Forget “Aliens” vs. “Predator.” “Superman” vs. “Batman?” Don’t waste my time. If you’re looking for a debate subject that’ll whip the geeks into a slathering fury, try comparing “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” Nothing this side of the venerable “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” dispute invokes as much senseless passion as that spent by the devotees of these dueling space operas. Just ask Harry McCowan (Max Cabot.) A pudgy post-teenager, Harry apparently shares interior decorators with my nine year old nephew, so prevalent is the amount of “Wars” paraphernalia covering his walls. When he wins three tickets to the premiere of “Episode One,” he invites his best friend Chris (Jeremy Aldridge), who’s perhaps an even bigger geek than Harry…except that whereas Chris invites a date to the movie, Harry CANCELED his date so as not to miss it. All is going swimmingly until Chris and Harry get stranded when Harry’s car breaks down. To make matters worse, the two “Star Wars” partisans get kidnapped by a menacing band of uniformed “Star Trek” zealots, whose leader Dan (Charlie Huddleston), seeks revenge for one of Harry’s earlier pranks. Helpless in Dan’s evil clutches, disaster looms as Harry must somehow make it to the movie, make it up to his cute stood-up date, and make it up to “Star Wars” lovers everywhere once Dan reveals that Harry was once — gack! — a “Trekkie.”
“Star Geeks,” Marc A. Sansom’s cute and presumably self-deprecating spin-off from last year’s “Episode One” mania, is an amusing and entertaining diversion. Visual sight gags abound, such as Harry’s increasingly frequent “Wars” hallucinations interjecting themselves in his real life, supplemented by such aural puns as Chris knocking on Harry’s door to the beat of the Darth Vader theme song. All in all, a goofy little film that reminds us that geeks, both of the “Star Wars” AND “Star Trek” persuasions, are people too… even if they are weird.
