Release Date:
Friday, February 6, 2009
Directed by: Kyle Newman
The Skinny: Set in 1998, Fanboys tells the story of lifelong Star Wars obsessives who, upon discovering that one of them is dying of cancer, set out to drive cross country, break into Skywalker Ranch, and steal a rough cut of Phantom Menace.
The Good: To be brutally honest, this movie kind of limps across the screen with all the energy of a Star Wars fan still trying to defend Phantom Menace. Maybe if it had come out before we were all sick to death of everything George Lucas, it might work better. But as it is, it just falls into the white noise of obvious and unoriginal Star Wars parody alongside Robot Chicken and Family Guy. Actually, all the jokes pretty much fall under "head-slappingly obvious."
The Bad: A little background: Fanboys was actually completed a while back, but sat in the Weinstein Company vaults for eons. During that time, it was re-edited and re-tooled into a Frankenmovie—most famously by the ubiquitous Judd Apatow, whose hand is so visible he might as well pop up in the bottom corner of the screen. Fanboys seems to be running on an "Apatow Egg Timer": "Whoa, it's been 3 minutes since we've had a cameo from an Apatow regular. Cue Danny McBride! Get Craig Robinson over here!" How bad is it? Seth Rogan plays TWO CHARACTERS. Also, the movie has no idea if it means to embrace fanboys or ridicule them, so it lands awkwardly in the middle. So…Star Wars and comic books are "cool" but Star Trek is geeky? OK…
Ring the Bell: The movie's lone bright spot is the adorable Kristen Bell. Seriously, she can do no wrong. Her scene with McBride? All we can says is: we concur, Danny.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Honestly, the PG-13 level humor won't get lost on TNT. You can wait.
The Skinny: Set in 1998, Fanboys tells the story of lifelong Star Wars obsessives who, upon discovering that one of them is dying of cancer, set out to drive cross country, break into Skywalker Ranch, and steal a rough cut of Phantom Menace.
The Good: To be brutally honest, this movie kind of limps across the screen with all the energy of a Star Wars fan still trying to defend Phantom Menace. Maybe if it had come out before we were all sick to death of everything George Lucas, it might work better. But as it is, it just falls into the white noise of obvious and unoriginal Star Wars parody alongside Robot Chicken and Family Guy. Actually, all the jokes pretty much fall under "head-slappingly obvious."
The Bad: A little background: Fanboys was actually completed a while back, but sat in the Weinstein Company vaults for eons. During that time, it was re-edited and re-tooled into a Frankenmovie—most famously by the ubiquitous Judd Apatow, whose hand is so visible he might as well pop up in the bottom corner of the screen. Fanboys seems to be running on an "Apatow Egg Timer": "Whoa, it's been 3 minutes since we've had a cameo from an Apatow regular. Cue Danny McBride! Get Craig Robinson over here!" How bad is it? Seth Rogan plays TWO CHARACTERS. Also, the movie has no idea if it means to embrace fanboys or ridicule them, so it lands awkwardly in the middle. So…Star Wars and comic books are "cool" but Star Trek is geeky? OK…
Ring the Bell: The movie's lone bright spot is the adorable Kristen Bell. Seriously, she can do no wrong. Her scene with McBride? All we can says is: we concur, Danny.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Honestly, the PG-13 level humor won't get lost on TNT. You can wait.