RECOMMENDED: If the events of the last few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that sports fans are capable of taking no small amount of abuse and, in fact, they seem to thrive on it: In Philly at least, the more indefensible the player’s actions, the more fuel there is to go on the never-ending fire of sports talk radio, blogs and message boards, where the debate literally never ends, and in point of fact, might just be the greatest sport of all. Big Fan is meditation on this. Comedian Patton Oswalt stars as a hapless loser who winds up getting beaten within an inch of his life by his favorite football player after meeting him in a bar. When he awakes, he’s got a choice to make: Either press charges and sue the guy who beat him down (thereby totally screwing with football season), or just suck it up and become the ultimate fan. Either decision pretty much sucks for Oswalt’s character, but Oswalt himself shines in this kind of sadsack role, which works even better if, like us, you never thought Oswalt’s loser schtick was really all that funny anyway. In Big Fan, it’s the real thing. And it hurts like hell.

ALSO NEW IN THEATERS: Halloween 2, Rob Zombie‘s remake of the sequel to Halloween, which finds yer old pal Michael Myers ready to stab some shit up (again); Thirst, the spooky Korean thriller (which cleaned up at Cannes) about a priest who dies, then comes back EVIL; Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee‘s retelling of the Woodstock fable; Play The Game, which seems to have its sole purpose in reminding you that Andy Griffith cannot possibly be long for this world; and The Final Destination, which is like Tru Calling meets I Know What You Did Last Summer meets, oh, I dunno, Talladega Nights.

For more recommendations on films currently in theaters, visit Philebrity’s Film Sweat archive. And click here for movie times.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 2:08 pm.