25 Mar 2009

Fanboys

Director: Kyle Newman

Starring: Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Carrie Fisher, Ray Park, Joe Lo Truglio, Danny Trejo, Billy Dee Williams, Seth Rogen, Allie Grant, Christopher McDonald, William Shatner

Release: 2009-03-25

Not particularly funny, Fanboys takes place in 1988 when four Star Wars geeks set out on a cross-country trip to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to try and break into the director's editing room and get a first look at the highly-anticipated Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace.

(In reality, The Phantom Menace would turn out to be a huge disappointment, heralding the less-than-graceful fall of George Lucas.)

The four are Christopher Marquette who is stricken with cancer, Jay Baruchel who is a hardcore computer geek, Sam Huntington who is the most responsible one of all, and Dan Fogler who's just a pain in the butt.

Many of the jokes are second-rate and feel secondhand, as if they were ripped off from various films by Kevin Smith (Clerks), Judd Apatow (Freaks & Geeks) and others of that ilk. Indeed, when Clerks' characters Jay and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes) appear in a cameo, no one in the audience seemed surprised - or cared.
>Fanboys is unlikely to generate any of its own.