Rating: Summary: The Reason to Get a DVD Player Review: Let's leave aside the fact that "Fight Club" is one of the best films of the past 10 years, it is the reason I bought a DVD player. Disc one is the movie in all it's glory, with several commentaries that are very worth listening too. I truly enjoy the banter that goes on between Pitt and Fincher, similar to the commentary in "Se7en" (another stellar DVD...). The second disc is a varitable candy store for fans of this movie. As a girl, I was told that I was going to hate this movie, or like it just because of Brad Pitt shirtless (but in all honesty I am much more a Norton fan!), but I have proved them wrong. "Fight Club" is a movie for a lost generation. The cast is stellar, the filming is dark and moody- perfect for the film, and the script translates the idea of the book to the screne admirably. The book, on that thought, is also really wonderful. Though the movie differs from the book slightly, if you enjoy one you'll undoubtably enjoy the other. Buy this DVD and put aside a few hours to explore it....and be quite content doing it!
Rating: Summary: A Modern-Day Psychological, Social Commentary Thriller! Review: An excellent action movie with a physcological thriller effect that comments on the current tendency of society to obsess over modern-day conveniences and desires to live a posh lifestyle of wealth, self advancement, and comfort. The paradoxical lives of the lead character's alter-ego in contrast to his depressing modern-day desire for self-improvent and perfection shed light and warning on values of the American public. How consumerism and marketing has brainwashed us and how we have lost senses of ur true selves and the things that makes us individuals. How we strive to live to the expectations of how we think others will percieve us. And how the male psyche has been watered down by political correctness, feminization, and ironically our own self perceptions of manhood. The movie is a satire on how we strive to control our lives against fate and how we depress ourselves trying to live up to something we are not. And how we give up on being ourselves. Brad Pitt plays an excellent role. One of his best acting performances I have ever seen. The movie has an element of "Blue Velvet" feeling to it of a twisted psychosexual control of the male ego.
Rating: Summary: If this is your first night... Review: Fight Club is one of the best novel to movie translations i have ever seen. The plot moves at a nice pace, the actors nail their respective characters, and Fincher's directing sets the mood for the film perfectly. The Dust Brothers throw down tracks for the beat-thumping score, and the whole movie emits grit, violence, and humor through every frame.
Rating: Summary: Greatest DVD Of ALL Time!!!!!!!!!! Review: This has to be the SINGLE most greatest DVD/Movie of all time.First lets start with the DVD itself.The cover is the coolest thing I've EVER seen and it gets even better as you open it up and see the little booklet with excerpts from magazine, film "people" and the author of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk.Its just great and the cover would be anythin to catch anyones eye. Now the movie has to be the best movie ever made, its just hilariously funny and smart. If your into dark comedies this has to be the one for you. It has such a great plot and such memorable lines that just crack you up laughing.I recommend that anyone that has a brain buy this DVD, its not a waste of your money at all, unlike some movies out there now.
Rating: Summary: Target Audience Review: When a film emerges that simultaneously condemns and condones consumerism I am always amazed. I wonder how it is that the icons of our consumer society are willing to let their names be used as a symbol for our collective decadence. Fight Club is an amazing film for anyone interested in topics ranging from Noam Chompsky to bare-knuckle boxing. For me, this was about the closest Hollywood has ever come to making a film that I would make. Perhaps, this was even better. I am prompted to write this review after seeing FC several times, but a friend of mine who recently visited had not - and I was amazed. FC will probably be manditory viewing for English 101 classes across the Western world within a decade - either that or it will be outlawed. Peace everyone.
