Star Wars geeks plot to steal The Phantom Menace from under George Lucas’s nose in Fanboys

Fanboys

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With J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek beaming up big bucks at the box office, Fanboys provides both a perfect antithesis and a companion film. The supremely geeky gross-out comedy follows four Star Wars devotees in 1998, mere months before the release of The Phantom Menace, on a cross-country mission to steal the film from George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch. Along the way, the four awkward anti-heroes experience numerous Harold and Kumar-inspired escapades, constantly diss their counterpart Trekkies and gain several clichéd but valuable bromantic life lessons.

From the soundtrack choices of Spacehog’s “In the Meantime” and Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” to a scene involving Mario Kart 64, the film’s attention to its period-framing details have a nerdily specific meticulousness, which in this case makes spot-on sense. Alongside the quotable quips (“What's Klingon for ‘I'm going to die a virgin’?”), it’s the film’s seemingly unending cameos that provide the most fun. Printing them all here would be a horrific spoiler, but suffice to say that Seth Rogen appears in two roles, several Star Wars and Trek alums poke fun at themselves and even Christopher McDonald (forever remembered as Happy Gilmore’s Shooter McGavin) pops in with a ridiculous moustache and fake tan.

Fanboys’ four stars all successfully embody their socially challenged characters as well, and despite being somewhat one-note and one-dimensional, all feel real. The underrated Jay Baruchel (Undeclared, Tropic Thunder) is always a scene-stealer, and could become Michael Cera’s understudy in the increasingly archetypal soft-spoken shy-guy role. Detroit Rock City’s Sam Huntington is the second most lovable character in the crew, while Dan Fogler’s fired-up, expletive-happy Hutch has some fantastic moments, and Chris Marquette’s Linus is as cuddly as a newborn pup.

The film does have its flaws — a romantic subplot that could have been penned by a 12-year-old, for example — but in the end, Fanboys is obviously not about the story. Like the Rebel Alliance destroying the Death Star, this hilarious and endearing comedy argues that one day the geeks will inherit the universe.