FANBOYS (**) - Starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell, Christopher Marquette, Seth Rogen, Ethan Suplee, Danny McBride, Chris McDonald, Craig Robinson, Will Forte, Billy Dee Williams and William Shatner.
Directed by Kyle Newman.
This movie should have come out about two years ago, and it would have been a mild success, but the very ubergeeks this was aimed at protested the movie when it was leaked that a cancer subplot had been edited out. So the Weinsteins did with it what they have done with dozens of movies over the years: sat on it, dumped it, and then made it an exclusive rental from Blockbuster.
It's about three guys in 1998 who decide to take their fourth friend, dying of cancer, to Skywalker Ranch, to break in and watch Star Wars Episode I before anyone else. (Fifth friend is token female Kristen Bell.) Now the original complaint was that the Weinsteins wanted to edit out the cancer subplot. I think that would have been tricky, and it would've greatly reduced Chris Marquette's screen time, but I don't really know how that edit would've worked. This edit, cancer plot in check, still isn't as funny as it should have been.
There are plenty of fanboy-friendly cameos, from Carrie Fisher to Billy Dee Williams to William Shatner to Ray Park to a few other surprises. (Mark Hamill too busy?) Seth Rogen is most amusing in two roles, as a horribly-toothed Trekkie, and as a Star Wars-loving pimp.
I did find it weird Harry Knowles didn't play himself, and maybe there's a story behind that, but it's inconsequential. I once did an April Fools press release a few years back where I said Ethan Suplee was going to star in a Harry Knowles biopic, and here he was.
No comments:
Post a Comment