Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

The Fan (1996)

Directed by Tony Scott

Starring Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, John Leguizamo

Author

The story of the demise of a truly deranged fuck. Pretty good ending. The Naked Gun-esque umpire swap was cool. And Wesley has successfully made the transition from speedy base stealer to all-star power hitter. It was nice to see John Kruk, but I think he would have been great if he had been given funny lines to really make it a great cameo.

I don’t think he shot the baseball action too well. He used too many close-ups. Longer shots (to show they can really play) would have been more realistic. How about TV angles? The ball in flight was totally fake. It would have been really cool to show the green grass of the baseball field for the first time (when Wesley is taking batting practice) with a huge panoramic shot of the field. It’s a shame that we never really got a good look at the field from ground level. And I’m sorry, but no umpires in any league would let teams play in two inches of water.

The film tries to combine Post-Modern filmmaking with the sport of baseball, and it doesn’t work. Scott must really have a thing with Nine Inch Nails.

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