Insominiacs 'R US

Rating: Null/10 (8 May 2002)

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** Fight Club is a movie unto itself.
When I first saw, I knew it would be something different. When I first saw it, I had seen recent thrillers and comedies with twists (The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, and Blair Witch Project), so I was in the mindset of twists and turns. But this one was something else. I will admit to having not read the book (a shame I know). At first I thought it would be basically a movie about a bunch of lowlifes in a basment boxing club who get messed with the wrong crowd and start some real mischief. In a way, it really did meet my expectations. But FC has something else...it attacks consumerism and corporate life all the way down to the food we order at lunch counters. In the end it destroys the very essence of capitalism (the highrises in a mythical city, presumably Los Angeles).
I was thouroughly shocked by D. Finchers "The Game" and awed (and grossed out) by "Se7en", but this was almost (key word almost) too much for its own good. For it preserves itself carefully.
The first half is really better, with Narrator (Ed Norton) battleing his own boredoms, insomnia and girl troubles with Marla (Helena Bohnam Carter), that he solidifies his alter-ego into Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). After getting butted out of his "therapy" sessions where he releases his pent up emotions to sympathetic ears by Marla, he meets his alter-ego in an airplane, blows up his apartment, and moves into a rathole near a reeking papermill. His alter-ego controlls him so much, that it literally causes Narrator to have two personalities (Tyler and Jack). "They" form a secret underground (both literally as its in basement of a bar, and figuratively) club that allows the participants to pummel, beat, and overpower each other to the spectacle and amusement of the other participants, all with no strings attached. Fighting to fight to belong" no grudges settled, no enemies formed, everyone is everyone else's friend but the catch is...you have to fight on a regular basis. We have Fight Club. Women of course are excluded, as its a catharsis for male suppressed rage.
The 2nd half instead starts to form a mission by Tyler Durdens Army, all active fighters in Fight Club, to destroy the foundation of consumerism, capitalims, and power, with narrator finally understanding that he, himself is the instigator of all the mayhem. The ending is silly, but it but it holds together long enough, contrary to opinions of others.
One thing I still haven't figured out yet...what did Brad Pitt mean by "Whats that smell" right as he "died"?
Soap, produced from human lypso suction treatments becomes the weapon of choice to manufacture the explosives.
The movie contains lots of quirky and entertaining scenes such as Narrator fighting himself in front of his boss; Tyler splicing pornographic images into family movies; and my personal favorite: Narrator having himself smothered (and crying) in the enormous swetty breast cleavage of a testicle-less Bob (Meat Loaf).
I plan to listen to the commentaries shortly.
Women especially will have doubts about this movie for its content can be somewhat blatantly offensive. Propogating the male ego...its testosteronic feel. The ultra-violence, the sexual dominance themes, the nasty behavior, the foul language. All things men love to think, but women can find repulsive. Definitely, not a first date movie, it would be better suited for a post-superbowl party.