The Fan

I had every expectation of this film being terrible and mearly a paycheck for De Niro. But, it was great. Snipes and Del Toro are fantastic. De Niro is scary as hell as well. There was not one explosion in the entire film. That was great. Short, to the point fight scenes. That's all you need in a suspense thriller. It was much smarter than expected. The plot never made you feel sorry for De Niro. The idea of him being a sad stoned cold man was there. But, not dwelled upon. The focus was on his obsession with the game of baseball and that became more important. Snipes had his entire sideline story that eventually involved De Niro. But, the two stories themselves were great. Benicio Del Toro is sneaky as hell and you never understand his true personality until he is offed. It makes you look at him completely different when he was not around.

Is it just me or does this film share so many of the aspects that the King of Comedy made over ten years earlier? Both of De Niros characters are losers who have a dream, both are unlucky in love, both have short tempers when pushed, both have obvious disorders within their mind and both are obsessive 'fans' of bobby rayburn and jerry langford, respectively. Stalking and kidnapping occurs in each film by De Niro, of his respective hero but neither hero actually gets hurt. Though in the King of comedy he is funnier and probably a nicer guy!

Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) is a failing knife salesman, a SF Giants fanatic, a divorced father of a boy, and a very angry guy. Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) is a new sign to the ball club, and the hope for savior. Both men's lives go downhill.

Director Tony Scott has made a movie filled with flash and sizzle. It doesn't accentuate as much as distract. When there is a master thespian like Robert De Niro, all the extra fireworks just take the focus away from the real show. And Wesley Snipes isn't likable enough. A less stereotypical selfish black athlete may help. His scenes with his agent Manny (John Leguizamo) are annoying and tiresome. This could have been a creepy character study like the iconic 'Taxi Driver'. But it never allows De Niro any peace and quiet to do his work properly.

Although The Fan has a baseball setting with the late Candlestick Park in San Francisco, it's not a baseball story. It's the dual story of a fan obsessed with baseball and his favorite player and that same player and his performance anxiety living up to the huge amount of money the Giants are paying him.

The title role is played by Robert DeNiro and a lot of his character is taken from what Michael Douglas had earlier did in Falling Down. DeNiro is the son of the founder of the company he works for, but dad having passed away long ago, the company is in different hands. DeNiro is not cutting it as a salesman of hunting knives (no pun intended) and he's having problems with his former wife Patty D'Arbanville-Quinn over visitation with his son.

At the same time multi-million dollar acquisition Wesley Snipes is having problems living up to the hype and he's looking like a big old bust. Especially next to new Giant sensation Benicio DelToro who is carrying the team with what looks like a Most Valuable Player season. Snipes is only doing well on one front, his relationship with his young son.

As his life falls apart DeNiro starts fixating on his favorite player and what he can do to help motivate him. After that this film gets truly bizarre.

But DeNiro who probably has more disturbed characters under his creative belt than any other actor around today keeps it all real. He's matched by Wesley Snipes who plays a Barry Bonds like superstar who gets a good life lesson by the end of the film.

In fact Snipes realizes it before the film ends. As he quite realistically says, it's just a game, it's not like we're out there discovering a cure for cancer. The problem is that there are too many out there, fans like DeNiro in sports and in show business who get way too caught up in it.

Look also for nice performances by Ellen Barkin who has a sports phone-in show and John Leguizamo as Snipes's agent and the wisest guy he has around him.

Gil Renard is an unemployed knife salesman who has one burning ambition in life -- to be exposed as baseball's biggest fan, or, more accurately, as hitting sensation Bobby Rayburn's biggest fan. He will go to any length to protect his hero from the media and all other ramifications that stem from being paid an excessive $40,000,000 a year to play with the Giants. And this dedication to perfection, as his ex-boss puts it, is what leads to his partial schizophrenia and almost complete absorption into the world of an over-hyped celebrity. But when Renard realizes that his efforts and 'kindnesses' are not appreciated by his #1 idol, he turns on his role-model and viciously hunts him and his family down to the film's final climax.

7/10