Review of Fanboys (2009) by Dan A — 13 Oct 2010

In this childish but sometimes fun movie the main four protagonists go on an epic journey to Skywalker Ranch in San Francisco to steal a copy of Star Wars Episode 1 six months before it is released in 1998.

The premise is actually fairly original and has loads of potential but the filmmakers often go for the lowest common denominator with their take at humor. There are plenty of in jokes for diehard Star Wars fans but much too often the jokes seem very forced and unnatural.

There are quite a few pretty spot-on cameos in the film that I appreciated by the likes of Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, William Shatner, Danny Trejo and many others. The best cameo would definately be by Seth Rogen in a dual role that is a super ridiculous side of him that I would have never expected in that he played both a diehard Trekkie leader and a tatted up Las Vegas Pimp.

(For some reason both have over the top messed up teeth.) I would give the movie a better score if it didnt seem so contrived at almost every moment and if it had been more consistently funny. Lastly, the movie ends with the quote "Hey, what if the movie sucks?" spoken by one of the main characters as they are finally going to get to view the movie they have been risking everything to see.

Sadly, I think Kyle Newman, the director, should have asked himself the same question while filming Fanboys.