickman relates that he was excited about the project from the moment he read the script. "It’s always a good sign when you keep turning the pages. I kept turning, and I kept laughing. It’s a clever idea, very funny, and really well carried out."
"Alan was the quintessential actor for this role", Newirth says. "he has a Shakespearian background, and as a movie actor, has a knack for comedy, and this part incorporates all of those things. We could not have cast a better actor on the planet – no pun intended".
As the resident alien among the original crew, Rickman spends the entire movie wearin a rubber reptilian-looking headpiece. Working with the artists at Sam Winston Studio, the actor was instrumental in the design of the headpiece, noting, "I thought it was important for it to be good enough to convince the aliens who believe we’re the real thing, but also cheesy enough to imagine that it was something he applied himself."
Rickman also used the uncomfortable headpiece as any method actor would. Parisot recalls, " He wanted it to be so unpleasant and humiliating that he would hate it all the time . . . which he did."