Four friends: Eric (Sam Huntington),Hutch (Dan Fogler),Windows (Jay Baruchel),and Linus (Chris Marquette) go on the adventure of a lifetime in this road trip movie about "Star Wars" fanboys. The movie takes place months before the release of "Star Wars: Episode 1" and these four friends want to steal a copy of the film before it releases. It's nothing but Star Wars based comedy from beginning to end and it's fantastic.

I'm nowhere near the Star Wars geek level these guys are, yet I enjoyed every joke. If you're a casual Star Wars fan or the Stephen Hawking of Star Wars knowledge, you will enjoy this movie.

*WARNING: Some Trekkies may have been harmed making this film.

Four childhood friends and Star Wars fans decide to go cross-country to steal a copy of 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' before its release from George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Eric (Sam Huntington) is on the cusp of real responsibility with the family car dealership. Windows (Jay Baruchel) has an online fling with a girl who says she has plans to Skywalker Ranch. Linus (Chris Marquette) is really sick and Hutch (Dan Fogler) is the loud-mouth idiot. Zoe (Kristen Bell) is Windows' co-worker at the video store. Seth Rogen plays Admiral Seasholtz, leader of the Trekies, and pimp Roach.

This is definitely best for sci-fi fans. There is a lot of references to Star Wars, Star Trek, and quite frankly various other franchises. The movie just won't work if you don't know any of the references. Of course, there are all sorts of cameos from those series. Not all of the road trip works well. The roadside biker bar isn't that funny. The fight with the Trekkies is much better. When Zoe rejoins the group at the midpoint, she has a lot of fun with the geeks. Probably she should have been the fifth road tripper right from the start. While the constant referencing is funny, sometimes it needs a break to work more on the relationships.

The trailer to "Fanboys" promised far more than this humorous, half-baked homage to George Lucas and the "Star Wars" franchise delivers. Basically, it's an occasionally comedic road trip that four slacker "Star Wars" fanboys (hence, the title)embark upon from Ohio to San Francisco to break and enter George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of the forthcoming "Star Wars: Episode One: The Phantom Menace" before its scheduled release date. Don't get yourself into a lather if you haven't seen Kyle Newman's film. "Fanboys" is barely memorable, sometimes moderately competent, but the action lacks momentum and its many dead spots sink it. None of this serves as a reflection on its good cast.

The cameos by William Shatner, Cassie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and Ray Park sell this low-budget hokum. Unless you consider yourself a zealous "Star Wars" fanatic and considers sacred anything that has the Lucas touch, "Fanboys" qualifies as flatly forgettable. The trivia questions are amusing and the rivalry between the "Star Wars" fans and the "Star Trek" fans is worth a smirk. The Lucas ranch security personnel that dress like the cops in "THX-1138" is a neat in-joke, but the humor stretches itself thin in this 90 minute comedy.

The Fanboys themselves are suitably cast with Dan Folger as Hutch, Sam Huntington as Eric, Jay Baruchel as Windows, and Chris Marquette as Linus in the lead roles. Cute Kristen Bell of "Heroes" plays Window's love interest. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Of course, geeky Windows doesn't have a clue that she is in love with him. The Judd Apatow crew is on hand for much of the movie with Seth Rogen stealing the show at every turn. Of course, Kevin Smith would show up because it is a Weinstein Company release. As Eric's pompous car dealer dad, Christopher MacDonald of "Thelma and Louise" has a few bright moments.

The primary problem with "Fanboys" is the anemic, uninspired Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg screenplay that springs few surprises. The best joke occurs when one of Rogen's characters reveals the Jar Jar Binks tattoo on his back. Ironically, he brags about the Jar Jar tattoo. History showed, however, that he made a mistake because many fans complained so much about Jar Jar that Lucas cut down his role in the later prequel sequels. The next best joke occurs when Hutch crashes his van through a police roadside billboard that resembles Darth Vader's face.

Generally, road pictures that combine the ritual of initiation end on a downbeat note. Yes, one of the quartet of "Fanboys" suffers from a fatal illness, but his passage isn't the depressing part. The depressing part is that I remember many fanboys (of which I am not one) being incredibly upset with "Episode One: The Phantom Menace." Personally, I enjoyed "Episode One." At one point, our heroes have a flat tire and wander in search of a mechanic. They end up in a roadside bar. The scene in the gay redneck bar looked like a rip-off of the blues hall scene from "Adventures in Babysitting." Altogether, "Fanboys" is pretty much a letdown. It's the writing that sinks this movie. Make no mistake, watching this movie is not "Death Star" objective in life.