Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Director(s):	Kyle Newman
Writer(s):	Ernest Cline & Adam F. Goldberg
Starring:	Christopher Marquette • Dan Fogler • Jay Baruchel • Kristen Bell • Sam Huntington • Seth Rogen • William Shatner • Ethan Suplee
Genre:	Comedy
Website:	http://www.fanboys-themovie.com/#/home-page
Release Date:	May 19, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $13.99
Amazon:

Every single Star Wars joke used in Fanboys has been done before. In Fanboys, five friends sneak into the Lucas Ranch for an exclusive look at The Phantom Menace before its release, that’s where the originality ends. Beyond that Fanboys is a poor road trip movie that has neither the devotion to entertain the true Star Wars fans nor the comedic chops to entertain anyone else.

Four friends had the fortunate experience to grow up with Star Wars enriching their lives – in that experience they’re not alone. On a drunken Halloween night, Eric (Sam Huntington), Linus (Chris Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler) and Windows (Jay Baruchel) revisit their childhood scheme of stealing a copy of The Phantom Menace – because waiting is just too painful! Well, it turns out their plan gets a fun kick in the pants when Linus reveals that he won’t be alive to see the film thanks to the cancer that will surely kill him beforehand. Crazier plots have been hatched in the name of fandom, and in this case it’s not the goal but the steps leading there that are the most agonizingly clichéd.

Run-ins with Trekkies, car troubles and male strip shows are but a few of the well-tread obstacles in our protagonists’ path. Only adding to the nauseatingly poor plotting is an internet date gone awry and the romance with a cool yet spunky girl who falls for the goofy, nasally-voiced spazoid. Throw in a bunch of cameos from Sci-Fi legends (William Shatner) or filmmakers who wear their Star Wars fetish on their sleeve (Kevin Smith) and what’s not to like, right? On paper, Fanboys looks like the ultimate film for Star Wars fans.

But it’s not.

I grew up on Star Wars. That’s putting it lightly. I had an encyclopedic collection of Star Wars cards, novels and reference books. I would buy, play and beat any and every video game released under the Star Wars banner. Asking me to watch any of the original Star Wars films was a trial in movie karaoke – but I didn’t need the damned words on the screen, I knew them all. So when the nerds in Fanboys started spurting off Star Wars trivia I thought to myself, “Oooh, this will be fun!” But it wasn’t. The average movie viewer could answer most of the questions posed in the film’s climax. The very nature of the film presents itself as a Star Wars in-crowd project – but it’s so painfully fanboy bourgeois.

From the other angle, that of the simple road trip comedy, the movie fails once again. It uses really generic conventions and even has a painfully obvious group of friends. Windows: the skinny geek searching for love afar when the girl who likes him lives next door. Hutch: the large and in charge friend who’s loud because, hey, that’s funnier. Linus: the “cool” guy of the group who remains calm. Eric: the guy obsessed with being grown up who learns a life lesson about enjoying his youth. Zoe: the hot, spunky femme-geek who bails out the four guys. The characters are two-dimensional cut-outs used in so many films before. Giving it a mild Star Wars twist doesn’t make the film for Star Wars fans; it’s just another attempt to milk a lucrative niche.

But hey, George Lucas does it all the time – why not these guys? Yes, referencing Star Wars is a key ingredient for the pop-savvy movie recipe, but it does require some tact. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s Spaced, most films by Kevin Smith, Spaceballs and countless others have done it well – the good examples are plentiful. Fanboys isn't one of them.

The only redeeming feature of the entire film was the very last line. That was the truest and most accurate point for its entire duration. Disappointment isn’t just a part of the fanboy experience, it’s arguable that it’s one of the formative features. Fanboyism isn’t determined by whether or not you like a film or series – it’s how blindly devoted you remain even after being disappointed. At least Fanboy seems to know that much.

DVD Bonus Features

Whether you value these extra features hinges upon whether you value the film – that’s actually a general rule. The commentary is actually funnier than the film itself in most parts – that doesn’t say much or bode well for the main feature. “Disturbances in the Force: A Series of Webisodes” gives the gang of fans a little bit of one-on-one time with a handycam. They show off their costumes, their trailers and how they learned to strip. In “4 Fanboys & 1 Fangirl” Kyle Newman, the director, gushes about why each actor was perfect for their role. The DVD actually has a healthy supply of extra features, but considering the main feature is such a bust it’s not all that appealing.

Really, my deepest regret for this film is that it sets such a low standard for what this kind of movie should be. It’s hard to say what could have made this film better. Part of me thinks a rewrite of Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg’s script would have gone a long way, but we can’t deny the horrendously annoying cast. Even Kristen Bell manages to grate on the nerves. Fanboy is the worst kind of fan, the kind that’s so blind to the material it loves despite professing its undying love – the kind of fanboy that embarrasses other fans.