Nearly ten years after moviegoers stumbled across this great film in theaters, Paramount are releasing a Deluxe Edition of this classic. The film stars Hollywood heavyweights Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman, alongside Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell. The primary plot here is that a television series called Galaxy Quest is living on through its fans (obviously based on Star Trek fans and conventions). The former stars hate that their acting lives have been reduced to simply having been a part of this cult classic sci-fi series but they also make a healthy living off continuing to present those characters at conventions. Everything changes though when a race of aliens show up to kidnap the “crew” so that the Galaxy West alumni can save them from a ruthless warlord. The crew must then figure out how to be “real” heroes and win the day.
As most of us have seen this film numerous times (if you haven’t you should go do it right now), I’ll focus on the Deluxe Edition extras. One of the best extras is a featurette where they fill in the back story of how the fill came to be. It’s really interesting to here everyone talk about how this went from a purchased screenplay of a struggling L.A. writer to a massive movie starring three of the most successful actors in the business. For the initiated, there is also an introduction to each crew members/character that would be fairly helpful to check out before you watch the movie. Additionally there are a couple featurettes focusing on the special effects of the films (suck as creating the Thermians, a race of baby-like, fang ridden alien aggressors, putting the actors in space, and the overall special effects of the movie). The audience for these is likely reserved to those who love special effects. I found them pretty disinteresting but die-hards may find some gems in them. The standard trailers and deleted scenes are also included. There is also a Thermian audo track though that is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy a good laugh, or of you enjoy learning Klingon.
Overall this is great simply for the extras. If you already own this, I’m not convinced there is enough to warrant buying it again. First time buyers should consider this the definitive edition however.
Reviewed by Mark Fisher