Rating: Summary: Huh-huh-huh, blowing stuff up is cool Review: "Fight Club" tries to be provocative and oh-so-hip, but it's essentially an ugly, mean-spirited -- and worse yet, *pointless* -- tantrum. You can't help despising every one of the characters. Ed Norton plays a weak, neurotic nonentity. Helena Bonham Carter plays a thoroughly unpleasant lowlife -- the sort of woman who wouldn't care if she were wearing underwear even if she were hit by the proverbial bus (which, by the time she'd been in the movie ten minutes, I was devoutly hoping for). Brad Pitt (whose character "Tyler" inspired similar bus longings) plays an insufferable overaged brat. He's a smug, know-it-all windbag who spouts preachy anti-materialistic rants -- while wearing expensive trendy clothes -- but in garish colors, so we know that he's a "nonconformist". Luckily for Tyler, his physical attractiveness lends a specious credibility to his lectures, because their content was simplistic and hackneyed -- we've all heard it many times before, done better. If they'd cast, say, Dennis Franz in that part, the tirades would have had the underwhelming effect that they actually merited. The movie begins with the content and theme of a fair-to-middling "Dilbert" comic strip -- suburban white guys whining about how they can no longer assume as a given a life of effortless wealth, privilege, and power. Their jobs are dull and don't offer intellectual challenge, spiritual fulfillment, or satisfaction. In other words, because of evil corporations... or having been raised by single mothers... (or something)... they've been cheated out of what they'd considered their rightful due, and are now stuck with the same problems that everyone thinks normal when faced by women, African-Americans, and the working class. For some reason -- possibly because the filmmakers quite correctly surmised that a movie consisting entirely of anti-corporate sermons wouldn't sell very many tickets -- Tyler's solution is to reclaim their masculinity... or overthrow the corporate hierarchy... (or something)... by picking fistfights and blowing stuff up. This becomes popular with other suburban white guys with way too much time on their hands, who decide that they're all victims, too, and that they all want to pick fights and blow stuff up, too. This spirals out of control, Sorcerer's-Apprentice-like, and (d)evolves into a dystopian cult/army of suburban white guys; complete with rules, chants, and rituals (see what I mean about these people having way too much time on their hands?); every bit as dehumanizing as their jobs. The members of "Fight Club" start as sheep-like drones mindlessly obeying corporate bosses, and end as sheep-like drones mindlessly obeying rabid-dog sociopath Tyler. The movie has the nerve to try to pass this off as rebellion... or asserting their individuality... (or something). Granted, the movie is well made, well acted, and visually interesting. Granted, it makes points -- about the amorality of megacorporations and the inadequacy of consumer capitalism as a substitute for independence, worthwhile work, and fulfillment -- which are valid, and might even have been thought-provoking, had they not been delivered in such a God-awful heavy-handed fashion. Anyone intelligent enough to contemplate such issues doesn't need them pounded home with a sledgehammer. But a competent presentation of a ridiculous, muddled premise ("Single mothers"? Who is this -- Dan Quayle?) is worse than an incompetent one, because it's harder to dismiss. The filmmakers attempt to disguise/justify/redeem the movie's hateful, no-win false dichotomy (one can escape being a victim only by victimizing others) with trite thematic content (materialism bad), but all that does is make it prissy and hypocritical as well as thuggish -- like putting a doily over a Sherman tank. The movie has no African-American, Hispanic, or blue-collar characters, although those groups face at least as many difficulties and injustices as the middle-class office workers depicted. The lone woman character is physically and personally repellent -- worse, her only purpose is as a spittoon for the men. So if I understand correctly: The movie has no blacks, no Hispanics, no working-class people, only one woman (who's a caricature, and loathsome as well), and crypto-Nazis (Tyler actually confesses he renders soap from human flesh -- but it comes from fat people, so that's supposed to be hilarious and cool -- apparently he's not quite subversive enough to deconstruct mainstream esthetics), setting bombs and beating people up as a solution to depersonalization... but it *does* rag on Ikea. REAL progressive! Get a clue, fellas. If your self-worth and autonomy depend on a "masculinity" defined as brutality, a dull job is the least of your problems. It's supposed to be shocking news that jobs are unrewarding sometimes? Companies are in business to make money -- period -- and *nobody's* life is fun every minute of every day. Imbuing your life with meaning is *your* responsibility, not your employer's. If you're bored or unfulfilled -- paint a picture, climb a mountain, volunteer at the homeless shelter -- do whatever matters to *you*. If you hate Ikea -- don't buy their stuff. If you hate consumerism -- throw your cellphone in the trash and wear your 1980s-vintage stonewashed jeans until they fall apart. Or wouldn't that be trendy enough? Testosterone run amuck and mindless nihilism have cathartic appeal to angry, frustrated adolescent boys of all ages, but they don't make for a good story, nor interesting filmmaking. Despite pretending to be a Deep Meaningful Parable... (or something), "Fight Club" is still very obviously a movie about picking fistfights and blowing stuff up, and not much more. Presenting bombings and beatings as self-empowerment is reprehensible enough without also insulting the viewer's intelligence with a smokescreen of "moral" posturing -- to say nothing of the infuriatingly condescending assumption that those who disagree "just don't get it". Even Brad Pitt with his shirt off can't make this movie watchable -- and I am a person who likes looking at Brad Pitt with his shirt off. Unless you prefer your dimwitted violence with a side order of sanctimonious rhetoric, skip this movie and watch "Beavis and Butthead" -- at least they're funny.
Rating: Summary: What is left to say? Review: Wow... the reviews for this film certainly do swing from one extreem to another. Fight Club came out during my freshman year in college, and i never planned on seeing it, untill a Girl that i know, told me i had to see it. I figured it was because of Brad Pit that she enjoyed it so much. I walked out of the theatre in what you could call a state of shock. This movie took me places that I never thought possible. It was more twisted than my own personal daydreams... this movie rocked. So when it came out on DVD, i bought it immeadiatly, and must have watched it 20-30 times in a row. Now, i know im not the brightest person out there, but im not slow either... I learned, watched or understood something new every time i watched it. and i still do. I would call this movie my anthem, the anthem for a 19 year old boy, who has just moved out into the world for himself, and trying to define himself. In a world of possessions, i think i learned the most valuable lesson that can be taught, from a movie called Fight Club. happines is not your clothes, toys, cars or amount of zeros in your bank account, happiness comes from your life, and what you make of it. Watch the movie, think about it, and Watch it again. it will make you think.
