Fight Club

An angry, violent, testosterone-saturated, darkly comic allegory on consumer culture and personal freedom, Fight Club revolves around a frustrated, nameless office drone (Edward Norton) who loathes his acquiescent surrender to encroaching yuppie-dom. After meeting a charismatic, wannabe nihilist and borderline psychotic (Brad Pitt), the two bond in a rage-releasing fist-fight and soon form a network of underground clubs that espouse bare-knuckle bouts as an outlet for irate nine-to-fivers. But before long Norton is in over his head as Pitt starts transforming the clubs into an anarchy movement bent on nothing less than tossing a monkey wrench into the spokes of Western civilization. Director David Fincher (Seven, The Game) inspires great performances and creates a firecracker atmosphere of tension in this inventive and extraordinarily subversive thriller. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)[Blu-ray Review—Nov. 24, 2009—Fox, 139 min., R, $34.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1999's Fight Club (10th Anniversary Edition) sports a nice transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are almost identical to those on the standard DVD release, including four audio commentaries (the first with director David Fincher; the second with Fincher and costars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter; the third with writers Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Uhls; and the fourth with production designer Alex McDowell, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, costume designer Michael Kaplan, and visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug), a behind-the-scenes section with various featurettes on production, visual effects, and location, with commentaries (60 min.), deleted and alternate scenes (18 min.), a publicity section with trailers and TV spots, a music video for the Dust Brothers' “This Is Your Life,” and an art gallery section with storyboards, paintings, and stills. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club” audio mixer that lets you mix your own scenes and change the sound design, a “Flogging Fight Club” Spike TV award segment with Fincher, Pitt, and Norton (10 min.), a search index for the film, and a fake gag menu that pops up when the disc is first loaded. Bottom line: a contemporary classic makes its welcome debut on Blu-ray.]