Natural Born Renderers

Rating: 6/10 (29 December 2001)

I had many people, whose movie opinions I respect, tell me that 'Fight Club' was an excellent movie...a black commentary on the new twentygoingonthirtysomething angst/disaffection/rage. I see that is in the mid-30's on the IMDB Top 250, so many must agree.
I watched it recently, and have to say that it did not engage me to any degree. I have no objection to violence, surrealism, plot twists, or dark themes...all of which 'Fight Club' has in abundance. For example, I enjoy movies like 'Full Metal Jacket', 'Blue Velvet', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Seven', 'Goodfellas', and 'Memento'. All have violence and/or surrealism and/or plot twists and/or dark themes...in spades. So I had no predisposition to dislike this movie.
But I did. The individual elements are there, but it didn't work for me. As the movie progressed, I found myself anxiously waiting for it to end. Not to see the end, but for it to just be over. To give you a frame of reference, this movie very much fits into the 'Usual Suspects/L.A. Confidential' category for me. I did not like either of those movies, either, even though all evidence/buzz/previews/reviews indicated that I should love them, and disliking them put me in a very small minority.
Nonetheless, both Pitt and Norton do some excellent acting, and the direction sets the mood for which it shoots. It was also refreshing to watch something different from the endless stream of crud being excreted by Hollywood in the last few years. But, in my opinion, the story browbeats you with its point, rather than letting it be discovered.