Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

seeingbystarlight In the game of Life, some are chosen for greatness, while others... can only watch.Such is the case with Gil Renard (Robert DeNiro) a divorced, unstable knife salesman, who has only one light left in his life: Baseball.And only one person he admires:Bobby Rayburn.Bobby Rayburn, by sharp contrast, is the most preeminent baseball player for the San Francisco Giants.As the movie progresses, we watch both men's lives unravel.And while Renard loses his job, and custody of his son; Rayburn (played by Wesley Snipes) suffers a chest injury, and gets upstaged by an ambitious young player, Juan Primo (Benicio Del Toro).It is at this point in the story when Renard decides to take matters into his own hands:He murders Primo, thus restoring Rayburn to his former greatness, but this is not enough.Firmly believing that he has done a good thing (for the Giants, and his idol), Renard decides to reach out to Rayburn, it being his opinion that the baseball star doesn't acknowledge his fans enough.This sets off a series of events which lead the increasingly more unhinged Renard to kidnap Rayburn's son...and demand a home run in exchange for his return.This is a very familiar theme of obsession and murder.You've seen this movie before, with different actors, different storylines, and different titles.What makes this one worth watching however, is a decent script (take for instance, the last scene of the movie), an excellent cast, and a powerful director.Tony Scott does a terrific job with this movie, giving it a dimension most directors could never have achieved.The actors are right on target, bringing out the complexities of their characters.Bobby Rayburn is very well played by Snipes:He's confident, and self-assured without being arrogant.Robert DeNiro is spectacular as Renard:He's clearly psychotic, and, although you can't root for him, you can understand what's causing his breakdown.He's a failure at his degrading job. Because of his volatile personality, he's incapable of maintaining a good relationship with his son, and his marriage crashed some time ago.His one moment of glory was in Little League. And as, the shot of an old newspaper clipping flashes through the screen, you feel you understand this character perfectly.John Leguziamo, and Ellen Barkin put the finishing touches on a movie which, though not unforgettable, is still strangely notable.Originally Written On: June 5, 2018

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 21/02/2017) I found a lot of this film reprehensible; only a couple of things are positive; Snipes' well preserved performance, the soundtrack from the Stones and though I found his character extremely unpleasant; De Niro gives a good performance. Tony Scott has made great films like Top Gun but The Fan is not one of his better ones. The film begins with some promise but as soon as it unfolds, it's just ridiculous and uninvolving. Early on you see De Niro (Gil) driving his son to the baseball game; his son has a knife on him, and De Niro's character says I thought your mother confiscated it, and the kid says no I took it back, in which De Niro replies "good boy", so he thinks it's acceptable for someone to carry around a knife, and his son is a mere child, what happens if he gets into fight at school and stabs someone because his father taught him knives are a must have accessory; already the film had showed it's unpleasant side even before he goes completely crazy. Later on Gil leave's his son at the baseball game unattended; did he go the bathroom? No, did he go to check his car? No, he went to try and make a sale while leaving his son in a possible kidnap hot spot for a very long time. The picture even has some stupid dialogue such as " I thought I was off your list" says Jewel (Ellen Barkin) the radio host at the game, in which Manny, Bobby's agent (Leguizamo) tells her " Schindler has a list, not me" yes because they needed to reference superior films in this dud. Leguizamo's character also suggests exploiting a kid's death from cancer to get Bobby (Snipes) a crowd pleaser again; for which he at least understands its wrong and declines; the screenwriters have wrote something extremely sickening. Then it's last 30 minutes or so turn into a slasher type film, where the crazed Gil is killing people, kidnapping a child and so forth; but we've seen this kind of stuff before, handled in better films with more care and precision. It's not that this is merely a baseball film, it's that it's a dreadful thriller that has an awful plot, bad writing and many unpleasant, unnecessary sequences; The character of Gil is forgettable, the film is a nasty mess and I felt a sigh of relief, like I do in most terrible films, when an old friend in the form of the end credits had finally arrived.

