Fanboys (PG-13) **

Fans will like it; others may feel it's forced.

In this image released by The Weinstein Company, Chris Marquette, left, Dan Fogler, center, and Sam Huntington are shown in a scene from "Fanboys." Photo: AP

By Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel

Fanboys is an affectionate homage to Star Wars -- the films and the feeding frenzy they fed. It stumbles about, taking wild swings at its subject, like Luke Skywalker practicing blindfolded with his light saber. But it has heart, finishes well and will probably play best on a DVD, where its Clerks II production values and clumsy shifts in tone won't stick out like a Wookie in an Ewok convention.

The film is set in the dim and distant past, when the words ''Fandango'' and ''Movietickets.com'' were but futuristic fantasies, when fans camped out in line for tickets to movies they were dying to see.

Star Wars milked this phenomenon, and in 1998, The Force was coming back. That's when Episode 1, The Phantom Menace, would hit theaters. Geek-friends Windows (Jay Baruchel), Linus (Chris Marquette) and Hutch (Dan Fogler) are counting down the 200 or so days left.

Their high school pals have all moved on, ''grown up,'' but they still wear the Storm Trooper gear, ride around in a customized van with a Chewbacca horn. They still talk the talk: 'You girls lookin' for love in Alderaan places?'' Zoe (Kristen Bell), the hottie in their ranks, is one of the boys.

Eric (Sam Worthington), though, grew up. He's facing his future -- Dad's chain of used-car dealerships. And he's not interested in falling back into old habits and old arguments. (''Luke was never hot for Leia!'') But his best friend Linus is dying, and that revives the lads' fantasy of trekking from Ohio to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, stealing a rough cut of the new movie and watching it before the rest of the world.

Director Kyle Newman struggles to give what becomes a too-routine road-trip comedy some wit and pace. The four-handed script tosses in a dandy brawl with Trekkers and a tiresome stop-over in Texas where nerd-guru Harry Knowles (played by Ethan Suplee) quizzes them on Star Wars trivia and gives them a contact for infiltrating the Ranch.

The characters are stereotypes, the story a cross between American Graffiti and Road Trip and the dialogue not quite retro-hip enough to sing. Cameos abound, with Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride pitching in. But a few laughs here and there and a couple of moments of emotionally stunted sweetness add up to a movie that only a fanboy would love.

Cast: Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Dan Fogler, Chris Marquette, Sam Huntington.

Director: Kyle Newman.

Screenwriters: Ernest Cline, Adam F. Goldberg, Dan Pulick.

Producers: Evan Astrowsky, Dana Brunetti, Matthew Perniciaro, Kevin Spacey.

A Third Rail/Weinstein Co. release. Running time: 90 minutes. Pervasive crude and sexual material, language and drug content. In Miami-Dade: Sunset; in Broward: Sawgrass.