I Am Jack’s Mixed Opinion

I finally saw all of Fight Club last night, maybe 5 years after I saw the first half. The verdict: From the start through 90 minutes, it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. From there until the end, well, it’s still pretty good. The last hour or so just sufferes by comparison with the tremedous beginning.

For those who haven’t seen it, a corporate drone (Ed Norton) is having difficulty sleeping, which is easily solved by attending support groups for maladies he doesn’t actually have. Unfortunately he spots another tourist, Marla, which sends him back to The Land of the Half-Awake.

Where he meets Tyler Durden, who does what he wants, says what he wants, and doesn’t give a crap about the consequences. After his apartment is blown up, the narrator ends up bunking with Tyler. And they start beating each other up for fun. Pretty soon they find some others who need a good fight, and the Fight Club is born.

Then things get weird. And goes off the rails.

The whole “Project Mayhem” thing just takes the story too far from where it starts - although it does spawn some pretty funny scenes (”You said you would definitely say that!”). But there’s not enough Tyler and especially not enough Marla, who seems to have lost much of her bitchy malevolence.

Plus I hated the ending.

Still, it has to be one of the top five movies of the last 20 years or so. Four stars and a stick of celery.