all style, no substance

Rating: 1/10 (3 October 1999)

Just came from a sneak preview of this movie, Edward Norton was nice enough to bring the movie to his alma mater, Yale University, but unfortunately it doesn't live up to the preliminary hype, or to the quality of his other work. The problem here isn't acting- he is still good in a demanding role that merited top billing(rather than being put under Pitt), and the rest of the cast does admirably as well, although Brad Pitt has played a role much like this before(see 12 Monkeys) and Helena Bonham Carter's role is pretty much as demeaning to women as it gets. Jared Leto and Meat Loaf, yes, Meat Loaf, are also in this movie, although you may not recognize Leto with a badly scared face or Meat Loaf with breasts(no, I didn't stutter). This film owes a lot to The Game, David Fincher's last movie, in that it ends up with a complex plot that is solved a little too easily and non-logically- I won't destroy the film by explaining how exactly, but the movie basically builds up to a climax that just doesn't resolve much, and then resolves that with a further illogical ending. The laughs along the way are not for the faint of heart or those who don't appreciate black comedy, but they are the highlights of the film, from the odd humor of Norton and Carter being addicted to help sessions for diseases they don't have, to Pitt's interesting use of liposuction byproducts. There's never too much appeal to the violence of the movie, but the combination of nihilism and comedy doesn't send the movie into mediocrity. It's when the movie turns serious that it starts to turn sour, as the plot twists out of control and a strange comedy turns into just another movie in the Seven/The Game/The Matrix genre of stylish, mindless violence without much purpose, point, or original plot. The script shows elements of literature that may have just been better in the original book, but otherwise, this is a movie with not much going for it except its cast. Answering questions, Edward Norton joked about how working with Brad Pitt was easier for him because he could always rag on him about Pitt's bad movies- "Whenever he'd get on me, I'd just have to say 'Cool World'"- and also said he thought he had yet to be part of a "stinker". This may just be his first, and Pitt's latest.