Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Review: Big Fan

I have to give credit to Robert Siegel and his screenplays.  Big Fan and The Wrestler are both original and well-thought out Greek tragedies content with minimizing cliches.  His films underscore the heros' tragic flaws and spiraling ritual of self-destruction.

In Siegel's premier as a director (he only wrote The Wrestler and The Onion Movie), Patton Oswalt stars as a man-child who lives with his mother and works as a parking garage attendant.  Oswalt must deal with his family—one brother who is a successful personal injury lawyer married to a buxom trophy wife, and a sister who is married to a husband who helps run a wholesale club store—and their insistence that he making something of himself.  He is content in his life, being a fanatic of the New York Giants and spending his time at work listening to sports talk radio and writing mini-manifestos, which he calls in to refute his on-air nemesis, Philadelphia Phil, late at night—much to the annoyance of his mother.  He and his equally schlubbish best friend, played by Kevin Corrigan, obsess over each game and play.  Oswalt idolizes the Giants' star linebacker, Quantrell Bishop.  Corrigan and Oswalt are like grown up children, though being well into their thirties, as they excitedly base their lives around the Giants' sixteen-game season.  They even go to the Meadowlands to watch the game on TV in the parking lot.
As the season starts winding down, with the Giants in the NFC East lead (being tailed by the Philadelphia Eagles), Oswalt and Corrigan are lucky enough to spot their hero linebacker one night.  They follow him and his posse, ending up in a club.  They finally work up the balls to go and say hi, but the meeting turns violently when they accidently let slip they have been tailing Bishop across the city.  Despite efforts by his friends to diffuse the situation, Bishop, like any self-respecting 'roided up athlete, beats Oswalt to a pulp and sends him to the hospital in a coma.  Things begin to close in on Oswalt as Bishop has been suspended and the police want information about the incident so the can press charges.  Oswalt's brother wants to sue the player and initiates a lawsuit.
Big Fan is not unlike the situation in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where Jonah Hill meets and pesters Russell Brand's Adolous Snow, except it didn't end with Brand beating the shit out of Hill.  Big Fan has a view on our obsession with people who play glorified children's games, yet get paid millions of dollars.  How we let our favorite celebrities practically get away with anything.

Score:  B

29 comments:

David said...

Nice post dude!

Themensquarters said...

Great reviews man! now I know what I am putting on my Zune haha! Do me a favor and post documentary reviews to ok? I will check everyday :D

Anonymous said...

good review mate.

showing some luv.

Tesla Sands said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tesla Sands said...

I'll have to check it out. I kinda disagree with your Adventureland review below, so I'll have to see how much our tastes have in common after watching this one.

ForeverAlone said...

Looks interesting, I'll check it out.

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Admin said...

Great post !

Souf. said...

i'll check this one out.

Dr. Phun said...

Great review pretty much my thoughts, seen this movie 2 days ago.

Jonny0503 said...

Professional review, nice post :)

Randyz said...

I thought it was braveheart lol

Gaming Anon said...

nice

Archivist X0042 said...

i love that movie

Longcatisloonng said...

actually looks really good. I'll have to check it out. The Wrestler was powerful shit

Longcatisloonng said...

looks really fucking good

jwa65 said...

Wow thanks for the great review. I'll be sure to check this one out. I'm a big movie fanatic so reviews like these reali help! Thanks. followed and looking forward to more posts from u!

Rareform said...

Nice post man, also patton oswalt was great in that movie.

QQ said...

great review lookin forward to the next one

Joshua said...

Decent movie!

Saturday Sports Blog said...

Anything with Patton Oswold is a thumbs up in my opinion.

x said...

nice, worth a look methinks.

Lemmiwinks said...

Great blog, man!

Hope you`ll check out mine as well.

Unknown said...

Need to see that

Mark said...

nice review mate

roguez4lifez said...

interesting review, will have to check it out

Netto Hikari said...

Love this movie.

Netto Hikari said...

Love this movie.

Sadistic said...

Honestly I haven't heard of this one before, but I guess I might have to take a look

Crunky said...

Sounds like a 2 hour SNL skit...