28 Years Later, The Sci-Fi Movie That Made Joey From Friends A Space Pilot Is Even More Fascinating

Published Sep 20, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.

The 1998 sci-fi movie that brought Friends actor Matt LeBlanc into space turned 28 this year, and is even more striking to look back at with all these years of hindsight on its side. Getting a truly famous role in a movie or show franchise can be both a blessing and a curse, as being most known for a specific kind of role can often lead to either an actor being pigeonholed in said type of role for their career, or to any more varied performances being met with confusion from fans.

Mercifully, though, the opposite can also be true, as finding an actor you know from a very different kind of project in something that's worlds apart levels of different is often an experience that makes watching a specific release feel all the more memorable, so long as the cards land just right.

While audience reception of the movie appears to fluctuate, Joey actor Matt LeBlanc's role in one near three-decade-old sci-fi movie certainly enters into this kind of territory, as seeing an actor most are used to watching in a more grounded sitcom wherein its cast generally sit around in apartments or cafés be flung off into the far reaches of space is interesting to say the least.

Lost In Space Is Even More Interesting To Look Back At Almost 30 Years After Its Release

1998's Lost in Space is a movie that is more and more surreal to revisit the more time passes, as it's easy to forget that the divisively received sci-fi film contained some decidedly famous actors.

This includes Gary Oldman at the top of the movie's billing, as well as William Hurt and, of course, Matt LeBlanc, who played Major Don West, a pilot who finds himself caught up in the events of the movie when the pilot of the spaceship he and the other characters are on is assassinated, requiring him to take over to avoid further catastrophe.

Given Matt LeBlanc's acting legacy is one that's still majorly tied to his role as Joey in Friends, his role in the movie is the most strikingly surreal to witness all these years later, especially for those who've watched significant portions of the famous American sitcom itself. That said, given the story of the Jupiter II and its efforts to make a new home for humanity involves time loops and spider monsters that can alter human beings, there's plenty to keep your attention outside of this too.

Lost In Space's Review Scores Make It Ironically More Fascinating To Revisit

Despite the theoretical promise the story and cast of Lost in Space sets up for the film, it isn't a release that has been received overly well, as evidenced by its Rotten Tomatoes scores, which consist of a 27% Tomatometer score from critics, and a 25% Popcornmeter score from broader audiences, reflecting its across the board reception.

Criticisms of the 1998 Lost in Space movie largely revolve around the perception of it focusing on style over substance when it comes to special effects versus the film's plot, and complaints that it loses much of what made the original 1960s Lost in Space series charm some viewers, though even the original show itself dealt with mixed results, in part due to the strength of other sci-fi releases during this time.

With that said, this reception does in some ways make the 1998 Lost in Space movie all the more intriguing to revisit, especially since the series has had more releases since, including Netflix's Lost in Space reboot in 2018.

This is both from the perspective of being a potential "so bad it's good" watch for those interested in whether the film works for them on this level, and from those curious to see where they land on the various aspects of the movie and how they're pulled off on-screen, since actors like Matt LeBlanc were still praised for their performances in Lost in Space even by many of those who critiqued the rest of its setup and execution.