The Fan (1996)

Tony Scott's the fan is a wild ride with an off the hook turn from Robert De Niro. It's ranked and regarded as a pretty low notch on Scott's belt, but it's hard to compete with his best work. It's still a sleazy blast and pure Scott, his characters always let, lurid and delightfully pulpy. Sure it falls apart near the end, but until then it's nasty, delicious fun. De Niro plays Gil, a die hard baseball fan and devout follower of Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), star player for his favourite team. Gil wants Bobby to succeed so badly that he becomes violent, unstable and pretty bonkers. At first it's obnoxious and amusing, but soon he gets dodgy and dangerous and eventually just out of control. It's great fun seeing De Niro go bug nuts bit by bit, and he's always had a wild menace that he like to take down from the shelf and dust off for the occasional performance. Benicio Del Toro does one of his puzzling, indecipherable vocal riffs as a rival player, adding to the weird factor. Ellen Barkin is a sexy sass bomb as Jewal Stern, a mouthy talk show host who sniffs out the controversy in high style. John Leguizamo is always sterling, and classes his scenes up like a pro. Watch for speckled cameos from M.C. Gainey, Brad William Henke, Don S. Davis, Tuesday Knight, Wayne Duvall, Richard Rhiele, John Carrol Lynch, Michael P. Michael P Byrne and Chris Mulkey as well, all excellent. Not Scott's best for sure, but a nicely mean spirited little romp through the psycho stalker fields. Fun stuff.

I sometimes wonder if Tony Scott did not have actors such as Denzel Washington to elevate his films how quickly his filmography would be forgotten. No doubt that this director who honed his skills in the Ad World brought over a style of filmmaking that has been copied by others. The fast cuts with many shots lasting just a few seconds, the particular style of lighting, use of music which has all influenced directors like Michael Bay.However his greatest skill is to make a watchable film with something that does not even resemble a finished script. Here is a tale of a highly prized baseball player who hits a slump and a baseball fan whose life is in turmoil as he loses his job and contact with his son.De Niro plays the fan who increasingly becomes unhinged and decides to take it out on Snipe's baseball player when he admits he plays for himself and not the team.The film is slow to get going, the script is half baked and we know that De Niro has anger management issues and its only a matter of time that he will snap and Snipes will become a victim.But for the acting from De Niro, Snipes, Barkin and Leguizamo this film would be dud rather than just average.

DeNiro gives an okay, but one-note performance as a dedicated baseball fan who, as a result of his fixation on Bobby Rayburn (#11), loses his job and family. Other than to show that he has a bad temper, I don't see how they are relevant to the movie. I think too much time is spent on the scenes at home, on the job, and on the baseball game itself. And DeNiro's acting just didn't seem genuine at all. In most movies about people who go from obsessing to stalking, this line is crossed at about halfway through the movie. But here, it doesn't happen until almost the very end, which is too little too late. Also, how could the Benicio Del Toro have really been killed if this was only seen in Renard's mind? Or did I miss something? It's not a bad movie, but it could have been more.** out of ****

Gil Renard is obsessed with baseball. Because he is from San Francisco he is a fan of the Giants, by the beginning of the season the Giants have signed all-star centre-fielder Bobby Rayburn to a 40 Million dollar contract.But, things do not go well for both Gil and Rayburn. Rayburn is slumping and Gil loses his job and eventually his wife and son.Gil goes deeper into his obsession with Rayburn and takes matters into his own hands. He believes that Rayburn is slumping because of another Giants player named Juan Primo who is playing well.Gil secretly helps him out. But when Gil feels that Rayburn is ungrateful, Gil kidnaps his son.Now, Rayburn must perform at his best at the last game of the season in order to save his son...I don't know why, but I have a lot of love for this movie. It's not perfect by any means, and Scott has really gone to town on the editing here, but everyone has a film that they love that was critically mauled.De Niro is at this archetypal best here as Gil, a paint by the numbers psycho, who isn't spontaneous, but predictable, and still very creepy.Snipes proves in this that the mid nineties were the best for his career, as he puts in another great performance, and during the final third, really shows depth and emotion.There is great support from Leguizamo and Barkin, and the film is made slickly with a brilliant soundtrack, but if you look closer, there are lots of faults in this.It's one of those rare occasions with a movie that I really don't care about the faults or the plot holes or the blatant use of stunt doubles.The eighteen year old in me is still calling for the flashy editing, silly use of knives and De Niro in full psycho mode, and I still love it.