Back at the time a movie from Tony Scott with Robert DeNiro and Wesley Snipes being dumped into release in the middle of August was an obvious sign of a flop -- but THE FAN still might manage to surprise you with how awful it is. The worst kind of "90s movie" from an age when studio filmmaking started on a downwards trajectory and never really recovered.
If you haven't seen it -- or can't remember -- this movie gives us:
-DeNiro doing his Taxi Driver shtick again, channeling a little of Michael Douglas in FALLING DOWN as the psycho-to-be who leaves his kid at a baseball game, loses all visitation rights with his ex, dances around to the Rolling Stones and Nine Inch Nails and then decides to help out smug SF Giants star Wesley Snipes by killing off the competition on his own team...speaking of which, we also get:
-Benicio Del Toro as one of the victims!
-Ellen Barkin in a nothing role as a sports radio host.
-Tony Scott hysterically over-directing the entire movie, right down to the deluge finale on the baseball field that needs to be seen to be believed.
-One of the most absurdly overwrought soundtracks of all time, an ear-piercing assemblage of rock tracks thrown onto nearly every scene, mixed with a Hans Zimmer score that overstates itself at every opportunity.
-The tightest, most claustrophobic widescreen cinematography perhaps ever put on film -- why would Scott choose to shoot this movie in scope when much of the film is in tightly composed CLOSE-UPS? I also remember laughing out loud at the pan-and-scan TV prints of this film which zig-zagged every second to capture the characters.
-A story that's unrelentingly depressing -- a thriller that's not very thrilling -- but made entertaining by its bonkers delivery and hyper-stylized cinematography.
-And again, DeNiro mugging throughout in a pay check cashing performance. I can't think of anything other than him smiling going "Bobbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" as this delightful video shows:
