Fanboys

This was shown today at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

I truly loved it, totally unexpected, as I knew very little about the film. Someone today mentioned a February release, but they also said that was not confirmed, so take that date only as a possible.

I can say that I think you wont be disappointed, it hits a lot of notes, none of them bad. Lots of actors I've never seen before, their interaction was natural, it felt like their relationships were real.

There was a good sized crowd, so it seems there was a lot of interest here at the film festival, and everyone applauded at the end.

Kate

If you're a geek this movie is for you. If you're a Star Wars geek this movie totally is for you. Basically it's a movie about Star Wars geeks made by Star Wars geeks for a target audience of Star Wars geeks. If you are not into all things Star Wars this movie may well miss the mark with you. And even the most rabid of Star Wars fans would have to concede that the movie is certainly not anything spectacular. It's fairly charming and reasonably amusing but never really riotously funny. But it works. More or less.

The movie is set in the autumn of 1998, a time before Jar Jar Binks had been foisted upon the world. Four friends, major Star Wars geeks all, decide to drive across the country, break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut of The Phantom Menace. The major motivation for this journey is that one of the friends has cancer and will not live to see the movie released. But once that is established the cancer storyline is basically put on the back burner and this turns into a mostly predictable wacky road-trip comedy. Some of the wackiness works, some of it falls flat. There are a bunch of celebrity cameos thrown in, some of which are inspired and some of which are rather random and pointless. So it's a movie which has its ups and downs. But it's enjoyable more often than not and the movie breezes by in a nice, tight, well-paced 90 minutes.

None of the actors playing our gang of four really stand out in any memorable way. Dan Fogler's character is a little more outrageous than the others but that's about it. But the group works together well and they are ably supported by the varied cast of characters who pop up throughout. Seth Rogen's portrayal of a pimp is one of the standouts. Of course this ode to Star Wars fans wouldn't be complete without taking some shots at Trekkies. So there's room for another funny turn by an actor portraying Admiral Seasholtz, an uber-Trekkie. Who is the unrecognizable actor memorably bringing this character to life? You may have to wait until the closing credits roll to figure it out. And in this Star Wars geek universe there's room for one girl and Kristen Bell is both charming and funny in the role as her character gets swept along for the ride. Could the movie be a little more consistently funny? Most definitely. But the movie about Star Wars geeks will probably leave you with a smile on your face. Especially if you're a Star Wars geek yourself.

Four childhood friends and Star Wars fans decide to go cross-country to steal a copy of 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' before its release from George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Eric (Sam Huntington) is on the cusp of real responsibility with the family car dealership. Windows (Jay Baruchel) has an online fling with a girl who says she has plans to Skywalker Ranch. Linus (Chris Marquette) is really sick and Hutch (Dan Fogler) is the loud-mouth idiot. Zoe (Kristen Bell) is Windows' co-worker at the video store. Seth Rogen plays Admiral Seasholtz, leader of the Trekies, and pimp Roach.

This is definitely best for sci-fi fans. There is a lot of references to Star Wars, Star Trek, and quite frankly various other franchises. The movie just won't work if you don't know any of the references. Of course, there are all sorts of cameos from those series. Not all of the road trip works well. The roadside biker bar isn't that funny. The fight with the Trekkies is much better. When Zoe rejoins the group at the midpoint, she has a lot of fun with the geeks. Probably she should have been the fifth road tripper right from the start. While the constant referencing is funny, sometimes it needs a break to work more on the relationships.

A surprisingly funny movie about a group of geeks who set off on a mission to break into Skywalker Ranch and view a print of the as-yet-unreleased latest installment in the "Star Wars" saga, "The Phantom Menace."

This is a road trip comedy of the fairly standard variety, with trips to jail and Vegas, some drug use, some Internet hookups and some prostitutes thrown in for good measure. The film looks like it was made for about $20 and certainly doesn't break any new ground. But the cast of actors is game and look like they're having a ball -- there's an especially hilarious sequence that features Seth Rogen in disguise as leader of an army of rival Trekkies. I can't really imagine anyone who doesn't have a pretty thorough knowledge of "Star Wars" trivia enjoying this film, because virtually every shot and line includes some sort of reference to the George Lucas series. But since I'm a "Star Wars" fan, I thought it was a hoot.

Grade: A

An easy way to measure how much you will or won't enjoy "Fanboys" is how closely you fit to the titular category. The more of a Star Wars fan you are and the more your gender and maturity is on par with 'boy,' the more you'll like this ode to Star Wars fans.

The premise of this film is excellent: In 1998, six months before the scheduled release of "Star Wars Episode I" a group of fanboy friends in their 20-somethings road trip to Skywalker Ranch to try and steal a rough cut of the movie because one of them has a terminal illness and won't live to see the release. The execution, however, is spotty.

The movie is a Star Wars-themed version of "Road Trip," with the guys heading across America in a van and stopping along the way solely to buy some time before they get to the ranch. My guess would be that Ernest Cline and Dan Pulick are fanboys themselves who came up with the premise of stealing Episode I and then had to find a way to actually make it work. Therefore, the guys stop off in Iowa where the character of Captain Kirk from the Star Trek franchise was born to antagonize some Trekkies, they get caught at a gay biker bar and they have to go to Las Vegas to get security clearance to the ranch from an insider.

The main character and the story are not all that strong, but the small tributes, spoofs and cameos all related to the Star Wars universe is what makes "Fanboys" entertaining. Therefore, the more you know Star Wars -- things like thermal detonators and that Chewbacca is from Kashik -- the more you love "Fanboys."

In addition to appearances from a few notable actors from the Star Wars franchise, director Kyle Newman does some nice homages to Lucas and obviously Star Wars. The infamous side wipes that Lucas uses to transition in those movies appear a couple times and the security at the ranch resemble the ones from THX 1138, one of Lucas' first movies (although that might just be the truth, who knows). The writing also does this too including famous quotes when appropriate and even the movie's funniest scene when the gang ends up in George Lucas' trash compactor.

Other cameos include Seth Rogen, Billy Dee Williams, and Kevin Smith, to name a few without spoiling one of the film's few excellent aspects. Stars Sam Huntington ("Superman Returns"), the rotund Dan Fogler ("Balls of Fury"), Jay Baruchel ("Knocked Up") and Chris Marquette ("The Girl Next Door") are all average, though mostly because their characters are written sloppy.

Bottom line is "Fanboys" states in title alone exactly who it's intended for. I don't know why Harvey Weinstein would fight to try and make this something that would appeal to the masses only to let it come out without making a peep. If Star Wars is going to be the focus of a movie, there's one segment of the population that will like it, no matter what you do. Fortunately, for those fans, "Fanboys" is good. ~Steven C

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