Fight Club

Rating:
Summary: Take Your Seat..You're in for a RIDE
Review: This movie was remarkably well done. It mixes wit and suspense with a "What's wrong with the world these days?" flare. Brad Pitt is outstanding-he plays a bit of a nut, as he did in 12 Monkeys. The person that makes the movie though is Edward Norton...with such movies as Rounders and American History X..it isn't hard to see how that could be. The movie had me from the beginning to the very end. It's hard to say much about it without ruining the movie, so the best I can say is that it is a wild ride that takes you through the life of a person at his breaking point..if you liked Falling Down...this is 1,000 times better and had more twists than 6th Sense. Definitly a must see for those who don't like movies that are predictable, and people who like movies that are fresh in concept. I would actually buy it [now] just so I could be watching it while everyone else was waiting for the price to drop..I watched it 4 times in 2 days...it's definitly a movie you watch more than once!

Rating:
Summary: perhaps the best DVD version of a movie yet released
Review: title- A great film to own, but wait for the DVD

Fight Club is a fantastic film... In it's original and unique style, Fincher has created a method of artisitic film that I'm sure will copied over and over again.

But it's not the style that draws you to the film; it's the immersive world of the nameless Narrator (Edward Norton), a world all to familiar because it is ours.

Tough, gripping, and cynical, Fight Club asks us to step aside and take a look at our own consumer culture and ask ourselves if we like what we see: That is the real message at the heart of the movie, and it is conveyed through the nihilistic icon Tyler Durden. Durden's dark philosophy is not meant to be something imitated or looked up to; Tyler is a warning, he is representative of the cultural dissident that will inevitably be created by the empty consumer culture in which we live. The message is that if we don't fix ourselves, Tyler may be our only solution.

Even if you'd rather overlook the deep philosophical subtexts within the film, Fight Club is an enjoyable, fast-paced, uniquely staccato-styled film that grips you by the throat and won't let go. You couldn't stop watching it even you wanted to.

The DVD version of Fight Club, with it's endless extras, and capacity for INCREDIBLE home theater experience, is probably one of the best DVD versions of a film that has yet been released!

Rating:
Summary: It is, infact, nothing to do with underground boxing
Review: Although the actual "fight club" itself is a kick start to the premise of the film, it is not the basis of Fincher's finest as many people have misinterpreted. So for the people who haven't seen it on this basis, this is what it is really about: The fighting that I believe it refers to is the fight against corperate and social control. It is a story that provides a way to combat the people that provide the comforts that we don't need. The fact that it is told through the eyes of a mentally unstable character is almost irrelevant although it is an integral part of the tale. As the un-named Norton slowly turns into what can be be described as a "freedom fighter" along with the psychotic Tyler Durden, we relate to - and understand - all the acts of vandalism they carry out. Suberbly shot, edited and performed, this is a text that film students will be studying in the near future as I'm sure it will eventually achieve classic status.

Rating:
Summary: An Adrenaline Rush for your mind
Review: I went to see Fight Club in the Theatre only because I had two hours to kill. The advertising didn't appeal to me at all. By watching the trailers, I thought the movie was repulsive. The only descent part seemed to be the score. Irony is good. This movie proved to be unbelievably excellent. This was Brad Pitt's Edward Norton's best performance ever. David Fincher has never been so perfect. It became an obsession. I read the book, bought the poster, read the websites, and took up smoking. Ever since the day I saw Fight Club, I have lived and breathed Tyler Durden. I even induced insomnia on myself. This film is much more than that. It is an asylum from the world built inside parameters. It is a two and a half hour adrenaline rush for your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Why man invented war and nihilism in the first place...
Review: ...malaise and boredom and testosterone ain't required in large doses when you're typing on a keyboard. (And don't you forgit that!) What gets my goat is that like the film suggests, if some schizophrenic wants to start something like the club, there will be plenty of folks lining up in the hallways to sign up...Ed Norton is turning out to be one of our most gifted thespians...

Rating:
Summary: .
Review: An intriguing, stylish, fresh, original, and sneeringly cynical movie that starts strong, progresses interestingly, and then sloppily unravels into chaos. The same progression can be witnessed in Fincher's last film, The Game, but unfortunately the Game didn't have enough going for it to save it from it's own goofiness -- Fight Club does. It is an engaging, quirky, and inspiring movie, and David Fincher brings all of its odd little details vividly to life. It's also a thought-provoking movie whose shots at our society are well-aimed, although it's all incredibly hypocritical feeling coming from Brad Pitt and a mainstream Hollywood production. No? I liked the film, but people -- particular not-very-cool, alienated young males -- get *way* too excited about it. If Hollywood gives them something "deep," they can appreciate it -- especially if it has Brad Pitt, stylish direction, and a kickin' techno soundtrack to back it up -- but half of them wouldn't read a volume of Nietzche to save their lives (who, incidentally, the film owes much to.) I question people who are only inspired to philosophical thought when it "kicks ass."

