Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) isn't a lucky man. His separation from his wife is hostile, his business of selling knives is not going well, and he doesn't feel listened to. His only release is sports, watching and cheering for his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes).

Bobby Rayburn, a 40 million dollar player, has troubles of his own as he falls into a slump, knowing his career is winding down as fellow player Juan Primo's (Benico Del Toro) star is rising. Primo now wears the "sacred" number 11 jersey. Rooting Bobby on every step of the way is manager Manny (John Leguizamo).

As Gil slides further down into the depths, he leans more and more on the game, forming an abnormal obsession with Bobby. With a restraining order taken out by his ex-wife, keeping him away from his son, and the loss of even his lowly job as knife salesman, how far will Gil finally lose himself in his fixation on Bobby Rayburn?

I tend to avoid movies that have even a dribble of sports in them, but I'm sure glad I tossed that rule aside for 'The Fan'. It's not about sports, its about an irrational fanatic. De Niro plays the psychotic fan so well, it could very well be his best performance yet. Snipes, Del Toro, and Leguizamo are fantastic, joined by the beautiful and talented Ellen Barkin as reporter Jewel Stern. The acting is superb and the tension is like a tight wire strung across your stomach. Adding to the film is the music of Nine Inch Nails during Gil's more psychotic episodes, complimenting the scenes with their grinding music and lyrics of alienation.

'The Fan' is a tense thriller that's not to be missed. Definitely worth a purchase. Enjoy!

Bobby's agent says "Don't you get it, it's William #@! Bendix!
The actor from flatbush that gets billing over the actor Anthony Quinn.
Benicio Del Toro should have gotten a better credit instead of this deranged fan of this film with deniro.
Guadalcanal Diary is a excellent film giving tribute to our latin american fighting soldiers who have served our country! God bless you all

I think that this Movie The Fan show why Robert De Niro is probably one of our better actors today.

Robert De Niro stars as a man whose life is taking a turn for the bad, but it does not deter him from his one true love, which is the game of baseball. This film has several elements to it that connect to bring a tantalizing thriller of a script to the forefront. The game of Baseball, its adoring and loyal fans and the psychotic fever of a fan who goes over the edge all come together well. Some people might think this film is about De Niro's character obsessing over a particular player, but there is more to it than that. Wes Snipes plays a major league player who has recently transferred from the Braves to the San Francisco Bay area to play for the Giants.

Gil (De Niro) is an avid fan who realizes that in order for his team to have the best chance of succeeding during a hitting slump that Bobby Rayburn (Snipes) has, must up the stakes of his involvement in the players life. De Niro and Snipes are excellent together throughout this film, and if you are a baseball fan you might recognize John Kruk featured in the lineup as well. The Soundtrack is particularly good and it mixes eerie tunes from the score with hit singles from bands like The Rolling Stones and Nine Inch Nails. The final scene at the ballpark is a spectacular way for this film to cap it all off, and despite this film being over ten years old, I still found great enjoyment in viewing it. The Fan is a thrilling, diabolical and often times downright sinister film.

When Robert De Niro is on, he's on! When he jumps into character, he lives the part without looking back. That's what makes De Niro such a great actor. He usually takes his work very seriously (Bullwinkle would be one of the exceptions)and makes us believe, good or bad, in what he's doing. When he plays Gil Renard, divorced hunting knife salesman, avid Rolling Stones fan and SF Giants' Baseball freak, the message is a little muddled. The Giants have picked up baseball superstar Bobby Raybun (Snipes) for some outrageous amount of money (Sound familiar?) and Gil is tickled pink. Rayburn is going to put the Giants on top and win them a World Series title. Well...things don't always work out that way. Rayburn doesn't get his lucky number 11. He screws up his ribs. The pressure of his huge contract is weighing him dow because the fans expect results and they're not afraid to tell him that at each game. Can we all say SLUMP! Gil, on the other hand, is having troubles of his own. His job is moving on without him. His relationship with his son is a strained and creepy mess of custody battle proportions. His ex-wife has put a restraining order on him. And Bobby Rayburn, the 40 Million Dollar Kid, sucks! Focusing not on the other things in his life that need fixing, baeball needs Gil's full, obssessive attention. He needs to help Rayburn out of his slump, right? Well....what if he kills off the outfielder who refused to give up the number 11? Things deteriorate from there as Renard's madness take over.

A mixed, creepy movie. I could not feel any pity for De Niro's charcter & he needed that to be truly effective. Otherwise, he just comes off as some looney assh*le baseball freak who blames his own problems on the game. The storylne is loose and clumsy. The characters are middle of the road. Somewhere along the line, De Niro picks parts that make no sense. When he plays the bad guy or the psycho, he's pretty effective, but here the performance is mired in bad writing. I couldn't wait for Gil Renard to die and that's not a good thing, even though I knew it was going to happen. Very predictable. Not one of De Niro's better outings. Snipes was decent as was Benicio Del Toro. Like Cape Fear, not a De Niro flick I'd want to watch again for a long, long while.

Deal with it!