slightlymad22 In this psychological thriller, Robert De Niro fresh off Casino and Heat, stars as a down on his luck salesman who becomes obsessed with his favourite baseball player Wesley Snipes, who despite his last few movies Drop Zone, Money Train flopping, was still popular after success in movies like 'Demolition Man' with Sly Stallone and 'Rising Sun' with Sean Connery, both of which grossed over $100 million dollars.De Niro who has contributed some tough fisted, hard as nails characters over the years is walked over and insulted by people early on as salesman Gil, but he remains as intense as always. Snipes is charismatic and likable as the Giants new record signing Bobby Rayburn.Benico Del Toro is annoyingly effective as Rayburn's rival player. John Leguizamo puts in a fine performance as Rayburn's agent. Ellen Barkin pops up as the local sports reporter, intent on getting the story if the star player is worth $40 million. And look for a blink and you'll miss him Jack Black working for Barkin.Given the talent involved, I'm surprised this failed to find an audience, as Tony Scott's direction keeps things moving at a steady pace and it is an intense movie that whilst not a home run is more than watchable.Worth checking out at least once.

sddavis63 To talk about the movie as a whole, one has to say right off the topic that this isn't especially great. In fact, it may not even be especially good. It's the story of Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) - a former little league star who never made the majors but who's become a fanatical fan of the San Francisco Giants. Gil is also a knife salesman - and a fading one. His marriage has broken up, he's on the outs with his ex-wife, who eventually gets a restraining order to keep him away from their son after he abandons him at a ball game and then forces his way into their house to apologize. So, he's got a lot of personal problems. The "fading salesman with problems" character seems to have more than a little bit in common with characters like Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" or Shelley Levene in "Glengarry Glen Ross." I would guess that both were probably at least a little bit of an influence for Peter Abrahams, who wrote the book on which this was based, and Phoef Sutton, who adapted it as a screenplay.De Niro is excellent in the part. To draw another parallel, his portrayal as the obsessed, psychotic fan reminded me a bit of his performance as Max Cady in "Cape Fear." De Niro has the talent and the presence to pull these kinds of characters off, and to be believable while doing it, which isn't always easy. Renard is both obsessed and psychotic. He becomes particularly obsessed with Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) - a $40 million free agent signing by the Giants who struggles as the season starts, and gets into a battle with Juan Primo (Benecio del Toro) - who was moved from centre field to left field to make room for Rayburn, but who won't give up Rayburn's favourite #11. While Rayburn slumps, Primo becomes a star. The fans turn against Rayburn and embrace Primo. There's some reflection here on the fickleness of sports fans - the "what have you done for me lately" attitude - as well as on the big money that players make. But Gil is on Rayburn's side. He wants Rayburn to succeed - and he becomes obsessed with Rayburn, to the point at which he goes to great lengths to "help" him (watch the movie), and then, when Rayburn won't thank him for what he did, he kidnaps the star's son and threatens to kill him unless Rayburn hits a home run in the next game and publicly dedicates it to Gil. That's the story in a nutshell.Overall, the story isn't that compelling to be honest. Aside from De Niro's performance, which is excellent throughout, there really wasn't a lot to this. It takes a very long time for the movie to really get going. Most of the first hour or so is tied up with Gil's personal troubles with his job and his son. I didn't think we really needed that long to understand that the character is mentally unstable. Snipes tried hard, and he wasn't bad, but his character was less than compelling. He came across as little more than an arrogant, self-centred millionaire ball player until the angle with his son was introduced. There was very little interesting about the character. Some of the baseball action portrayed had problems. To mention something that really stood out for me - every time Rayburn was portrayed coming up to bat, he went to the batters' box from the dugout? Shouldn't he have been in the on deck circle if he was next up? Minor point perhaps, but it bugged me a bit.The last half hour (once Rayburn's son is kidnapped) is fairly tense; the last scenes on the field are way too over the top unfortunately. So, no, this isn't really a great movie. It's watchable for De Niro's performance. As far as the story is concerned, you really haven't missed much if you haven't seen this. (5/10)