Four friends and die-hard Star Wars fans decide to travel to Skywalker Ranch (the home/base of George Lucas) and get an early look at Episode 1 before it’s released in this enjoyable, geek-centric caper featuring Jay Baruchel (who I think is great), Dan Fogler (sometimes annoying but very good here), Sam Huntington (a bit bland but does what is required of the character), Chris Marquette (another young actor I always enjoy) and Kristen Bell (an attractive female geek = result) in the main roles.
While this movie is clearly aimed at fellow Star Wars fans and geeks (and geekiness isn’t always obvious until self-realisation dawns) it features a bunch of characters, amusing situations, star cameos and funny one-liners that should appeal to everyone.
Of course, those who REALLY know their stuff will get the most giggles out of this but I don’t consider myself a MASSIVE Star Wars fan (though I do love the movies) and I was never more than a moment away from a big grin, at the very least.
You have some nice, if unoriginal, coming-of-age stuff as well as some reforging of friendships and reminders of just how good it is to keep company with people you genuinely have things in common with. If that’s too dull for you then you can hopefully be entertained by a running battle between fans of “the Wars” and “the Trek”.
Seth Rogen gets a couple of amusing roles here and with small parts for Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Danny Trejo, Christopher McDonald, Billy Dee Williams, Ray Park, Will Forte and Danny McBride there is plenty on screen here for both comedy fans and sci-fi lovers.
The script, by Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg, is both amusing and clever as it mixes subtle and unsubtle references to some particular sci-fi movies (I’m sure you can guess which ones) and gains added impact from whoever is speaking the particular lines.
Kyle Newman directs and does a great job of just keeping everything light and breezy, even during a couple of potentially downbeat moments. The film takes a couple of swerves close to serious territory but never “turns to the dark side”. After reading about the difficulties in getting the film finished, and how this is still not exactly Newman’s original version of the movie, I can only give the man extra points for getting a final result even remotely close to what he wanted. Which is a lot of fun.
DIRECTOR: KYLE NEWMAN
CAST: JAY BARUCHEL, DAN FOGLER, SAM HUNTINGTON, CHRIS MARQUETTE, KRISTEN BELL
RUNTIME: 90 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA
Film Rating: 
