Fanboys

Featuring cameo appearances by Seth Rogen, William Shatner, and Billy Dee Williams, Fanboys follows four friends (Sam Huntington’s Eric, Dan Fogler’s Hutch, Jay Baruchel’s Windows, and Kristen Bell’s Zoe) as they attempt to illicitly gain access to a pre-release print of The Phantom Menace after learning that one of their own (Chris Marquette’s Linus) is dying of cancer – with the journey that ensues ultimately bringing the quintet face-to-face with a myriad of exceedingly quirky figures. Director Kyle Newman has infused Fanboys with a low-rent atmosphere that’s exacerbated by the episodic sensibilities of Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg’s screenplay, with the film’s admittedly promising opening half hour eventually giving way to a hopelessly familiar (and decidedly less-than-hilarious) road-trip movie. The inclusion of several questionable interludes within the narrative (eg the gang inadvertently visits a gay biker bar) ensures that the film really only succeeds in fits and starts, as it becomes increasingly difficult to work up any enthusiasm for the central characters’ ongoing efforts. It’s consequently not surprising to note that the whole thing runs out of steam long before our heroes arrive at the Skywalker Ranch, with the pervasively affable atmosphere and the palpable chemistry between the stars only able to carry the proceedings up to a certain point. The end result is a woefully uneven piece of work that does have its moments, to be sure, yet the various deficiencies within the final product effectively negate its few overtly positive elements.

** out of ****