Last Fourth of July, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with the author Chuck Palahniuk, whose celebrated first novel, Fight Club, has just been made into a movie starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. After he demonstrated to me and others sitting nearby his encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture (TV, music, books), I asked the big question: Had he seen the movie version of his book, and if so what is his impression? Chuck looked up from his plate and said, with a growing smile, "I saw it and think it's great!" There was no irony in Chuck's tone; he was dead serious. He meant it! He held the Hollywood version of his very dark book in high regard. But there is a problem: If Chuck likes the film, then I suspect the dark aspects of his novel have been preserved in the big picture, which is not good news for the Hollywood folks who financed this movie. Indeed, we might go as far as to say that for him to hate the film would have been good news; it would have meant that the movie is easy and less sinister. As it is, Fight Club is so dark that Fox decided to postpone its summer release and open it in the fall, when the sun is lower, the days shorter, and the clouds thicker.

This review was originally posted in 1999 (!) by Charles Mudede