That was a hell of a thing.

Rachel wanted to watch a movie the other night. To my delight, she suggested one of my favorites, Galaxy Quest. She had seen it years ago but remembered very little. Since she's been exposed to some Star Trek over the past year, most notably the current summer Blockbuster, she wanted to watch it.

What a fantastically fun movie.

The film is about a group of actors who starred on a cheesy science fiction show nearly 20 years before (a la Star Trek) and they're basically living off their appearances at science fiction conventions. A group of aliens who have been watching the shows, thinking they're historical records, come to Earth to enlist the "crew" to save them from a very nasty bad guy who is destroying their people. And hilarity ensues!

First of all, the cast is amazing for what could have been a low budget Trek satire. Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Allen at his best, Tony Shaloub, and the awesome Sam Rockwell. They work together well with a tight script that knows the conventions of Trek and its brethren and breathes satirical life into the cliches.

What's even more amazing is the group who play the odd, Pakledish, Thermian crew come off as much more sympathetic, sophisticated and heroic than they have any right to. Of course Missi Pyle, Rainn Wilson, Patrick Breen, Jed Rees and the great Enrico Colantoni, who invented the Thermian's odd speech patterns, as their leader, Mathesar, just knock this one out of the park.

The movie is so good, the biggest laugh line in the whole thing is the completely unexpected, "Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!" It makes me laugh just thinking about it. And then there's Tony Shaloub's laid-back chief engineer, Fred Kwan, "Hey guys, I just wanted you to know that, the reactors won't take it; the ship is breaking apart and all that... Just FYI."

If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's great. I'm tempted to go watch it again right now.

For a great review that gets everything just right, check this out.

I'll leave you with this dialogue, as Tim Allen's character (Jason Nesmith) fights a giant rock monster while the rest of the crew advise him over the communicator.

Alexander Dane: You're just going to have to kill it.
Jason Nesmith: Kill it? Well, I'm open to any suggestions.
Tommy Webber: Go for the eyes, like in episode 22!
Jason Nesmith: He doesn't have any eyes, Tommy!
Tommy Webber: Go for the mouth, then, the throat, his vulnerable spots!
Jason Nesmith: It's a rock! It doesn't have any vulnerable spots!
Guy Fleegman: I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?