If you’re a guy who lives in your parent’s basement, writes a movie blog, even vaguely resembles the Comic Book Store Guy’s tumescent mien, and have actually watched one of the Star Wars prequels in the last five years by choice, chances are you’ll probably enjoy Kyle Newman’s long-delayed (and for good reason) Fanboys… If you’re an adult, who refuses (or better yet forgets how) to quote episodes of The Simpsons, chances are you won’t.
That’s 75 of the 165 words The Playlist devotes to reviewing Fanboys, in a post appropriately titled ‘Fanboys’… Whatever.
It makes a certain kind of sense that *I* never bothered to see this film (although we did cover its Kevin Spacey-presented screening at Comic-Con last summer) and forgot it was even coming out this week. But I wonder if even the target audience alluded to in that pullquote is still desperate (if they ever were) to see this thing? After all the rigamarole with the Weinsteins and the cancer subplot, and literal years of chatter about it online, is it possible that Fanboys peaked long before it was released?
Kevin Spacey was on hand to introduce the movie he produced two years ago, and which has become the film that won’t come out, and the movie that wouldn’t die. Spacey joked during the introduction, “I’d like to welcome you to our third annual Comic-Con screening… and wait until you see what we have for you next year! More footage! Then we’ll have a DVD release with more extras! And then… we’re going to series!”
It ain’t too far from the truth. This little movie about friends who take a roadtrip from Ohio to Skywalker Ranch in Northern California in order to steal a copy of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace for their friend who is dying of cancer has had two major bonuses that have turned into setbacks. First, George Lucas saw the movie, basically gave his blessing to the film and offered up the chance to use actual Star Wars sound effects. Then the filmmakers got more money, and decided to add some scenes which required reshoots. However, the actors weren’t available, so that affected the setback even more.
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