In theaters GALAXY QUEST

“Galaxy Quest” does what all good satires do — it rises fully to the level of what it’s skewering. In this case, that leap isn’t exactly Herculean — the film satirizes the “Star Trek” television series and its cast, which, to satirists, is what lambs must be to wolves.

But, as the recent films “Dick” and “Drop Dead Gorgeous” prove, satire isn’t an easy thing to pull off, no matter how juicy the targets. If just the right tone isn’t struck and sustained, if the director and writers don’t understand what made the source material work and what made it fail, all is lost.

In “Quest,” director Dean Parisot and his screenwriters David Howard and Robert Gordon prove they are more than up to the challenge. These men know “Star Trek” and understand what made it an icon: its bad acting, campy dialogue and ridiculous scenarios, all underscored with a great sense of fun.

“Galaxy Quest” features a troupe of has-been television stars not unlike those in the “Star Trek” series. Typecast after their roles in the fictional, 1970s space opera “Galaxy Quest,” these five bitter, middle-aged misfits now earn their living through paid appearances at malls, store openings and “Galaxy Quest” conventions.

There, in their old stage costumes and old stage makeup, they sign autographs for their hundreds of cheering fans. As any fan of the documentary “Trekkies” knows, it’s a life that must be like no other — unwanted celebration for a job all would sooner forget.

But when real aliens come to Earth to seek help from the cast of “Galaxy Quest,” whom they believe to be authentic space commandos, the cast is suddenly given the opportunity to make their lives and their careers truly meaningful. Indeed, when they agree to fly to outerspace and fight for the freedom of an alien race, this cast of characters hilariously comes into its own.

With Tim Allen in a fun, swaggering turn as Capt. Taggart (think Capt. Kirk), Sigourney Weaver perfect as a blonde bombshell, and Alan Rickman biting as the English actor Alexander Dane, “Galaxy Quest” affectionately slams the space genre while also paying high tribute to it. That’s a wise choice in a film that should delight Trekkies — and non-Trekkies — everywhere.

Grade: B+

On video

DETROIT ROCK CITY

Not to KISS and tell, but the new rocksploitation film “Detroit Rock City” is likely to disappoint fans of the rock group KISS. The band appears only in the film’s final moments, but even then we see them only at a distance as they go through the arthritic motions of performing the weakly staged title song.

That their faces are glimpsed only fleetingly is probably a blessing. The film takes place in 1978, when the band still had some spring left in its silvery platforms and used greasepaint only to accentuate their faces, not so much as a putty to fill in the ravines caused by age and lots of hard KISS living.

Still, the film, which is about the travails of four stoned teen-age boys trying to score tickets to a KISS concert, is a rip-off that cheats its audience of that old KISS spirit, not that one should expect much from a movie that exists in a meandering, drug-induced haze.

This is, after all, the sort of film that features a scene in which these four charmers beat up a group of disco fans just to show them who’s who.

As endearing as that sounds, the film does have a surprising residual effect: It actually makes one appreciate the 1978 made-for-NBC movie “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park,” which featured such cultural highlights as lasers shooting out of Ace Frehley’s eyes and flames erupting from Gene Simmons’ mouth. Now the only thing shooting out of Simmons’ mouth is his exhausted tongue, which, after all these years, is still wagging — but why?

Grade: D

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appeareach Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”