Rating: Summary: A classic and a landmark in modern filmmaking Review: In today's world of film and moviemaking, it is uncommon to see a movie apart from the 7 basic genre's: Action, Sappy "Feel Good" movies, Romantic Comedy, Teen Comedy, Family Film, Drama (which all seem to follow the same general path), and of course the ever-popular Horror Film wave that comes along every few years. Rarely does a film with such depth and wonder come along. Rarely does a film truly make you THINK these days (i.e. ACTIVE VIEWING). And when a film DOES make the audience think more than they normally would have to while watching a movie...it is rare that such a film would be widley accpeted by the masses. Yet Fight Club has accomplished all this and so much more. With absolutley incredible cinemotography this movie has taught me that it IS possible for modern film to be ART rather than something to keep us occupied. There is not a single aspect of this movie which I would critisize. The use of cinematogrpahy, costumes, symbolism, the acting, the direction, the dialogue, the screenplay, and just about everything about this movie truly reaches maximum potential. The movie follows Edward Norton through his most unusual journey to enlightenment and freedom. An insomniac, Norton searches for ways to ease his psychological unrest. He finds comfort in support groups but is quickly driven from this comfort by a new comer, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). Norton's chance meeting with the charismatic and wacky Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) leads him to a different sort of comfort. Tyler teaches Norton of the evils of society, consumerism etc... and encourages him to free himself of this consumer world. "It is only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything". Together they start "fight club", a "club" with 8, not very confining rules, that hosts an underground society of men who explore their masculinity by fighting eachother and by doing so, achieve freedom within themselves. However Tyler and Fight Club take a strange turn and Norton has to either continue on the path to enlightenment with Tyler or stop him before he carries out his plans of destroying the corporate world. Full of hundreds if not thousands of carefully placed hints, add ins, subtle jokes, subliminal "messages" (I find something new about the movie everytime I watch it. And trust me, I've watched it hundreds of times), and a fantastically well done twist at the end (which makes you want to go back and watch the movie again and again until you've discovered all the aspects that now seem to make so much more sense in light of the end twist), Fight Club gives us a dark, disturbing, satirical, and often hilarious view of the society we live in. The spectacular performances by Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonhem Cater show how incredible these actors can really be and have resulted in my undying respect for them (a respect that, before this movie, was highly underdeveloped or non-exsistant)and smaller roles played by actors such as Jared Leto ("Angel Face"), Eion Bailey (Ricky aka "Space Monkey"), and Meatloaf (Robert "Bob" Paulson) contribute to the darkness, the satire, and the comedy of the film. Clearly an all around wonderful film, one that will go down in history and that will not be forgotten. This DVD version of the film just makes it all the better. It gives spectacular insight into the making of the film, the message of the film, and much more. I particularly enjoyed the commentary by Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonhem Carter, and David Fincher. I highly recommend this DVD edition. I also recommend the book "Fight Club" by Chuck Phalahniuk.
Rating: Summary: Probably the best film ever released Review: What can I say? This is my all-time favorite movie, and even if it doesn't reach that status with you, you'll certainly like it. Fight Club is amazing, and it's hard to compress into some review text just how great it is. Both dramatically and comedically this film shines. It's hilarious and at the same time, darkly brooding and thoughtful. It takes "dark comedy" to new heights. The cinematography and acting are excellent - Edward Norton rips out his best performance ever as the cynical twig cubical dweller trying on a get-tough face, and Brad Pitt's anarchistic devil-may-care Tyler Durden steals the show (as intended). When my friend asked me to watch this with her, I hadn't a clue what to expect. The previews for the film in 1999 didn't give the right impression of it, since the film has a lot more depth and complexity to it than fighting and soap. This is beyond a "cult" classic, this is genre-busting theater that should be essential to every movie collection. It's a shame this didn't quite get all the attention it deserved. Top-notch directing, acting, and production - plus a killer script - makes this an all-around magnificent showing. It doesn't get old and every viewing there's new details to uncover. Psst... how many times does Tyler Durden appear in the beginning? No, I mean BEFORE his official entrance?... An excellent film. Buy it now, from anywhere, on any format - just have it and watch it. You can't regret a movie this good.
Rating: Summary: "First Rule of Fight Club is..." Review: Dark, Hilarious, and visually stunning. Great performances from Pitt, Norton, and Carter with the incredible directing from David Fincher. This is THE Cult film. Fincher brings such great style with Palahniuk's story...it's mind blowing. The way he uses CG is fantastic.
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