Fanboys Review

FanboysFanboys is a gentle comedy set in 1998 about a group of devoted Star Wars fans who decide to try and steal the latest cut of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace so they can watch it before the official release. They run into some Trekkies along the way, meet William Shatner and eventually make it to the Skywalker Ranch. This is mildly amusing in places with some comical references but for the most part it is just another tired comedy road trip movie.

We open with a typical gang of overgrown kids in their twenties who are still obsessed with Star Wars and struggling to leave their childhood behind. The sensible one of the group, Eric has gotten a soulless job with his dad selling used cars. The geekiest pair, Hutch and Windows, are still working in a comic book store and Hutch lives in his parents garage. When it transpires that their friend Linus has terminal cancer they decide to fulfil a childhood dream and take a road trip cross country to steal the new Star Wars film.

For fans of the series there are some great references, in fact they provide the majority of the laughs. If you never got into Star Wars then you should probably give this a miss. Personally I found myself getting an alarming number of the references and it did make me chuckle a fair bit. There is also a great showdown between our fanboy heroes and a group of Trekkies which develops into a pathetic nerd fight.

The film has a number of cameos and was obviously well received by the Hollywood establishment. Lucas even allowed them to use official Star Wars sound effects because he enjoyed the advanced screening he was treated to. Kevin Smith also liked the film and asked for a cameo which they quickly shot and added. The biggest guest appearance is by William Shatner who helps the fanboys to break into Skywalker Ranch and get their hands on the movie.

The film plays like out like a typical road trip movie and the friends go on a physical and emotional journey which is thoroughly predictable. There are also elements of the humour, like the romance between Zoe and Windows which just don’t work. The pacing is off at times and it feels a bit disjointed. The script veers between schmaltz and cheese and some genuinely funny gags and it was apparently reworked quite a bit with two different versions of the movie initially being screened.

The cast are all decent and they do a convincing job. Dan Fogler is definitely the pick of the bunch and not only does he look the part but he acts it better than his colleagues as well. Kristen Bell was less believable as Zoe and the other guys were just bland and forgettable. Their parts could have been played by anyone.

Fanboys was fun and it made me laugh a few times but then as a kid I harboured a pretty serious Star Wars obsession. For me it ended when the awful Episode 1 hit cinema screens. Fanboys handles that issue quite nicely but obviously stopped short of incurring the wrath of Lucas. It is far from brilliant but if you want a gentle comedy to relax with you could do a lot worse than this.