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Fanboys Movie Review

I saw Fanboys the movie last Wednesday night.  The film takes place in 1998 and revolves around a group of hardcore Star Wars fan attempting to sneak into Skywalker Ranch to see Episode I before it’s released. Y’know how some movies strike a chord with you?  Well, this movie is about you!  If you are reading this blog, then it’s fairly safe to assume you are a card-carrying geek.  Unless you are a geek that has never seen Star Wars, this movie will make you laugh… a lot.

The dialogue was very sharp and representative of geek-speak.  In fact, some of the bickering between characters could have been taken directly from conversations/arguments I’ve had with my friends at DragonCon.

There was a very impressive list of cameos in the film.  I’m not going to spoil them for you here, but you can watch the trailer or check out IMDB for cameo spoilers.  One of the lead characters in the film is Zoe, played by Kristen Bell.  It seems that every geek has been raving for years about how Kristen Bell is amazing.  Until Fanboys, I’d never really seen her in anything.  Now I can see why geeks everywhere have fallen for her.  She’s got the whole smart/geek/cute package.  Every geek dreams of meeting a Zoe.

Was the movie perfect?  Certainly not.  Was it a fair attempt at a comedy for geeks, made by geeks?  Certainly.  At its core Fanboys is a typical road trip movie, but heavily laced with geeky references and in-jokes.

I can’t help but compare this movie to Free EnterpriseFree Enterprise was a brilliant geek-film about adult Star Trek fans (in which William Shatner appeared); this is a brilliant geek-film about adult Star Wars fans (in which William Shatner appeared).  Both films are an affirmation of everything we hold dear.  When you watch each film, the characters make you feel that you are amongst people who truly understand you.  I think the primary difference between the films is the lead characters in Free Enterprise are fairly cool, whereas the lead characters in Fanboys are socially-inept dorks.  At the end of the day, both films celebrate people like us and will hold a special place in our hearts forever.

Definitely worth your time.

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