I don't care how smart you are, you don't have a clue what this movie is about.

Rating: 9/10 (22 October 1999)

I went in to Fight Club expecting to see a hep Rocky-type flick with a kooky, underground, genX, caper style edge to it. In fact, I expected little or nothing. Was I wrong? In every sense of the word, and then some.
Instead Fight Club delivers a strange, tense, funny, surreal, demented, thought provoking, even charming experience. The movie is just plain good. It confounds your expectations from the opening frame and keeps it up until the credits roll. Edward Norton is very good as an overworked, corporate nothing whose search for meaning leads him to Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt's character, and into some pretty strange basements. Brad Pitt does his best Brad Pitt, which is never bad, and brings to his role exactly what it needs, namely: Brad Pitt. Helena Bonham Carter must be jumping for joy being able to play a character from the 20th century, albeit the creepiest character since Isabella Rossalini in Blue Velvet.
David Fincher brings his usual sense of style and lushness to the visuals making the movie nearly tangeable. The almost obscene amount of blood and bodily fluids in the flick will make most squirm, but somehow Fincher is able to keep it from becoming too much. The rest of the movie has more twists than a pretzel factory and actually contains a moral lesson. If morals aren't for you there's more than enough action to go around.
So far, 1999 has shaped up to be the year of the mindf**k, at least as far as movies go, and Fight Club will stand out as a strong contender if not the winner by a TKO. Go see it. I dare you.