Fanboys (2009)

director: Kyle Newman

writers: Ernest Cline, Adam F. Goldberg

starring: Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette

genre: Adventure. Comedy







People go overboard with their fanatical loves. But more so than anybody else are Star Wars and Star Trek geeks. Maybe it's all they have and all they ever wanted. Maybe its also because they still want to feel the same way they did when they were young. Fanboys is a film that doesn't try to answer any of the questions about fans but lifts Star Wars as a perfect entity and Star Trek as a Star Wars wannabe.

It all starts on Halloween night year 1997 where Eric Bottler (Sam Huntington) meets up with some old buddies who are all still in too Star Wars on a fanatic level and not moved on with their lives realistically. After Eric finds out that his old best friend Linus (Christopher Marquette) has cancer he makes it his goal to reconnect with old friend. As the only ticket to get closer and feel alive again the once again reunited gang go on a road trip to see the rough cut of Phantom Menace before the film is released. On their adventure the force will be strong as they encounter more geeks, hookers, young geeks and happy bikers.

As cute as the film is its still a mediocre geek film. It was cool in a film like Clerks that you saw these two friends talk about Star Wars in a geeky way and immerse politics into it. That was cool but that was only one scene in the whole film. Here the whole film is the same Star Wars joke after joke after joke. And they are not all good. Letting your film be just that doesn’t make it admirable. It does have laughs, even the Star Trek jokes were ok but not hilarious and not intelligent.

There are still some good jokes that don’t fall short. Many of the good jokes are due too the great cameo appearances of Seth Rogen or William Shatner and many others. They all bring a great flavor but seem like they were shoe horned in. Also lots of Star Wars references from sounds to lines and shots that are all played out pretty well.

The comedy as I’ve mentioned is not spectacular so let me get to the semi-dramatic elements of the story. Their was a big fuss over almost cutted sub-plot of Linus cancer as being the reason to go see the Phantom Menace rough cut. It would have been interesting if this was the tale of friends that will do anything for their loved ones and at the same time have funny encounters. But that doesn’t happen, the way we find out about the cancer is pretty sudden and not talked about or heavily played within the film. Also let’s not forget the other sub-plot of the film were the hot girl geek Zoe played Kristen Bell likes the ugly geek Windows played by Jay Baruchel but he’s such a moron to realize it. Really? Haven’t we seen this all before? Of course we have I saw this in the film "Trojan War" with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

To conclude the film is not a great insight into the geek culture nor what friendship is. It’s just a love testament to George Lucas and I was expecting much more than just that. If you want to see films that have great references to other pop culture affairs I would recommend anything by Kevin Smith and Edgar Wright who know the what’s what of the geek stuff and can make at the same time a entertaining film.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul