Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Dan1863Sickles I just saw THE INTERN yesterday, and it really wasn't half bad. But the whole time I was watching Robert De Niro playing the sweet, kind intern, drying Anne Hathaway's tears and so on, I kept thinking about a movie called THE FAN.THE FAN was meant to be a scorching suspense thriller, full of De Niro at his most menacing and insane. But really it came across as far more funny than THE INTERN. I mean, just think about the main character. He's "an insane knife salesman." That's a character we meet all the time in real life, of course. A traveling knife salesman. Who's insane.De Niro traveling door to door, selling knives, is a funny idea by itself. De Niro telling delusional tales of "partying" with Mick Jagger is a really, really funny idea. Mick Jagger and De Niro in the same universe is funny, let alone in the same room. Partying together. Till dawn.So then, because the story is so realistic so far, they add a bizarre fantasy element. This rich, black, baseball superstar somehow decides that he needs to befriend a small-time knife salesman who's clearly insane. Because that's what superstars do, see. They wander the land, befriending the insane. And then they party till dawn.

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)

raisleygordon 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 ****

FlashCallahan 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.