not that bad

Rating: Null/10 (14 April 2000)

okay, this is hardly a great movie, but it does have an interesting premise, and the script is suitably interesting. for one thing, it's interesting that de niro's character, ostensibly the protagonist, is so thoroughly unlikable (and, in fact, the villain when all is said and done). it's a pretty rare film in which we follow the psychotic villain around.
the soundtrack, which was heavy on nine inch nails, was very well used. the scene in which de niro throws his knife to kill a bug on a wall was made ten times cooler by the climactic NIN track that accompanied it.
cinematographically, though, the movie was pretty strange, and at times confusing (when i don't think it was trying to be)... the sauna murder scene was filmed as though it were a dream--first with de niro flashing back to his (incorrect) version of the events that preceded the killing, and then the slow-mo, again NIN-accompanied, act itself. it took me about five minutes to realize that it had actually happened.
from a baseball standpoint, as a couple of others have mentioned, the game scenes are pretty ridiculous. every time someone hits the ball, scott cuts to a shot in which a ball is seen arcing as though thrown by someone with a bad arm. i was, however, pretty pleased to see the names of real baseball players in the stunt crew credits.
overall, this movie is a pretty cut-and-dried psychological thriller--not too horribly bad, but not with anything particularly new to offer either. it's probably worth a rent.