Tim Allen is Jason Nesbitt, aka Commander Peter Quincy Taggart on the former sci-fi hit "Galaxy Quest."  His crew consists of actress Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) as Lt. Tawny Madison, thespian Sir Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) as Dr. Lazarus, actor Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) as Tech Sgt. Chen, former child star Tommy Webber (Darryl Mitchell) as Lt. Laredo, and actor Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell) as Crewmember #6.  Their current mission:  dealing with the frustrations of sci-fi conventions, the aggravations of fans who can't seem to distinguish fantasy from reality, their own volatile natures toward each other, and that pesky problem of being recruited to fight in a real galactic war across the stars.  There is this race of peace loving aliens called Thermians who have evolved their entire society and being around the Galaxy Quest TV show.  They have come to Earth to recruit the crew of the Protector to defeat warlord Sarris, a tyrant bent on the destruction of the Thermians.

First of all, I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this movie.  I love how it imitates the circumstances of another sci-fi TV show (who shall remain nameless, for now), complete with cast members having 'conflicts', a star with a serious ego, and the drudgery of being mobbed at every sci-fi convention.  This movie parallels 'that other show' almost perfectly. The counterbalance in this movie is actor Tim Allen.  This is not one of his best comedic performances, in my opinion.  His characters--all of them--seem lackluster and unnatural.  The scene when he overhears the kids making fun of him at the convention is supposed to draw some form of sympathy--it does not.  The supposed-to-funny scene of him being chased by the rock monster--a waste of time.  The heroic scene of him acting like a true leader on the Protector--*yawn*.  I gained more of a good time from this movie from Tech Sgt. Chen (Shalhoub) than anyone else.  One of the running gags throughout this movie was the condition of Tawny's (Weaver) uniform as the movie progressed.  I also enjoyed Dr. Lazarus' performance (Rickman), both as character and as actor in this movie.  His threatening of one of the convention fans was funny.

If you're a diehard Tim Allen fan, you will like this movie.  However, you want to see some of his better work, check out "For Richer or for Poorer, and "Jungle 2 Jungle."  "Galaxy Quest"--rent it if you want to check it out, save your money if you want to buy it.

by:  Zero

Our final take on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being best)