MBV's Blog

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

Fight Club was released in 1999 with a lot of mixed feelings as many reviews said that the film had too much violence. When Fight Club premiered in the UK the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) made some Cuts in the film, the 2 main Cuts in the film  were “1^st was The first cut was in the scene where Lou fights Tyler Durden in the basement of his club, and consisted of an instruction to reduce the heavy and explicit punches to the head that end the fight”, and the 2^nd was “Reductions in violence were also required in the scene where the narrator fights a blond man of whom he is jealous – sight of blows to the face at the end of the fight were removed”. I 100% agree with the BBFC as I think there is no need to see someone get badly punched in the face and all blooded up etc… but I do get why they did have it in the film to start with, as you can see how ‘Jack’ starts to change from the person who works, buys things just because he wants all the newest stuff and cant sleep as he is not really fulfilling his life and doing things he wants to do, that is way he started going to the self help groups as all he needed was to be listen to. That helped him for a bit until a lady called ‘Marla Singer’ (Played by Helena Bonham Carter) started going to the same groups, witch he hated as he new that she was faking it which worried him as he was as well and if the groups found this out he would not be able to go anymore. So his mind made someone called ‘Tyler Durden’ (Played by Brad Pitt) so ‘Jack’ could then express himself just like ‘Tyler’ can, that is why ‘Jack’ made ‘Tyler’ as ‘Jack’ could not do it by himself he needed something/someone to show him how. At 1^st the film was a bit confusing but as it started to finish I got it.

I would recommend this film. As i would rated this film 4/5

Fight Club Reviews:-

It begins with a journey through a man’s brain. It ends with a city collapsing to the accompaniment of The Pixies. In between times, David Fincher’s Fight Club visits unchartered parts of the human mind and the American underworld. Planes and apartments blow-up, men beat one another senseless, a man quits his job, soap gets made – yes, all human life is here.

Adapted from the cult novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club is different things to different people. What it isn’t is a movie that deserved to flop massively on its original release – budgeted at $67 million, it took under $40 million at the US box office. How ironic that a film with an anti-globalisation message should have proved so difficult to market.

Our Narrator (Norton) is an unhappy soul. Stuck in a lucrative but dull job, his unsatisfying consumerist lifestyle has left him unable to sleep. Briefly finding comfort by attending victim support groups, his bliss is shattered by Ms Marla Singer (Bonham Carter), a ball-busting free-spirit. Trapped once again, the Narrator finds fresh hope in the form of Tyler Durden (Pitt), a good-looking, charismatic man who even has answers to the most difficult questions. How do you get ahead of the consumer game? You don’t play it. How do you stop being crushed by your employment ambitions? Don’t have any. How do you rid yourself of frustration? You join Fight Club.

A picture overloaded with dark comedy, disturbing imagery and intense assaults (the fist-fights are as nothing compared to the beatings handed out at Ikea and Starbucks), Fight Club is so brain-melting that watching it more than once is a necessity. Take the character of Marla (Bonham Carter’s greatest performance): the woman who comes on like a barmy devil on the first screening seems more like an angel second time around.

Although it has the good grace not to answer the myriad questions it asks, Fight Club does clear up a range of issues. Is Edward Norton one of the greatest actors of his generation? Absolutely. Can Brad Pitt step up to the plate come the big occasion? But of course. Did David Fincher get lucky with Se7en? Not a bit of it.

Given that it is a picture about cruel irony, it’s amusing that something as cash-brutal as the film industry could spawn so anti-corporate a movie as Fight Club. Some might argue that the reason Fox backed the film was due to the fact that, under the surface, Fincher’s film is far less brutal than it first appears. But as repeat viewings attest, continued exposure to Fight Club only enhances your admiration for both the movie and its message. In no way a secret endorsement of the system, this is a film that leaves your third eye squeegeed clean so that you can face a brave new world.

Got soap?

( By Film 4 http://www.film4.com/reviews/1999/fight-club)

In this world… redemption just comes once.

Tsotsi is a Film that is set in Johannesburg, South Africa. which is about a man called “David” and he is a leader of a gang who needs to steal from people and they will do what ever need to be done to get it as in the begining of the film we start off in train station where a young gang is watching richer people walk by and they are waithing to find the right person to attack to get them money. they pick an old man who gets on the train and they follow him on there and they stabbed him and held him up so no one new and they took his money and ran.

A bit later in the movie he is by himself  and he starts to steal a car but the lady who owns it trys to stop him but he shoots her in the back and drives off. When he pulls over at the side of the road to run off he hears a baby crying in the back of the car, this part of the film we really see how people can change and be good, even if in the whole life there has been no good in it, as he desides to keep the baby as he knows that it would die in the night if he left it there.

Now he has the baby i think that he looks at his life in a different way, as he dose not hang out with his gang anymore, but now he uses his skills of stealing to be able to feed the baby.

*******************MORE TO BE ADDED******************************

After watching La Haine i felt there was a lot of unnecessary Violence, and every one needed to be in a gang to feel good, cool and safe etc….

 La Haine was made in 1995, and  was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. The genre is Crime, as people where doing drugs and had guns. I found it harder to keep up with what was going on all the time as i am not really use to films with subtitles.

Once Were Warriors is a drama set in New Zealand in 1994. It is covering a variety of topics:

• Alcohol abuse
• Relationships (family/friends)
• Domestic Violence
• Suicide

This film also covers a variety of feelings too:

• Anger
• Love
• Fear
• Depression
• Upset
• Hatred

In Once Were Warriors there is a family, (named the Heke), who are living in poverty compared to some people as they do not have much money. I have mixed feelings about this film as Jackey (dad) was really controlling, and he used violence to solve problems which  he uses to  take his problems out on other people e.g. his wife, Beth. (i think that he is like that as he is upset about his past e.g. his ancestors were slaves, and that scared him emotionally).