Galaxy Quest was... um... okay the thing I liked best about Galaxy Quest was the...

Alright, I saw Galaxy Quest almost a week ago, and under normal circumstances that would have been far too much time elapsed for me to bother writing a review. In this case, however, I have to make an exception.

If you've ever agreed with a movie review that you've seen here, you owe it to yourself to drop whatever you're doing and go and see Galaxy Quest today. The special effects were perfect, the characters were great, and most importantly, the story was better than I ever expected it could have been. I expected this to be one of those Starship Troopers, "Yeah, I know it sucked, but I still saw it four times" kind of experiences. I was pleasantly surprised.

You've seen the preview. It's the old "Group A thinks Group B is something that they are not and hires them to do Activity C, but when the shit hits the fan, Group B proves that they can do Activity C even though they are not trained to, bully for them" script. You know, like Three Amigos in space. Substitute the crew of the NSEA Protector for Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander, punch in a big spider-headed alien in the place of El Guapo, and there you are... right?

Surprisingly, wrong.

Whereas the ants in A Bug's Life just hired circus bugs when they wanted warrior bugs, the alien race that recruits the cast of Galaxy Quest has actually designed their space program around what they picked up from the TV series. It's mistaken identity taken to an unprecedented extreme. Their intense belief in what they see on TV extends so far as to make them develop technology that transforms their squid-like bodies into human form so that they may fully emulate what they saw on the boob tube. They make the kids who tie blankets around their necks and leap out of second story windows after seeing Superman look like slacker underachievers.

Ergo, since the ship was actually painstakingly designed around what was seen on the television show, the cast technically does know how to operate it, if they could only remember how they used to push all the prop buttons on the set. Brilliant! I thought that that made the whole thing so much more plausible than just shoving Daryl Mitchell in front of a big ol' slab of alien technology and believing that he can operate it for no reason other than the movie would be over if he didn't.

I thought that the green nasty aliens in this movie were just really well done. Maybe it's just because I'm used to seeing Deep Space Nine slap a bumpy forehead or a ridged earlobe on a person and expect them to look like an extra-terrestrial, but I thought that those scaly badduns were just unbelievably articulate, especially in the eye and mouth areas. So much so that I honestly couldn't tell if it was elaborate make up, an incredibly elaborate puppet, or just a really ugly actress.

Like I said before, my meager recollective powers aren't doing this review justice, but I do remember this: when the movie was over, the crowd applauded. Say what you will about "Oscar material," you don't get that coming out of The Green Mile.