Fight Club

Release Date:15 October 1999 (USA)
Director: David Fincher
Stars:Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf
Genres:Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Rating: 8.8/10 (IMDB.com)

I find movies that are violence with little more (aka, "Kill Bill") to be boring, and can't remember when I last tormented myself by sitting through one. Thus, when I first became aware of "Fight Club", I disregarded it, believing it to be a violence-filled, testosterone-driven movie likely to have little depth and an overly simple plot. I was judging the movie on it's title and the promotional images it was advertised with, and was not impressed with what I had concluded. Fortunately, "Fight Club" has proven to be more than just A list faces in a gratuitous violence movie - but a well developed story of an individual with ambition, psychological abnormalities, and an overactive imagination.

We never learn the main character's name (Edward Norton), although he uses several names throughout the movie. He narrates many scenes, offering an insight into his thoughts and actions to the audience. He's an analyst in the "compliance and liability" department of a "major automobile manufacturer" whose job includes long hours and frequent travel. He develops insomnia, which causes the narrator to go about his days in a daze; "When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake" he says, and seeks the help of his doctor.

His doctor refuses to prescribe medication to him, and when the narrator pleads with him, saying he's "in pain", the doctor sarcastically suggests "You wanna see pain? Swing by First Methodist Tuesday nights. See the guys with testicular cancer. That's pain." The narrator visits this support group, which is where he meets and befriends Robert Paulson (Meat Loaf).

The narrator finds that attending support groups allows him the release he needs to be able to sleep, and before long, he is visiting a different support group each day of the week. Finally he is able to sleep and feels much better for it.

The narrator's therapy is abruptly disrupted by the presence of a newcomer to his support groups, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). Marla too is a "faker", one who visits the support groups without having the disease that the members meet to support, and the narrator's insomnia returns when he realizes that he can't get the same effect with another faker at the meetings. He confronts Marla and pleads with her to alternate her meetings with his, and she agrees.

The narrator is sent on a business trip. During his return flight, he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who introduces himself as one who "makes and sells soap". They share a few words before Durden hands the narrator his card and excuses himself.

Upon returning home, the narrator finds that his condominium has exploded, apparently from a gas leak. He finds Durden's card and calls him, asking if he could stay with him. Durden consents, and the two meet up and go to a bar.

As they are leaving the bar, Durden asks the narrator to do him a favor, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." The narrator is a bit surprised, but complies, punching Durden in the ear. Durden responds with punching the narrator in the gut, and the two take in the experience of pain.

They quickly find that through fighting, they can bond and feel the same release the narrator was getting from the support groups. They fight again in public, and draw a small crowd of spectators. In time, these spectators fight too, drawing attention and instigating what formalized into Fight Club.

As the narrator and Durden form Fight Club, it's rules are defined and it's membership swells. Fight Club eventually moves from the parking lot to the basement of the bar just as members become devoted to the club and its founders. Despite rules against talking about Fight Club, new members show up at each meeting looking to be initiated.

The movie continues with Fight Clubs formed in other cities, and Fight Club morphing into "Project Mayhem", a task based organization with more ambitious goals and more drastic means of achieving them. The movie ends with the same scene that it opened with, with the narrator and Durden poised to witness the culmination of Project Mayhem's efforts.

Generally, I do not like when movies hide key pieces of their story until the last few minutes before disclosing them to the audience. Fight Club does this, but it is quite forgivable. The surprise ending is virtually necessary to maintain the continuity and believability of the story, and it all but guarantees that the audience will want to watch Fight Club again.


My rating: excellent (out of superb)


posted by: Thomas

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

Date Released: April 30, 2010
Director:  Samuel Bayer
Cast: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker
Genre: Horror
Rating: 5.1/10 (IMDB.com)

     I really have to start updating my Netflix queue to have movies come that I actually want to see.  Low and behold the remake of Wes Cravens original classic "A Nightmare On Elm Street" (1984) arrived.  It came, I saw, I disliked.

     Must I go into elaborate detail about this mindless, complete waste of time?  We all probably know the whole story about Freddy Kruger; He was a child molester who was burned to death by an angry mob of parents in a boiler room.  Now, as if he was unjustifiably killed, Satan (I'm guessing) allows him to haunt and kill the very children he molested in their dreams.  Nice. 

     Lets go over what was good about the movie.  The special effects were OK, the acting wasn't terrible, and the dream sequences were semi-creative.  A trend with many of these new films is that they rely heavily on CGI and insult the audience in thinking we are too stupid to appreciate a solid storyline with good dialogue.  Jackie Earle Haley does a good job as the new Freddy Kruger.  The problem is we all grew up and loved the old Freddy, which prevents people from adapting to the new face and voice.  Dismissing my bias for the old Freddy, the new Freddy was kind of entertaining and visually cool.  The music score was pretty good too, except that it was just a rip-off of the original score.

