Fanboys: One of us! One of us!

Disclaimer: I am a giant Star Wars dork. I swear, George Lucas could do a puppet show and, so long as one of those puppets mentioned the Force or used a lightsaber, I'd see it five times and go out and buy the corresponding action figures. So when a film comes out that not only shows, but celebrates that kind of passion (or blind faith depending on who you talk to) that people like myself have, I am going to definitely check it out. Fanboys is that movie.

The year is 1999 and the world is anxiously awaiting the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But four friends in Ohio just cannot wait to see it, so they hatch a plan to drive cross country to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch home in California and swipe a copy for themselves.

Sounds ridiculous right, even more so if you are not a fanboy and your life doesn't revolve around figuring out things such as why Greedo shot first in the Special Edition of Episode IV (probably lost some of you there, let me get back on point). But to the four friends, Eric, Linus, Windows and Hutch, this is what their lives are composed of. They dress like characters from the Star Wars movies, quote the films constantly and it leads to some awkwardly funny moments as they make their way to California. However it's also cool to hear those guys have some of the same arguements regarding the Holy Trilogy that I myself have been in. This makes the film more endearing to fanboys who are aware of the in - jokes and will shout the answers to the various quizzes that the group faces throughout the film to prove their fanboy-ness. But beyond the typical road trip movie trapping which litered the film, beyond the appearance of Kristen Bell (who played Zoe) in a slave girl Leia outfit (one word, spectacular!), beyond the cameos of Star Wars vets such as Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher and other stars such as William Shatner there was a soul to Fanboys. The film effectively showed how the love of a group of movies and their characters could bring friends together to just geek out and be who they are (unless you're a Trekkie).

Yes, the regular viewer might not like Fanboys because they have no clue as to why grown men and women would get so emotional over Wookies or a small green Jedi Master, and the sight of a Ewok humping a leg during a peynote enduced hallucination might go over their heads but for those of us who live and breathe with everything coming from the mind of George Lucas, it is an ode to the joys of never really growing up and still being able to enjoy adventures that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Grade: B