Fanboys

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

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.

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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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

"Fanboys" is a movie about, well, fanboys. Four childhood friends make a pact on Halloween night in 1998 to infiltrate the Skywalker Ranch in hopes of catching a rough cut of the long-awaited "Star Wars" prequel, "The Phantom Menace." Together in a geeked-out van, armed with dozens of Rush cassette tapes, they make a cross-country trip where they battle with angry Trekkies ("Star Trek" fans, for the uninitiated), stumble into an "all-male" bar, evade an angry pimp and land in jail, while one of their own attempts to make peace with his fate.

The film was pushed back for so long and re-edited so much (re-shoots were done by hack director Steven Brill, which thankfully were dumped from the final product, as directed by Kyle Newman) that it's easy to let the problems that plagued "Fanboys" overshadow the movie. What the movie delivers, though, is an often hilarious, sometimes sentimental and utterly geeky send-up of geek culture. A valentine to "Star Wars" fans, perhaps, it's a film that pokes fun at its core audience without alienating it. There's a wealth of cameos , too, from the likes of William Shatner, Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes and three (count 'em, three) roles featuring Seth Rogen. If one thing can be said about the film, it's never a bore.

Sure, the road-trip formula has been used many times before, and yes, the film rarely breaks from the expected, but its subplot revolving around a sick friend keeps it from being just some raunchy teen comedy with a geeky twist. "Fanboys" has heart, and combined with a solid young cast and hundreds of "Star Wars" and other nerdy references, makes it a film worth returning to again and again.