Fight Club review.

Sorry, Mr. Durden, but I'm going to have to break the first two rules of Fight Club to write this up.

David Fincher's adaption of the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name was met with mixed reviews when it was released in 1999, and only took in around $37, 000, 000 in the United States during its theatrical run, which Fox considered to be a box office failure. But that sure didn't stop the film from becoming one of the biggest cult movies of all time, making its way into many film magazines' Top Film lists and definitely at the top of my Favourite Movies. It's held that position for quite a while now and is proof that David Fincher is easily one of Hollywood's best Directors.

The film stars Edward Norton, who's character will be called "Jack" for the sake of this review, Brad Pitt as the uber-cool and nihilistic Tyler Durden and Helena Bonham Carter as the slimy, but often funny, Marla Singer. Jack, played fantastically by Ed Norton, is an employee for a car insurance company who spends his time flipping through Ikea catalogue's to find what kind of furniture would, in his words, "define him as a person". Suffering from insomnia, and I use the word "suffering" loosely, he finds comfort in Self Help Groups such as "Remaining Men Together" for men suffering from Testicular Cancer. The groups act as a sort of ventilation time for Jack, allowing him to sleep when he cries in the arms of the people in these groups. This, of course, comes to an end when Marla Singer, another faker, turns up to Remaining Men Together. Her presence in the meetings means that Jack cannot let go of himself and cry, and when he doesn't cry he doesn't sleep. And so the insomnia returns.

During a flight he meets soap salesmen Tyler Durden, easily one of the coolest film characters of all time and one of Brad Pitts' best roles. After returning home to find his condo blown up, which contained all of his worldly possessions, he decides to call Tyler who will allow him to stay at his house if he does him one simple favour; hit him as hard as he could. From there we're taken on a hard hitting, literally, journey as Jack and Tyler create Fight Club and abandon hope and material possessions on a path to nihilistic enlightenment.

I decided to stop the plot summary about there, as that's all one really needs to know from a film review of Fight Club without the pleasure of the story unfolding being ruined. When I saw Fight Club, I had no real idea what it was about which made the experience much better. And of course I wouldn't want to ruin the ending, which would be a crime for anyone who did. All of this, with an extremely memorable performance from Meatloaf as Bob and Jared Leto as Angelface, makes this is a movie that every film buff needs to see, and have a copy sitting on a shelf of some kind. David Fincher, who before directing Fight Club directed Alien 3, Se7en and The Game, has created a masterpiece of a film that will be remembered as one of the best films of all time for many more years to come.

The look of the film is stylish yet gritty, with dim lighting and excellent cinematography. The camera is mostly on the move, using a lot of tracking shots, giving it that stylish look that's one of high points of the movie itself. The film just looks fantastic. Equally as fantastic is the sound, especially during the fight scenes themselves where sound designers recorded sounds of meat being hit to apply to members of Fight Club which gives it a, somewhat, realistic yet brutal sound. On a technical level, Fight Club is a pure example of film making at its best.

I re-bought Fight Club on Blu-ray on the day it was released in it's 10th Anniversary special packaging. I'm glad I did, as this is probably the best this movie will ever look. Detail is fantastic; watch in the close ups to notice things such as stubble and great facial texture to see what I mean. At first this movie may not seem like the jump to Blu-ray was necessary as a lot of films scenes have darker lighting, but this is a definite improvement over the DVD version and is overall a fantastic blu-ray transfer. The sound is also brilliant here on Blu, with Ed Norton's narration and the fight scenes being prime examples of that. Half of the special features have been transferred over from the DVD but with some extra commentaries and footage from Spike TV where Fight Club receives the "Guy Movie Award", this is THE version of Fight Club to own.

"If this is your first night at Fight Club, you HAVE to fight" - Tyler Durden.