Movie Review
Fanboys
Rating: 3.5 stars
Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson

"Coming To Our Galaxy in 2007," were the words originally indicating the release date of Fanboys, a comedy from the Weinstein Company that pokes fun at the highly obsessive, Star Wars fan anticipation of the release of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. But perhaps it was fate. Perhaps this film is better suited for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the release of Episode 1 later this year. But more practical reasons state that it was simply years of tinkering that have kept this film from theatres. It’s only out now thanks to the pressure of a fed up public, along the probable rationalization that what they had in the first place was all they were going to get from the project anyway. Or maybe it’s a Star Wars a miracle.

The film is about four friends that plan the ultimate geek heist set in the Fall of 1998: pinch a copy of the Episode 1 rough cut from Skywalker Ranch. The reason is that one of the foursome, Linus (Chris Marquette) is dying of cancer and won’t live to see the premiere of the film the following May. The whole cancer thing was the main point of contention that the studio apparently had about the movie. I guess you can’t enjoy a movie about stealing ridiculous sci-fi films, and the clash of the titans like fervour between Star Trek and Star Wars fans, with the Big C hanging out there. What’s weird is I have no idea what the other catalyst for the film might have been. Are you going to risk the wrath of Lucasfilm just because? I don’t think so.

The other thing that struck me concerned the aforementioned animosity between the film’s duelling fanbases. First of all, I’ve never been privy to what can only be described as a Trekkie/Star Warrior cat fight, at least not in the real world. You see, both fan communities are able to live side-by-side; there’s even some crossover between the groups like a big Venn diagram of sci-fi celebration. But that’s not what I was really thinking about, and oddly enough, the movie theatre gave me the thought in the first place. They rolled the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Trek before the film, and it made me realize that the poles have shifted. Once the paragon of cool space operatic action, the prequel trilogy made Star Wars very lame, and now everyone’s looking at Trek with eager eyes.

But any film that features a big, nerd fight at the future site of the birth place of Enterprise Captain Kames T. Kirk definitely ranks in my books, especially when the chief nerd is Seth Rogen in buck teeth. Aside from Marquette and Rogen, who actually plays multiple parts, the cast is made of several young actors of varying degrees of recognition. The realistic and practical leader of the group is Eric, who’s Dante Hicks like griping about having to be at work wanes quickly. Dan Fogler gets a lot of the good lines like the classic, “Nobody calls Han Solo a dirtbag!” Jay Baruchel rounds out the fan-tastic four as Windows, the biggest nerd of all who’s utterly oblivious to the affections of Zoe (Kristen Bell), the perfect girl because she’s both cute and like’s Star Wars.

But Fanboys is designed to be rewarding like that. It’s as obsessive about fan culture as the fans are themselves, and director Kyle Newman fills the movie with little Easter Eggs and asides that will make multiple viewings not just advisory, but necessary. The film works because of the charisma of the actors and the insular, geekish appeal of the story, which, admittedly, probably doesn’t translate to the reviewers of a more advanced age. It’s nerds-ploitation of the finest kind, and if there’s anything immediately off about the film it’s that it’s been cut up and stitched back together so many times that the sutures are showing. But the fact that this movie came out of three years of post-production with any personality at all is something of a minor miracle, and by my count that’s two miracles for Fanboys, It’s too bad fate couldn’t follow through on the hat trick and get this seen by a wider audience.