Star Wars movie fans Linus (Chris Marquette, left) and Zoe (Kristen Bell) take a road trip to break into director George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch and see Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace in the film comedy Fanboys. (Alliance Films)

Despite its many jokes related to mooning, humping, bra removal and bowel movements, Fanboys wants to be a love story. The love is between a man — or perhaps a man-child — and Star Wars.

While certain segments of the population might not understand this unholy affection, those who get it are part of a not-so-elite society. This idea of shared experience in a lonely world actually makes fandom an interesting subject for a film. Movies are a necessary link between people, a common language and history. In other words, if you care about Boba Fett as much as I do, you kind of care about me.

Fanboys wants to be a love story. The love is between a man — or perhaps a man-child — and Star Wars.

Director Kyle Newman skirts any inherent thoughtfulness in the material, the kind that might have set apart Fanboys from some generic recent National Lampoon movie. The fanboys here are three arrested adolescents and their responsible friend who road-trip cross-country to break into George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch. It’s 1998, and the goal is to sneak a preview of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. Considering that upon release, The Phantom Menace actually met with contempt from critics and even disciples, Fanboys veers towards tragedy, apparently unintentionally. As it is, the film contains only a couple of jokes about the approaching lameness of Jar Jar Binks, probably because George Lucas gave his stamp of approval to Fanboys. He also permitted the filmmakers to use his trademark sound effects (a privilege they abuse — I haven’t heard this much Vader-ian panting since hot yoga was in vogue).

For these dudes, the road trip is rare movement in a time of stasis. A few years out of high school, Hutch (Dan Fogler, a jocular, curly haired Jack Black type) and Windows (Jay Baruchel, geeked out maximally) are still living at home and working in a comic book store, debating the merits of Harrison Ford and fantasizing about Princess Leia. Eric (Sam Huntington) has an actual job at his father’s car lot, which makes him a sell-out in the eyes of slacker Linus (Chris Marquette); their long-time friendship is on the rocks. (I promise not to use the word “bromance” in this article. Damn — I just broke my promise.)

Reunited in the back of a tricked-out, decrepit van, the boys carefully follow the map of every louche-bag road trip movie ever made. This is a genre that never tires of the “Wait—you’re a hooker?” punchline. Then, the guys wind up in a biker bar. Then, the guys wind up in a jail cell. Then, the guys take peyote, hallucinating the title scroll from Star Wars.

A group of friends take fandom to an extreme when their road trip to Skywalker Ranch takes a detour in Fanboys. (Alliance Films)

They make a special detour to Gene Roddenberry’s hometown just to mock Star Trek fans, led by Seth Rogen buried under a prosthetic nose. There’s something close to a fun idea in this subplot about geek contempt for geeks geekier than they; even a nerd subculture contains invisible lines of cool, recognizable only to the indoctrinated, the way certain sounds can only be heard by dogs.

The constant referencing of superfan signposts breaks up the monotony of the gross-out comedy, but it’s ultimately unsuccessful: true Star Wars devotees will probably find that the film isn’t insider enough, despite an onslaught of nerd cameos. They’ll nitpick with glee, while the uninitiated — or uncaring — will find the sci-fi name checking tedious. And that’s too bad, because even if Star Wars doesn’t make you giddy, something does. Mon Mothma is specific, but obsession — crippling and joyful and often funny — is universal.

Fanboys has reportedly been languishing on the shelves for almost two years, caught in a battle between Newman and a director-for-hire who came in, excised a storyline about cancer and bulked up the raunch. The cancer is back, lending just the tiniest bit of weight to an otherwise gauzy experience. But it’s not enough: Fanboys is a dinosaur in this age of the Apatowian sensitive-guy comedy. It may be a lesson in the pitfalls of filmmaking by committee, satisfying no one by crassly courting the widest audience possible. The result is a tepid comedy that mutes all that’s interesting about real-life fanboys in favour of a dated Farrelly Brothers fart-off.

Fanboys opens April 3.

Katrina Onstad is the film columnist for CBCNews.ca.