It's not a bad movie. But it's far from a perfect movie, and frankly the last half-hour is, if entertaining, rather silly. The very end is even sillier, and after the pseudo-intellectual firepower of the first half of the film (I don't mean that as a put-down) I was left a bit disappointed. I felt like the movie, for all of the fascinating ideas it toyed with, didn't ultimately know quite what it wanted to say. The Marla character feels like a fifth wheel, and is handled clumsily, suggesting vaguely that either the writer or director just didn't know what to do with "the woman" in this film. She's f*cked violently, tossed aside for large chunks of time, picked on, ordered to "shut up" in the middle of sex, and then reeled back in at the very end so that she can hold hands with Norton for the final scene. How sweet. The film's focus is, I think, male psychology and some of its problems, so you might pass it off like that, but it just struck me as ... a bit juvenile-feeling, and not serving any particular intention.

But all this is simply in response to the one too many dorky 20-something guys I've personally seen get *way* too excited over this film. I'm glad it's striking a chord, and it has a lot of good things going for it -- I recommend it -- I'm just saying, cool off, and take this sh*t with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: A MOVIE THAT STAYS WITH YOU
Review: I saw this movie for the first time four days ago and I havenot been able to get it out of my head since. It's one of thosemovies that stays with you. I had no desire to see it, but I am soglad that I did. I definitely recommend it. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Juvenile fraudulence.
Review: "Fight Club" is a how-to movie; e.g., how to diss the "Establishment" and otherwise act like a twelve-year-old. We learn the liberating catharsis of going to the bathroom in someone's soup, spraying water on passers-by, beating the hell out of our friends, forming a terrorist boys' club, and so forth. Immature young men will be deliciously provoked by this movie; others will want to give it a wide berth.

Brad Pitt wears obnoxious floral-print shirts and a bottle of Dep on his head. Edward Norton's Narrator is self-referentially chatty -- he won't allow us to simply absorb what we're seeing; he must give us a smart-alleck play-by-play of everything. The photography is some of the worst I've seen lately: it has the color of Army camouflage (but I guess that's what's supposed to be clever about it).

The film tries to be "intelligent" early on, but only achieves a facile cleverness. It's far too conscious of the audience's reactions, which mars the supposed purpose of "enlightening" us to the ugly truths about our commericalized society. The truth about Tyler Durden, as revealed at the end of the movie, will not surprise smart viewers, but it will doubtlessly blow away its target audience: angry 15-year-old boys who will make a cult phenom of it, forever placing it in the ranks of the Cool Movies. Well, for me? -- no thanks.

Rating:
Summary: fists and fuel bombs
Review: There is a (perhaps growing) element of macho anarchism that this film explores, much like American History X did in melodramatic form. It is built around a tribal male bonding that can be seen in various densities in the streets of our cities, the bleachers of sports stadiums, or for that matter, the offices of the corporate empire which is the ostensible villain of this fable. Fight Club treats this world with stylish, comedic objectivity. The neurotic protagonist(s) display the polarities of cynical conformity and violent revolt to the petty, fraudulent culture around them. Something 'real' is found for a time in bareknuckle fisticuffs, a thudding embrace of physical extremes and provocations to 'civilized' society. But as these things go, it devolves into outright sabotage and guerilla warfare. They create a substrata free of social affectations, or more accurately replace these with their own. There is a sinister side to this subculture in the flesh, exemplified in gangsters, hooligans, skinheads and wall street raiders; but this films treats it all with surreal satire.

Most of the movie takes place in basements, and at night, in the lost outer regions of the rust belt. This forms an encroaching perimeter as the jungle retakes the bones of ruined industry, turning its icons of 'progress' into its weapons-- soap out of lyposuction, explosives out of orange juice and fertilizer. The film is very well acted. The unnamed narrator's (Ed Norton) cool incomprehension contrasts sympathetically with the schizophrenic mastermind in the out of control Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Director Fincher never lets the on screen pathos, intrude on the dark humour though. Helen Bonham Carter manages to be both a wasted, end of the tether female gargoyle and deliciously sexy as well.

The whole thing is like an inverted Eden story, innocence of a sort reclaimed, somewhere beyond rock bottom. It really has to be watched twice to 'get' some of the ambiguous dialogue once all is revealed. The film might have worked better if it left a little more to imagination. It became cartoonish in spots where some well placed dramatic irony and understatement might have sufficed more effectively. Still, the film evokes a portentous finality. If the end of days is here, this gothic black comedy has its number, much more so than any of the year's apocalyptic extravaganzas. The message is its all around you, seeing it is just a question of attitude. Despite its flaws-- the invention, cast and generally enjoyable mayhem deserve a bonus star, up to 5, especially for this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Best Film of 1999 will be the best DVD of 2000.
Review: This vastly under-rated (and misunderstood) film is one of the best films of the 90's. From the stylish, gritty, flashy direction of David Fincher (Se7en, The Game), to the career-high performances of Oscar nominees Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, to the devilishly conceived story (very faithfully adapted from the brilliant Chuck Palahniuk novel), this is a film that should be in absolutely everyone's collection.

The most often misunderstood facet of this film is its intention. Fight Club does not glorify violence. It is not an over-sensationalized piece of propaganda. It is a scathing, intricately woven social satire.

And for DVD collectors out there - this one is going to be HOT! The DVD edition has absolutely everything you're looking for - and even without the added features, this is a film whose high level of visual and audio accomplishment deserves to be viewed on DVD. And the score (composed by the Dust Brothers) is one of the most unique and effective you will ever hear.

A Masterpiece.