Fanboys

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A hilariously spry effort from an equally unpromising premise.

NPR Bob Mondello

You'd think the weakest link in Fanboys would be that it's all in-jokes, but they're actually not so "in" that a casual fan won't get them.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Unfortunately, while Fanboys has moments of success, it is mostly a middling road picture that doesn't do a lot more than any average, forgettable entry into the tired genre.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Delayed a couple of years, shown to fans at conventions and retooled, Fanboys is an uneven and largely predictable adventure, but it has its moments.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

At times, Fanboys is every rowdy low-budget '80s road movie you've ever seen on Cinemax at 2 in the morning. What keeps the movie near, if not actually in, hyperdrive is its love of deep-dish geek culture and a gaggle of cameo appearances.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The most appealing aspect of the movie is that the guys and gal at the center of it don't just love the Star Wars saga for its own sake. They love the way they feel about each other when they're escaping into its universe and sharing all the wonder and the trivia.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Mildly cute, mildly drooly, majorly too late spoof/homage.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

For its amusing premise, Fanboys is scarily flat.

Los Angeles Times Sam Adams

Fanboys doesn't have a fan's obsessive attention to detail, or the giddy geekiness that can make Tarantino's movies both thrilling and trying. It's not nearly nerdy enough.

Variety Peter Debruge

End result feels like an uneven cross between an amateur "Project Greenlight" pic and such recent comedies as "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express," in which indie directors brought a certain edge to material that might once have felt more at home under the National Lampoon label.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

A genial, sloppy, minor affair, offering a smidgen of inside baseball, which includes a gag at the expense of the forgotten, late '80s Lucas-produced epic "Willow."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Fanboys has a lot of talent in its margins, including Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen, and other usual suspects.

The New York Times Neil Genzlinger

There are enough good jokes in Fanboys, a road comedy about geeks on a "Star Wars"-related quest, to satisfy hard-core fans of that George Lucas franchise. But the film doesn't have the boosters, or thrusters, or whatever, to elevate it to more ambitious heights; it's weighed down by tired conventions and a general sense of having missed its moment.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It comes as no surprise that the film is less about fandom as it is about the community fans create with one another – who else to turn to when the object of your affection, your enduring obsession, blows big chunks? – and Fanboys, a likable, shaggy picture, pays nice tribute to that community.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A lame comic tribute to the dwindling band of "Star Wars" aficionados, is one of those be nighted projects whose back story turns out to be significantly more compelling than the movie itself.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

I love that fanboys fought for Fanboys. Unfortunately, their passion was misplaced.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Turns out a movie about an infatuated bunch of Star Wars nerds can really set your teeth on edge.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Fanboys, directed by Kyle Newman, doesn't delve into the mania of fandom, it exploits it.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Given how insultingly fanboys are portrayed, even the fan base could be put off.

Washington Post Mike Mayo

The result has a cobbled-together feeling. The Force is not strong with this one.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Its primary flaw is that it's not critical. It is a celebration of an idiotic lifestyle, and I don't think it knows it.

Premiere Patrick Parker

It's tough to get through because it's so slow; the beautiful Kristen Bell, who we love in almost everything, doesn't fit in with a bunch of nerds.

San Francisco Chronicle Reyhan Harmanci

Uninspired and only faintly funny.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

The one genuine bright spot among the performers is Kristen Bell as Windows's would-be girlfriend, his dream combination of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Janeane Garofalo.