Oh, now do you care! No, we don't.

THE FAN (1996)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally viewed on video in 1997)

I thought I have seen Robert De Niro take the role of the psychopathic killer far enough already. He has played them convincingly in the past, especially 1991's "Cape Fear." Throughout his career, De Niro has played all sorts of loner characters with distinguished characteristics. One in a great while, he will let his commanding presence shine through as he underplays beautifully in films like "Stanley and Iris," "Mad Dog and Glory," or "Guilty By Suspicion." But "The Fan" is not a film that will be remembered (as of 2012, few ever mention it in the De Niro canon of mildly decent performances). "The Fan" is an overwrought, headache-inducing, ill-written and purely sickening trashy wannabe thriller by one of our worst directors, Mr. Tony Scott ("Top Gun"), the director of using every conceivable angle to cut to in ten seconds of film time (and you thought Michael Bay was bad).

Let's consider the plot for a moment. De Niro is an EXTREMELY strange knife salesman who is fired from his job and makes the grave error of leaving his son stranded at a baseball game. He also berates and violently attacks his ex-wife and her boyfriend, and frequently calls a radio talk-show host (played by Ellen Barkin) who one day interviews a popular baseball player (Wesley Snipes). De Niro's character is Snipes' player's number-one fan and will do anything for him, as long as Snipes hits some home-runs. If Snipes doesn't unwittingly comply to this psycho, De Niro will kill a rival baseball player (played by a goateed Benicio Del Toro) and kidnap Snipes' son. Did I miss something? Where is the transition of De Niro going mad to becoming a psychopathic madman? Maybe it is his obsessiveness over his brand of knives.

Robert De Niro gives his character no depth, no humanity and not a shred of decency - he's about as animated as Michael Myers and his frequent mugging doesn't help matters. Wesley Snipes is mostly there for reaction shots and extreme close-ups, nothing more. The screenplay is littered with obscenities and mean-spiritedness; could it have been written by the former king of bad language, Mr. Joe Esterzhas of "Basic Instinct" fame? The frantic cutting, De Niro's Dolby-ized yelling and the ear-shattering, overcrowded music montages (including a bizarre use of the Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?") will give you a migraine the size of Niagara Falls. Let's put it his way - the film's raison d'etre is Mr. De Niro and it is a shameful use of his name and prestige for sickeningly blood-soaked, exploitative garbage like "The Fan."