Fanboys
February 20, 2009
Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
This comedy, set in 1998, is about a group of Star Wars fans (4 nerdy guys and Kristen Bell) who go on a roadtrip to attempt to steal a pre-release copy of Phantom Menace from the Skywalker Ranch for their dying friend.

Traveling in the one guy’s Star Wars-pimped out van, along the way they have various misadventures, including a rumble with Trekkies in Iowa at a statue commemorating James Kirk’s future birthplace, and a Las Vegas science fiction convention.
There’s a lot of fun cameos from various aspects of fandom, which I’m not going to list here, so as not to spoil it. And it ends with a caper sequence onto George Lucas’s Inner Sanctum.
This is a funny film, affectionate towards nerds (although harsher on Trekkies than Star Warsers…uh, whatever you call Star Wars fans).
And even for the non-fan, it’s funny, the humor doesn’t depend on you being up on How Many Parsecs Han Solo Did The Kessel Run in. But, if you are a fan, there’s a lot to chortle at.

Popularity: 52% [?]
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?




Fanboys opens into wider release today. Here in Atlanta, it’s playing at the Plaza Theatre and at the Regal North Point Market 8. Elsewhere in the U.S., here’s a list from the Fanboys MySpace blog of theaters where it’s playing.
Official website with trailer.
In 1998 I was at a software conference in San Rafael, California, and at the hotel I was staying at, the convention to unveil PHANTOM MENACE toys for retailers like TOYS R US was going on. I couldn’t sneak into that without a badge (I tried a little halfheartedly), but one morning when I walked outside the hotel, this attractive blonde chauffeur woman was standing beside an SUV limo.
“Are you the one I’m supposed to take to the Skywalker Ranch?” she asked.
Stupidly, I said, “Uh… no.” But I always wondered, if I’d said yes, how far I’d have gotten onto the Skywalker Ranch before I was tackled by stormtroopers.
I was trying to think of other fandom movies. I’ve never seen FREE ENTERPRISE, or that documentary TREKKIES. I guess GALAXY QUEST would qualify (which also manages to be the best STAR TREKmovie ever made, and it’s not even a STAR TREK movie).
FANBOYS expands this weekend to 24 cities.
The 11 new regions include:
Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Greensboro NC-H. Point-W. Salem, Indianapolis, Memphis, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Providence RI-New Bedford.
It continues in these 13 cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus Ohio, Denver, Detroit, Hartford/New Haven, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Raleigh-Durham, Washington DC.
Specific theater list can be found on the Star Wars blog.
FANBOYS continues to expand to new theaters.
Here’s the list of theaters for the week of Friday, March 6th, on the STAR WARS blog.
Here’s a list of theaters around the USA showing FANBOYS for the week of Friday, March 13th-Thursday, March 19th.
Friday, March 20th: FANBOYS is in 9 new cities. Theater list from the STAR WARS blog.
Friday March 27th: FANBOYS in 7 new markets (Springfield, MO, Salisbury, Portland-Auburn, Peoria-Bloomington, Monterey-Salinas, Johnstown-Altoona, Flint-Saginaw-Bay City), and continuing in 16 other cities.
List of theaters from the STAR WARS blog.
Friday April 10: FANBOYS in many new U.S. cities: Theater listing from the STAR WARS blog.
Also, some theaters in Canada are showing it now.