Movie Review
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This Week's PCR Movie Review |
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"Fanboys"
Movie review by: Movies are rated 0 to 4 stars
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| MOVIE REVIEW "Fanboys" by Mike Smith | |||
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In 1983, a friend of mine in Kansas City was robbed at his theatre. The culprits took only one thing: the print of “Return of the Jedi.”
Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “Fanboy” as such:
Pronunciation: \ FAN-boi \
Function: noun
Date: 1919
Results
a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)
And while I find it hard to believe this word was coined in 1919 (can’t see many fans of Charlie Chaplin referring to themselves in this way), I am proud to say that I have been a fanboy since I was 16. Yes, I go to the conventions (though I do draw the line at dressing up), I waited in line three hours to make sure I saw “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” on opening night and I even write for a website with the catchy name CrazedFanboy.com. That being said, it is safe to say that I was looking forward to the film “Fanboys.” And I wasn’t disappointed.
Linus (Marquette), Hutch (Fogler) and Windows (Jay Baruchel) are psyched. What’s got them so excited? “Star Wars: Episode One” opens soon. Actually, it opens in 199 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes and 3 seconds. Let’s suffice it to say that they’re looking forward to opening day. At a friends’ costume party they run into Eric (Huntington), a friend from high school who was once one of them. Today Eric works at his fathers’ (Christopher McDonald) car dealership. He has put aside his dreams of creating his own comics with Linus to sell cars to please his father. When he learns Linus is terminally ill he devises a plan to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of the film so Linus can see it before he dies.
A film that will definitely appeal to the fanboy in everyone, “Fanboys” manages to take a simple plot and sustain it hilariously for ninety minutes. The film is similar to the film “Free Enterprise,” which not only included various throw away lines and references to other films but also features a great cameo by William Shatner. Other cameos include Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Seth Rogen and Ethan Suplee, who plays the king of all fanboys, Harry Knowles. The young cast of unknowns (of the main quartet, Huntington, who played Jimmy Olsen in “Superman Returns,” is probably best known), is first rate, with Fogler stealing the film as a less handsome Jack Black-type who gets angry every time he’s reminded he lives in his mother’s garage…he prefers to call it the “carriage house.” The humor is fast and furious, especially the ingrained hatred between fans of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” A meeting between the two factions in Riverside, Iowa (the assumed birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk) turns into an insult filled brawl. And kudos to George Lucas, who apparently does have a sense of humor. Skywalker Ranch is portrayed as a heavily guarded fortress where the security team are all dressed like the futuristic cops from Lucas’ first film, “THX 1138.”
As for the Kansas City film thieves, to my knowledge they were never caught. However, you can bet they were probably “Star Trek” fans. As a fan of both “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” I must ask; can’t we all just get along?
On a scale of zero to four stars I give “Fanboys” 
This week's movie review of "Fanboys" is ©2009 by Michael A. Smith. All graphics this page are creations of Nolan B. Canova, ©2009, all rights reserved. All contents of "Nolan's Pop Culture Review" are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
