Release Date: Feb. 6
Writers: Ernest Cline, Adam F. Goldberg, Dan Pulick
Cinematographer: Lukas Ettlin
Starring: Sam Huntington, Christopher Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel
Studio/Run Time: The Weinstein Company/90 mins.
Feature-length inside joke short on laughs, big on heart
It doesn’t necessarily matter that Fanboys, a lukewarm comedy about five Star Wars devotees, has been finished for two years; it would have been outdated on its planned August 2007 release. Generation Y has had to suffer through SW mania for a solid decade and a half, starting when George Lucas cut and pasted CGI alien jazz singers into his original trilogy. The funniest joke presented by the film is that the controversial media mogul once inspired people to devour his work to this obsessive extent. Past that, watching the reenacted glee that we once had for the premiere Sci-Fi franchise before 1999 is like a diabetic remembering her first Pixie Stick.
Fanboysprovides another vanilla entry into the teen road trip comedy canon, following a troop of Jedi-worshipping misfits (including the adorable Kristen Bell) as they travel from rural Ohio to California to break into Skywalker Ranch and preview Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The plot adds a curtailed degree of emotional depth through Linus (Chris Marquette), a cancer patient whose declining state inspires the other characters to grant him one last light saber dual before he passes.
With an experience devoted to mining nostalgia, the writers don’t stop with Jar Jar Binks. Apparently, the ’90s were damn funny, and if you dare forget it, cameos from Chumbawamba, Zima, Menudo and Jason Mewes will be there to remind you at every cut. The rest of the gags don’t innovate past the template of the decade in question, with the teen-comedy renaissance circa American Pie providing as much material as any Han Solo quote.
While the jokes aren’t particularly sharp, the cast adds a lot of heart to making this a poignant experience. Actors Sam Huntington (Eric), Jay Baruchel (Windows), Marquette and Bell form a highly likable group with a natural chemistry for the dorkified subject matter. Watching an impromptu brawl with Star Trek fans might not leave you in stitches, but the congenial awkwardness and emotional resonance from these fanboys make this film a lot stronger with the force than you might expect.