Considering how much trouble Kyle Newman’s Fanboys has withstood in its travels to the multiplexes, I pretty much expected the flick to be an amiable mess. It’s been widely reported that the comedy was plagued by multiple reshoots, numerous release date changes, and a producer who (at least temporarily) wanted to suck the heart and soul right out of the flick. So as I walked into an early preview of Fanboys at San Diego Comic-Con, I was hopeful — but frankly I wasn’t expecting a big winner. But hey, aside from a few flat stretches here and there, Fanboys actually has a lot to offer: Strong chemistry among four funny young actors, a “road trip” conceit that flows along quite smoothly, and more Star Wars references than you hardcore geeks will know what to do with. So what I expected to be a big fat mess of a movie turned out to be pretty dang fun — quadruply so if you happen to be a Star Wars fanatic.

The story is as simple as a road movie needs: Inspired by the unfortunate news that one of their pals is dying of cancer, three hardcore Star Wars geeks decide to travel from Ohio to California, break into Skywalker Ranch, and steal an early print of The Phantom Menace, which isn’t due to hit theaters for another six months. (Yes, Fanboys is a period piece: It takes place in 1998.) Sure, that’s a pretty broad and silly idea on which to hang a whole movie — but Fanboys isn’t really about logical actions and realistic adventures: It’s about four Lucas disciples who get into a series of odd misadventures as they trek* across the country to steal themselves some Star Wars.

(* One of the movie’s funniest subplots involves an ongoing war between our Star Wars fanboys, and a nasty group of mega-Trekkies — the most obnoxious one played by a nearly unrecognizable Seth Rogen. As usual, Rogen steals a handful of scenes without breaking a sweat.)

If Fanboys suffers from a few of the more conventional trappings of the road movie sub-genre — do we really need another accidental trip into a gay bar? — it succeeds quite highly on the backs of its lead actors. Jay Baruchel (the awkward one), Dan Fogler (the sloppy one), Chris Marquette (the dying one), and Sam Huntington (the mature one) strike a really smooth and affable chemistry together, especially when they’re busy debating the most moronic Star Wars minutiae you can possibly imagine.

Plus the flick is populated by almost a dozen clever little cameos from the likes of Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Danny McBride, Christopher McDonald, David Denman, Bill Hader, Ethan Suplee, Ray Park, Danny Trejo, and the immortal William Shatner. (And Shatner is always good for a few laughs.) The highlight of the cast is probably the lovable geekette Kristen Bell, who bails our heroes out of a scrape, tags along for the road trip, and adds a good deal of class and cuteness to a mostly boy-laden affair. (Plus, wow, Ms. Bell in a Slave Leia costume? Might be worth the price of admission right there.)

Basically, it’s a scrappy little comedy, and some of its production woes may seep onto the screen a couple of times — but if you’re judging a movie based on how well it speaks to its target audience, I’d say Fanboys succeeds quite strongly. It’s a basic enough story populated by colorful characters who play off one another quite humorously, and for a movie like this, that’s more than enough. It was written and directed by guys who clearly love Star Wars a lot, but can also poke a little fun at The Saga at the same time. Considering how much trouble this movie had in getting to the screen, the fact that it doesn’t straight-out suck is cause for fanboy celebration, but the fact that it’s actually quite a solid little movie is, frankly, pretty darn shocking.

Our Comic Con came to a sweet finish last night at the Wrath of Con mega party hosted by folks like IESB, Bloody-Dee and Lakeshore. The roof at the Hard Rock Hotel here in San Diego was packed with writers, celebrities, dancers, rock stars and girls with tape on their boobs. It was a pretty fun night, and since the Crank 2 trailer screened at one point, the whole thing is a write off! While our tired Cinematical crew travels home today, here’s a bunch of stuff to keep you busy till we come back tomorrow with the remainder of our coverage, including a very cool interview with James Gunn and our annual “Celebrities Love Weinberg” gallery.

• Disney debuted a teaser thingy for Pixar’s Up, which will hit theaters next summer.
• The Terminator: Salvation panel was a blast, McG came out pumped and the extended trailer looked awesome. We’ll have more from the panel and our interviews, but a couple things: The next trailer will debut with Quantum of Solace, it’s not a definite PG-13 at this time (they have the studio’s blessing should it turn into an R-rated affair), the film will end on a cliffhanger, the Con poster is to the right and a model of the T-600 is above, and, finally, watching Yelchin (as a young Kyle Reese) say “Come with me if you want to live” in the trailer gave me goosebumps.
• AICN tells us that Punisher: War Zone director Lexi Alexander has been booted from the film. She didn’t show here at Con because she was on her “honeymoon,” and she’s wrapped up in a non-disclosure which means she ain’t talking either. Why can’t anyone make a Punisher flick without f**king it up? Is it really that hard to get one right?
• John Campea interviewing the girls from Bitch Slap in their hotel room … in bed with them … has to go down as THE interview at Con. Special Cinematical props go out to the entire team from Bitch Slap for marketing the hell out of their film at Con, guerilla-style throughout the entire weekend.
• Sam Raimi told the audience during his Drag Me to Hell panel that he’s considering an Evil Dead 4.
• EW has a whole slew of photos from Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
• Watchmen website now online. I’ll be reading this as soon as I get home.
• Moviefone has some great preview and wrap up posts, along with even more galleries.
• Francis Lawrence making prequel to I Am Legend starring Will Smith.
• Who’s buying this Heath Ledger as the Joker bobblehead doll?
• Finally, IGN has debuted a red band trailer for Quarantine.

We love you, we miss you and we’ll be home soon. Leave the light on …

Earlier today, Elisabeth shared with you a Slate story that questioned whether United Artists photoshopped a picture of Claus von Stauffenberg so that it would look more like Tom Cruise when they were promoting the casting of the actor in Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie. That post is over here. Read it. Love it. Investigate! In the same Slate story, however, they talk a bit about Mission Impossible 4. There’s been rumblings recently of a new Mission Impossible — how Cruise and Paramount’s Sumner Redstone wined and dined one another — leading many to believe they may patch things up and move forward on a sequel. Wonderful. Fabulous. Let’s hold hands.

Not so fast. Slate says Paramount offered Cruise the chance to produce the sequel (they have to since it’s in his contract), but not star in it. Not star? Cruise? No way. And that’s exactly what happened: Cruise turned down their offer. Now, says Slate, Paramount may hold off on making a new Mission Impossible until their contract with Cruise’s production company expires. This will then free them up to go out, cast some hot young stud as the new Ethan Hunt (or some other random Hunt-type dude), and continue along with a fairly popular action franchise.

But should they?

This is too good not to share. It’s no secret that I wasn’t pleased with the last round of Amelia pics that hit the net. Hilary Swank just looked goofy, and the images did nothing to drum up excitement. In fact, it did just the opposite. But man, the picture above, part of a slew that went up on Oh No They Didn’t, is definitely worth it.

Finally, we’ve got Swank in the flying ensemble! She’s got on the obligatory leather jacket, cap, and goggles, although the wardrobe gurus seem to have decided against Earhart’s oft-worn scarf, and selected a striped tie instead. But that’s not all. We know that it’s Richard Gere standing on the right, but do you recognize the woman on the left? I’ve loved her since Fire with Fire, but didn’t notice at first that the lady in red is, indeed, Virginia Madsen. Okay, I’m a bit more excited now.

You?