Runtime: 88 minutes
Directed by: Fred Durst!
Starring: John Travolta,
Devon Sawa, someone who was in one of those Degrassi shows, and a
bunch of random actors
From: Many production
companies, and probably all of them were embarrassed by how this
turned out
Google gave me a 99 cent rental deal recently, and this was how I chose to spend it.
A few weeks ago the online movie community went gaga over this movie, and I did hear some detailed reviews so I wasn't really surprised by what I witnessed. Curiosity got the best of me and Lord is this ever a failed effort... except in providing unintentional laughs.
I mean, it starts right away with superfluous narration that is sometimes heard in the movie... it is always unnecessary and the narrator is a supporting character. Then there is a moment (which is seen a few times after) that reminded me of the Leonard, Part 6 opening credits! THERE is a movie you want to be compared to. And of course, there is how the titular fanatic is Moose, played by John Travolta... rather quickly, you realize that while it's never addressed in the movie, Moose is obviously somewhere on the autism spectrum. I realize that Travolta's late son Jett was on the spectrum, but this is NOT a nuanced, subtle portrayal of how someone who has difficulties w/ social situations suffers a mental breakdown after his favorite actor Hunter Dunbar (Devon Sawa, and it's been ages since I've seen him in anything) turns out to be an A-hole, and the audience would feel sympathy for Moose due to his different way of interacting with the world.
Instead, if you don't laugh, you'll cringe... or be offended. Subtle it is not; “over the top” is a better descriptor as Moose ends up stalking Dunbar, then goes way above even that so it's hard to root or even have an affinity for the lead. Dunbar is such a rude p**** that it's impossible to like him. I do not know what sort of messages this movie was trying to express, but it lead to an experience where laughter was the best way to make it through this movie, as a lot of fun can be had at The Fanatic's expense. Travolta's haircut, the Hawaiian shirt, shorts, high socks and backpack combo... not to mention the goofy plot that does not always make sense and minor characters that are also awful people.
For years now I've known that Fred Durst is now a director-this isn't his first feature film-and after this, I plan on skipping the previous pictures he's done, along with all future ones. I mean, he was one of the people that wrote the script. Also, not very smooth having a Limp Bizkit song play at one point and Dunbar remarks how “great” the band was... to be frank, I was never a fan of that act (or any nu metal in general) and I am glad that was the case.
If the entire movie wasn't preposterous and absurd enough, the final act occurs and talk about being divorced from reality. Besides it suddenly becoming graphically violent out of nowhere, how everything is resolved makes zero sense. I've never seen Gotti, although I understand that is bad AND incoherent, especially if you don't know much about Gotti the person. This can be enjoyed by any and all bad movie fans (as long as you are not disgusted by how The Fanatic treats autism) as it missed the mark so badly it was sort of spectacular how much of a disaster this was.
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