I had made plans with some coworkers at both the Office, and the Bookstore, to meet up Saturday to see Fanboys. For various reasons, we planned on meeting up for the 11:50am showing. This marks the last time I try to see if anyone is interested in doing anything after-work, because out of the ten or so people who expressed interest, some of whom said they would without fail be present, yep, you guessed it, I was the only one who went. Fuckers. (Brian? Fahad? Hurley? Jim? Ya'll are fuckers, fuckers.)
In fact, I was the only person who went to see that movie at that time. Not only was I the only person in the theater, I was hanging around the entrance for ten minutes before they even turned on the house lights in that theater.
I can actually tell you something about the Union Station movie theater: yesterday was the first time in seventeen years I've seen a film there: A League of Their Own, in 1992, with my sister and my folks. I remember expecting to hate it -- I was all of 13? 14? -- and, yet, it's still one of my favorite movies. The whole place is a bit more pastel than I remembered, the walls are chipped up a bit: it's actually pretty cool, in a "well worn" manner. The individual theaters are a lot nicer than I thought they'd be: nice leather seating, well maintained, very very pretty.
Anyway ... onto the movie.
Great. It was great.
Okay, it wasn't great. It was pretty stupid. But it hit my proverbial G spot, over, and over, and over again. That's G for Geek, by the way, and this is certainly a film I'll want to see again, and again. Especially the Kristen Bell as Slave Leia part. From the opening crawl -- with its WTF and "Sent from my iPhone" -- to the Star Trek nerds in Iowa, to Bill Shatner's cameo, and to the THX troopers providing security at Skywalker Ranch -- this film was just, really, a joy.
Set in late 1998, Fanboys follows four friends who decide to break into Skywalker Ranch so their dying friend can see The Phantom Menace, as he'll be dead by the time the movie premiers. Along the way, various adventures occur, including: beating up Trekkers, whoring it up in Vegas, and spending time in the slammer. Er, also, they get their asses pounded by Harry Knowles. Not literally, although literally yes (almost) when they start acting all tough in a gay bar.
Aside from Kristen Bell's oft mentioned Leia costume, I had a hard time determining a second favorite moment. Seth Rogan as a geeked-out Trekkie Admiral, mourning the destruction of a Kirk/Khan statue, screams "KHAAAAAN!" to the heavens, while pausing only long enough to take a whiff from his inhaler (this, after an argument about health-care between the Star Trek and Star Wars universes). Or maybe a tattooed pimp -- also, Seth Rogan -- pausing long enough from his pursuit of two of our heroes for non-payment to take issue with his own Trekkie-played-character for asserting that "Han Solo is a bitch."
It's a great little funny film, and I think it has appeal to more than just uber-obsessed Star Wars dorks. One of the characters, Sam, is a car-salesman, whose brother (David Denman, best remembered by me as the deaf football player in The Replacements) mocks Sam's fanboy friends, but defends his brother at TPM's opening, telling his bro: "It's the Wars, man!" And the point is, everybody loves The Wars.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I'm sorry, you kinda lost me after the 'Kristen Bell in slave girl outfit' bit. I need to see this film immediately.
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
Next on the list after watchmen, just on the 1st ten words.
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
I heard that Kristen Bell has some kind of part or scene or something in it. What was it about? Anything special?