     Let's highlight the bad points.  It's a horror movie!  There are lots of teenagers being killed with not much creativity.  Although I must say, I did laugh when Freddy hung the poor teen upside down and told him he still had "six minutes of fun left to play with him" before his ripped open stomach would officially expire him.  The movie follows the same storyline as the original films; pull Freddy out of the dream and into reality so they can kill him.  But, is he really dead?  The track record of movie companies wanting to make a profit says NO!

     Why must Hollywood remake everything? Why can't they just leave some of the classic, culturally significant films alone? My guess is, the almighty dollar.  Unless you are trying to get your date to hug you out of terror on Halloween night, don't bother seeing this movie.  And that probably won't happen anyway considering the movie isn't scary and because you rented the remake of "A Nightmare On Elm Street."

     

My Rating: 5.4/10

Available: DVD

Posted by Matt

     

  

Four Rooms

Date Released: December 25, 1995
Director:  Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Tim Roth, Madonna, David Proval, Antonio Banderas, Quentin Tarantino, Marisa Tomei
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 6.4/10 (IMDB.com)

     I had this movie in my Netflix queue for awhile and finally came around to receiving it.  I'm a huge Tarantino fan and this was the one thing he had done that I hadn't seen.  Not too many people know about this film, and now I know why!

     The movie has four different stories pieced together that are directed by four different directors; "The Missing Ingredient" (Anders), "The Wrong Man" (Rockwell), "The Misbehavers" (Rodriguez), and "The Man from Hollywood" (Tarantino).  The stories take place at an old hotel on New Year’s Eve where a goofy Tim Roth plays a bellboy who encounters a group of witches, a crazed gunman and his tied up wife, a suave Latino man, his wife, and his unruly children, and a Hollywood director with an entourage of characters.

     The movie is a waste of time.  It’s just not funny, except for maybe a few chuckles which can be found in Rodriguez’s and Tarantino’s stories.  Bruce Willis’s un-credited cameo part made me a laugh for a second, but then I was unfortunately brought back to reality. To make a long review short, this film simply misses the mark.  Tarantino was probably riding high at the time just coming off the successes of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” and decided to throw his director buddies a bone and attach his name to this project.  Tim Roth, who is usually a great actor, was just silly and annoying in this movie. He was silly I tell you, SILLY! (The Jerky Boys)  Madonna is in it, which is pretty much a given that the movie is going to bomb.  OK, “A League of Their Own” didn’t bomb, but that's all I'll give her credit for.  What’s odd to me is that Marisa Tomei plays a stoner in this film, but on the movie poster looks glamorous, as if she played a completely different character.  Miramax probably said something similar to this in a meeting; “Guys, this movie looks pretty bad, let’s maximize profits by putting a sexy Tomei on the cover and just ignore the fact that she doesn’t look anything like that in the movie.”  That seems accurate.  My advice, skip this one.

My Rating: 5.2/10

Available: DVD 

Posted by Matt

Sex and The City 2

Date Released: May 27. 2010
Director:  Michael Patrick King
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Christopher Noth, David Eigenberg, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone and Evan Handler

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: 4/10

Sex and the City 2 is based around fun, fashion, and the friendship between four women who’ve been friends for years.  In this sequel Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda leave the Big Apple and travel out the country to Dubai, taking a break from their busy lives and loves.  It's a getaway that comes at the right moment for them because they are finding themselves in and fighting against the traditional roles of marriage, motherhood and more. The movie is full of the hottest fashions for the most fashionable individuals.
Posted by: Latonya Chin

Casino

Date Released: November 22, 1995
Director:  Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, Don Rickles Alan King, James Woods
Genre: Drama
Rating: 8.1/10 (IMDB.com)

