Fanboys

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my selections below you can also add Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Fanboys to your queue.

Valkyrie
In Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, Tom Cruise stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer who leads the plot to kill Hitler. The story is one of those "little known" historical gems that's full of intrigue and political coups. A fantastic cast (including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson) surrounds Cruise, lending some serious acting cred to the production.

Special features include audio commentary by Tom Cruise, Bryan Singer and co-writer/producer Christopher McQuarrie, and The Valkyrie Legacy Documentary.

60%

Two more up next, so read more

Let's say you are familiar with Ain't It Cool News, have heard the name Harry Knowles and generally keep up with the navel-gazing world of geekdom. As such, you'll probably find it pretty funny when you watch a longish scene in which an actor playing Knowles gets the crap beat out of him.

However, if you are part of probably the majority of people who have no idea what I'm talking about, that scene will likely be a little bit funny (someone getting the stuffing kicked out of them is often good for a small laugh) but mostly perplexing. So it goes with Fanboys: It's funny, but most of the time you have to already be in on the joke. And in order to be in on the joke, I'll be the first to admit, you're probably pretty geeky. For more of my thoughts on this funny/weird movie, read more

It was almost a year ago that I was writing about "Darth Weinstein" and the drama surrounding the release of the ultimate fanboy movie, Fanboys.

The movie, starring Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen, follows a group of die-hard Star Wars fans on a road trip across the country to the Lucas Ranch. They run into trouble when they cross paths with another geek tribe: Trekkies. I've seen it, and boy is this a nerdy movie but it's also a lot of fun (keep an eye out for my review this week).

There was a time when fanboys across the nation worried this movie might not come out, so this weekend is their big moment. To check out the trailer after the jump and get yourself reacquainted with Fanboys, read more

Between Chuck and Flight of the Conchords, The Big Bang Theory and Tina Fey's 30 Rock alter ego Liz Lemon, I'm not sure we needed any more proof that we're in something of a pop culture nerd renaissance right now. But just in case, here's something else: The guy who wrote Fanboys just had another script picked up, this time about "a video game junkie facing a midlife crisis who learns that a young punk had broken a record he set as a teen." The guy sets out to reclaim his position at the top of the gaming throne. Nerd power!

That got me thinking about some of my favorite on-screen nerds — from the aforementioned Liz Lemon and Conchords guys to more classic outsiders like My So-Called Life's Brian Krakow (and his volumeter) and Patrick Dempsey's Ronald from Can't Buy Me Love. So now I'm wondering: Who are yours? For the purposes of this conversation, let's assume that "nerd" and "geek" mean approximately the same thing, though of course we could debate the distinctions for days . . .

Well, it looks like 21, the film about MIT students who take Vegas by storm, was a safe bet as it easily won the top spot at the box office. However, the overall weekend box office total was down 17 percent compared to last year, Variety reports. 21 earned an estimated $23 million, beating Horton Hears a Who and firmly establishing Jim Sturgess as a viable leading man.

Compare these results to another new release this weekend: Stop-Loss, starring Ryan Phillippe, who is a household name. Another box office casualty in a long line of Iraq War-related film flops, Stop-Loss only earned $4.5 million, coming in at No. 8.

Which brings me to the other box office disappointment this weekend, Superhero Movie. Could it be that Round One of Harvey Weinstein vs. Fanboys' fanboys goes to the geeks (more on the feud here)? Protesters gathered on both coasts where Superhero was playing, though in LA it appears Weinstein was prepared with guards. One protester told the Hollywood Reporter:

Guards were everywhere. At one point, I counted nine, no joke. They hired a whole force and whenever someone showed up looking around for the protest, they were surrounded by guards and told to leave instantly or be arrested. I guess you can't really hold a protest on private property.

Ultimately the film came in the third spot with a measly $9.5 million. Is this a little bit hilarious to anyone else?

Finally, Run Fat Boy Run starring Simon Pegg came in 13th and only earned an estimated $2.3 million here in the US. The movie grossed $22.6 million in the UK last Fall.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Fanboys angrily defending Fanboys . . . This stuff writes itself.
So, there's this movie Fanboys, starring a brunette Kristen Bell and a dorky Seth Rogen, in which "a group of young, passionate Star Wars fans . . . drive cross-country to raid George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, and watch Star Wars: Episode 1— The Phantom Menace." In the original version of the movie, which was finished long ago, the trip is motivated by the fact that one of the characters has cancer.

To cancer, or not to cancer . . .
Apparently, real-life "passionate Star Wars fans" have been eagerly awaiting this film's release, have seen parts of the film at Comic-Con and the such, and loved it the way it was. Yet producer Harvey Weinstein was not pleased with the sad plotline and reshoots were ordered to, well, remove the cancerous parts for the theatrical release (though there's still no actual release date, and I bet they're regretting their initial tag line for the movie: "Coming to our galaxy in 2007"). Outraged, the fanboys of Fanboys have dubbed Harvey "Darth Weinstein" and declared a boycott of all things Weinstein until they are certain that the original version will go to theaters.

Honestly, the movie probably won't even make it that far.
In a press release issued this week, the Weinstein Co. tried to find some compromise with the fans, promising to issue both cuts of the film when it comes out on DVD, but still don't have a date for when this movie will make it to the big screen.

Having recently watched the trailer, I'm not sure it should be released theatrically at all. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, though, so to watch the trailer, read more