The Fanatic

The fact that I keep thinking about Moose, feeling sadness and empathy for him is a testament to JT's performance as he shows the innocence in this man's eyes and heart while doing horrible things. Only a great actor can pull this off and he does. He is chilling, scary and heartbreaking at the same time. If Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks can get awards so should Travolta. This is a super tough role to play and he does an amazing job, very committed. No one was attacking the Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade as a mentally challenged man so I don't see why The Fanatic should be criticized in any way. This movie make you seat at the edge of your seat, makes you think about social issues, and definitely makes you feel sympathetic towards Moose all due to great directing and superb acting. There should be awards here.

Lots of higher scoring horror/thriller type movies released lately and they're all trash. This low scorer roped me in because of Fred Durst and John Travolta, a little slow to start but Travolta pulls off an almighty all out out crazy that's worth waiting for. Theres few hidden eggs and the line "she is not a good nurse" really tickled me. Give it a go it's actually alright. Better than a 4 - I'd of thought it to be a 5.5

Although this may not be John Travolta's greatest, it's still not bad. It comes off more as comedic, but Travolta delivers his role very well as an autistic middle aged fan boy. I thought the ending was good and a little sad. When he got his hand blown off and stabbed in the eye, the cries of pain sounded authentic and unsettling. It made me feel sad for Moose and you can see Dunbar felt remorse for his actions. Moose's way of thinking and going about things were dangerous and wrong, but he was simply at his breaking point with being pushed around by everyone. If Dunbar would have simply just given Moose 5 minutes of his time to just sign an autograph so he would go away, he wouldn't be dealing with this life altering mess. Now nobody is going to believe Dunbar's story. A body of a woman he tried to seduce is in his yard that he likely went maybe a day or 2 without noticing. What's he going to say?? "A crazy fanboy named "Moose" has been stalking me and likely did it!" It sure doesn't sound believable since he often drinks and takes heavy sleeping medication. I think this film is definitely worth a watch, Travolta gave a great performance!

After seeing the rating on here i was expecting a lot worse. To be honest, at first i found Travolta's character to be weird and hard to watch but Travolta gave a brilliant performance. Im surprised I'm even writing that myself given my thoughts on his last decades work. This film gives you an insight into how untreated mental illnesses can have damaging effects to their lives. Definitely worth a watch to give your own opinion as i reckon it's a bit like Marmite.

This has to be one of the greatest pieces of "so bad it's good" cinema in a while. If you're fans of "The room" , "Birdemic", "showgirls" and Neil Breen, you will surley enjoy this piece of confusing "mishmash" of a movie, with undeveloped bunch of pointless charecters, with unclear motives and charecteristics, strange editing, very aqward dialogues and the hair. Most of all I just don't get the hair. Just becaouse someone is Autistic or suffers from a developmental disability, doesn't mean he cuts his hair with a lawn mower. Who cares, the whole things is just super funny. Also funny: all the positive reviews here posted by sientologists. Make sure you watch it with good friends and plenty od sarcasm.

You could respect this movie on John Travolta's performance, which is pretty good. He plays the role somewhat believably, and isn't necessarily over-acting or anything like that. Co-stars like Devon Sawa also turn in some good performances as well. Everyone is reasonably believable. The cinematography is also pretty okay. Scenes are well staged, well lit, and generally the movie looks good, I suppose. On a production level, everything works! But it's still a very difficult movie to watch. Travolta plays a very innocent character named Moose, who is on the autistic spectrum, and the whole movie is essentially about beating up on him. When it's not beating up on Moose, it's asking you to feel sorry for him. I can't remember a single moment where the movie portrays this guy as a human being. Every single scene is an uncomfortable test of your empathy as everything that can go wrong, does, to the point where it becomes an unrealistic spiral. As far as concepts for a movie go, that could work, but The Fanatic does not have the subtle touch required to broach the subjects it attempts to tackle. It tries to avoid making Moose look like a monster, but it's still mean spirited and dehumanizing. It's like 88 minutes of watching bullies pick on a nerd, both directly and indirectly, and I found that hard to sit through. Moose is presented almost as a circus side show act, where you're meant to gawk and point and feel pity. This is a movie that revels in second-hand embarrassment. I could not shake the sense that former musician and Director Fred Durst was working through some issues, and he's admitted the movie is based on personal experiences. I'm sure he's dealt with some pushy fans in his life, and that sucks for him, but this seems like a poor way to express that. And things don't get any better. Moose continues his downward spiral, constantly making the worst possible decisions, to the point where it almost becomes a cartoonish self-parody. Moose's autism is used as an excuse to wave away even the most absurd plot twists, and it all comes to a peak in a climax I would describe as "frustratingly convenient." I don't know what this movie was trying to say. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, as the credits rolled. This is a cynical movie at best. It offers no justification for why it exists. It says nothing. It's an excuse to make you cringe for an hour and a half. Maybe you like that, but it's not really my style. Though the rest of the film may be competent, as a story, it just sucks. Avoid The Fanatic.

It's labeled as a thriller, but I find it hard to believe that this isn't a comedy. I just watched an interview with John Travolta about this movie. They were talking about how spooky and disturbing the movie is. John said. "We've never seen this story before...we've never seen these characters before." I don't even know what to say to that.

I am amazed at how much Travolta's fans stick by him. Anyone who will seriously say that this was a good film watched it with Travolta tunnel vision. The acting is all over the place, one minute he's an autistic man, then a schizophrenic or a psychopath...wow talk about your triple diagnosis'. The entire story is laughable to the point where you're sure that it must have been intentionally comedic...but you'd be wrong, it's just a bad script and terrible acting. "Battlefeild Earth" has a new challenger for worse Travolta film.

I only saw this (for free) because Chris Stuckmann described it as unintentionally hilarious, and he was right. If you enjoy pointing and laughing at bad movies, give this one a try because I am convinced The Fanatic is going in the So Bad It's Good hall of fame. Seriously, there's about 20 different moments in this movie that could easily become memes. Seeing a household name like Travolta do such an awful job portraying a mentally challenged man (sometimes he acts like he's on the spectrum, other times like he just has severe brain damage) is truly bizarre. P.S, did I mention this is a Fred Durst film?

Ok, so the film itself is not going to win any oscars and its just above average for me but what is it with the doom and gloom merchants slating John Travolta just because his last few movies have been pretty dire - that does not mean he is still not a good actor. After many years of giving us great performances how is it possible to lose any acting ability unless you are mentally ill but sadly this is the usual mentality of trying to bring someone down when they are famous, I though that was just a British thing and the Americans usually do the opposite but it seems that attitude has transferred across the channel? His performance in this was full of effort and pretty good to me and I have worked with Autistic and mentally ill folks and he does all the little things pretty much spot on - the riding of the scooter wobbling all over the place had me in stitches and his performance is what makes the movie shine above the less than average it would have been given if he had not been in it. In short John Travolta makes the movie rise above the mediocre bargain bin it would have been in without him. Watch it; never listen to the critics, just use your own judgement and you might be surprised! Honest and above average 6/10 from me!