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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 67.03%
Worth A Look: 15%
Average: 4.73%
Pretty Bad: 3.11%
Total Crap: 10.14%
26 reviews, 584 user ratings
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| Fight Club (1999) |
by Erik Childress
"Funny and Disturbing. What a One-Two!!!"
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Fight Club (****) – Fight Club is without a doubt one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. And I mean that in the sense that I was very uncomfortable watching it during many of its graphic scenes, but I couldn’t deny the savage power of this movie.Fight Club is also the scariest movie I’ve seen all year. Yes, scarier than The Blair Witch Project. Scarier than The Sixth Sense. Scarier than any bad movie I’ve seen. This film is like a self-help book on crack and should be taken seriously enough to scare you but not seriously enough to actually invest anything in the theories being advanced. After all, director David Fincher goes to great lengths to remind you time and time again that this is just a movie, taking little intermissions to explain what a projectionist does (or shouldn’t do – even though I did exactly what Pitt does to a couple of films I made in high school), or showing us the sprocket holes threatening their way into the frames, or even a throwaway joke like “hmmm….flashback humor”. This is just a movie folks. And I say that as I wait for the first report that someone “apparently influenced by the recent film Fight Club” committed some sort of vandalism. Rules 1 & 2 are you don’t talk about Fight Club. And that’s good advice, because it’s very hard to go into a lot of the themes of this movie without giving away its plot twists so I will tread carefully. Fight Club is a brutal, edgy, uncompromising piece of American cinema that plays by its own rules. And have I mentioned how funny it is? It gets some big early laughs just for some of the chances it takes and it’s the kind of laughter that has you covering your mouth, wondering if you should be laughing at all. Like I said, I found myself in a perpetual state of uneasiness as this film slid into it’s 2nd half. The character that Brad Pitt brings to life on screen is one of the most reprehensible characters I’ve ever seen in a major motion picture. He is essentially a modern-day Hitler who makes Norton’s character in American History X look like Gandhi. If anyone out there reading this review agrees with any of the actions taken by Tyler Durden in this film, please do the world a favor and kill yourself. In fact the performances by the three leads are so good that they almost become invisible under the intense storyline and brutality. Brad Pitt should do all of his films with David Fincher. Edward Norton is once again terrific in kind of a psychotic take on Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham from American Beauty. It’s nice to see Helena Bonham Carter in a mainstream movie other than her The Wings of the Remains of Howard’s End with a View films. She’s terrific and slyly sexy. Here is another movie (like Three Kings) is a giant metaphor for the 90s yuppie lifestyle. Full of support groups (including one for testicular cancer ,a.k.a. men who have lost their balls), pop culture icons like Starbucks and Ikea, the movie cries out for the loss of male machismo throughout the years, and what lengths the male species will go to to get it back, including joining clubs, or more relevant to this film, cults. But Fight Club doesn’t necessarily support the choices taken by its characters and the critics who dislike this movie seem to be missing this point. Ebert once again continues to amaze me at his inconsistency. He disliked Fight Club for the twists it pulls off and also disliked the endings to The Usual Suspects and Arlington Road. But he continues to greatly support two of the most improbable surprise endings in history – The Sixth Sense and The Game (which was also directed by Fincher) The movie is manipulative and tricky towards the end, but you will be shocked at its revelations. I was and was blindsided as the third act takes the film to a whole other level that I wasn’t expecting in the least. Like I said earlier, to elaborate on where this film goes would be a sacrilege. And you are warned. This is a pounding, visceral experience, but not exactly a most pleasant one. It’s not exactly the most violent film you’ll ever see, but because it’s violence is so savage and primal, it will seem that way. Don’t go in expecting the next Bloodsport or Gladiator. In fact, probably less than a half hour of the 139-minute running time is devoted to actual boxing.This is a complex and challenging film that will numb you to the core and make you feel a little more disenchanted with the world in which we live. It’s not for those with weak stomachs (or minds), but it’s one of the best films of the year. (Note: David Fincher’s streak continues. I don’t want to give anything away, but now all four of his directorial efforts have something in common. If you want to know what I mean, send me an e-mail after you’ve seen this movie.)
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1552&reviewer=198
originally posted: 02/15/00 16:04:22
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USA
15-Oct-1999 (R)
DVD: 06-Jun-2000
UK
12-Nov-1999 (18)
Australia
11-Nov-1999 (R)
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