     I couldn't help reviewing this movie not only because it's one of my all time favorites, but because it's on almost everyday! So it feels like.  The film was based on a true story and adapted from the book "Casino", written by Nicholas Pileggi, the same writer who wrote Wiseguys for which the movie "Goodfellas" was based on.  Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro) was a pioneer in the spots betting industry who revolutionized bookmaking by setting odds and spreads.  Connected with the Chicago mob, Rothstein is sent out to run the fictional Tangiers casino (Stardust) in Las Vegas while the Chicago outfit skimmed money from the count rooms.  Nicky Santoro (Pesci) is a gangster sent out to Las Vegas to make sure "no one messed with Sam" and to make sure the skimming schemes continued like clockwork.
     Things soon get out of hand.  Rothstein marries a former call girl and casino hustler Ginger (Stone) which soon develops into a tumultuous relationship.  Nicky Santoro develops ambitions of his own and begins a string of robberies and murders which winds up attracting the attention of the FBI.  As matters progress into more and more chaotic situations, Santoro begins an affair with Ace's wife Ginger while the Las Vegas gaming commission rejects Rothstein's gaming license application.  As murder, betrayal, and deception run rampant, the FBI begins to clamp down on the outfits operations.  As Rothstein states in the film, they were given heaven on earth, and somehow managed to mess everything up.
     I mainly wanted to review this film because I hold a very strong opinion that this movie is better than "Goodfellas."  Many people hold "Goodfellas" in high esteem and regard it as one of the best films to ever be made.  The argument that I always contend with is that "Casino" is the same movie as "Goodfellas".  In other words, the characters are not only extremely similar, but they are also played the same way by many of the same actors.  I don't really believe this to be true, but if that is the best argument people can come up with than I am in good standing.  Here is my argument.  The story of "Casino" is better.  It is more entertaining, has better dialogue, more interesting characters, more memorable scenes/quotes, and a better ending (Pesci being beaten with metal bats).  "Goodfellas" was a terrific film.  A classic in it's own right.  I just find the second half of that film to be kind of boring and drawn out.  The ending also came off as very abrupt.  "Casino" keeps you interested from minute one all the way through the end.  From a technical film making standpoint, Scorsese always produces great films.  But this film is kind of underrated in my opinion.  I find in watching the movie again and again, that I notice certain things within the story that I've never realized before.  A true mark of a great story/film.  If you are a fan of gangster flicks then I highly recommend this picture.  Warning to all those who haven't seen this film; It is very violent and not for the squeamish.

My Rating: 8.8/10
Playing on Encore

Posted by Matt

The Virgin Suicides

Date Released: May 5, 2005
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett, Hanna R. Hall
Genre: Drama
Rating: 7.6/10

The Virgin Suicides is a film about the Lisbon family that appear to be a healthy, successful 1970s family living in a middle-class Michigan suburb. Mr. Libson is a math teacher, his wife is a very religious mother of five attractive teenage daughters who catch the eyes of the neighborhood boys. The movie opens with the youngest daughter, 13-year-old Cecilia commits suicide, the family spirals downward into a creepy state of isolation and the remaining girls are isolated from social interaction, mostly the opposite sex by their protective mother. Unfortunately, the mother's strategy backfires, when the seclusion from the outside world makes the girls even more intriguing to the obsessed boys who will go to absurd lengths until their obsession ends with the death of the other four girls. 


Posted By: Latonya 

The Blind Side

Date Released: November 20, 2009
Director:  John Lee Hancock
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Tim McGraw, Jae Head, Kathy Bates
Genre: Sports Drama
Rating: 7.7/10 (IMDB.com)

      The "Blind Side" is a film based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis.  "The Blind Side" tells the story of professional football player Michael "Big Mike" Oher (Aaron) who grew up in impoverished environments of Memphis, Tennessee and was eventually taken in by Leigh Ann (Bullock) and Sean Tuohy (McGraw) and molded into a superior football player.
     Oher, living homeless on his friends couch, is admitted to Wingate Christian Academy due to his athletic ability.  Oher, struggling to fit in and still living homeless is approached by Leigh Ann Tuohy who offers to take care of him.  Slowly, Michael becomes a member of the Tuohy family.  Eventually, Oher is allowed to join the school football team after his grades improve.  When Leigh Anne Tuohy suggests that Oher tap into his "protective instincts" and regard his teammates as he would members of his family, Oher dominates on the field.  As the film progresses, more and more information about Oher's life is revealed including that his biological mother was a drug addict. Oher, being recruited by the top football colleges across the country, works hard to obtain a 2.5 GPA so he can be eligible for a football scholarship.  Oher eventually accepts a scholarship to Ole' Miss while the NCAA begins to investigates the Tuohy family for NCAA violations due to their booster involvement with Ole' Miss.
     I was mildly entertained by this film.  I can't help but state that my true feelings while watching this story unfold were that the Tuohy family weren't just taking care of Oher for nothing.  The Tuohy's being alumni's and being involved with booster activities at Ole' Miss kind of spells it out for me that they were taking care of Oher so they could convince him to play there.  The movie does not portray this notion entirely. With that being said, the story itself of an impoverished foster child overcoming his tumultuous past to go on and make millions of dollars as a professional football player satisfied me. Sandra Bullock won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy. I hate to sound negative, but I thought she was good in the film, but not worthy of an award or even a nomination in my opinion.  The child who plays the Tuohy's son is one of the most annoying child actors I've ever seen.

My Rating: 6.8/10
Currently Airing on HBO

Posted by Matt