The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Review: Big Fan

Run-of-the-mill, cheap laughs
By PETER KEOUGH  |  September 16, 2009
2.0 2.0 Stars

090317_bigfan_main

"He's another Martin Scorsese!" crows mom when her son screens an awful ad for his ambulance-chasing law firm in this unimpressive debut from Robert Siegel (screenwriter of The Wrestler). The Scorsese film Siegel himself draws from is The King ofComedy.

His Rupert Pupkin is Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt), the above-mentioned lawyer's brother and the New York Giants fan of the title. A regular caller on a late-night sports talk-radio show, he phones in scripted rants that are interrupted by his mom in the next room telling him to shut up and go to bed.

Paul has a crush on one of the team's defensive backs, and when he and a pal follow the guy to a strip joint, their adventure ends badly. The film itself ends pretty well, but only after a run-of-the-mill start that gets cheap laughs out of funny clothes and stupid people from Staten Island.

Related: Review: Nollywood Babylon, Review: Of All the Things, Review: Still Walking, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Media,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: PRECIOUS  |  November 18, 2009
    If you thought Celie in Alice Walker's The Color Purple had a tough time of it, wait till you get a load of Precious.
  •   INVISIBLE PLAYMATES  |  November 18, 2009
    To judge from the titles of some of his recent novels — The Book of Illusion s, Oracle Night , Man in the Dark , and now Invisible — Paul Auster's fiction is receding, Samuel Beckett style, into non-existence.
  •   REVIEW: PLANET 51  |  November 18, 2009
    The opening for the latest animated kids’ fantasy is promising — but it’s for another movie.
  •   REVIEW: 2012  |  November 12, 2009
    Doomsday is good therapy. What does it matter that billions die if that brings a family together in one big hug?
  •   REVIEW: WITHIN THE WHIRLWIND  |  November 11, 2009
    Those eager to compare the Obama administration to a Communist dictatorship might check out this story based on the memoirs of the poet Evgenia Ginzburg.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group