INTERESTING OFF BEAT AND TWISTED DARK COMEDY!
Added 10/7/2009
For those of us who like strange cinema, this is a no brainer! Sam Rockwell gives yet another great performance as a sex addict with a mother who is mentally ill in a hospital. This film could have been played completely straight as the subject matter is depressing at times. What makes this film so interesting is how this works as a twisted dark comedy. This is the kind of film you don't want to know too much about going into it, but be sure of this; if you like little films that go against the grain, then you will probably like 'Choke'. It has some good laughs, drama, interesting characters and story...and a fair amount of nudity and sex to boot!
Mr. "Mackshire" you'll LOVE this one! ;-b
Oh! I see you already reviewed this film! :-D
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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When it comes to Chuck Palahniuk adaptions, David Fincher set the bar very high. With "Fight Club," he took Palahniuk's subversive, witty novel, and created a stylized, powerful allegory that was probably one of the turn-of-the-century's best films.
Fast forward a decade later, and "Choke" adapts another Chuck Palahniuk novel into a quirky indie film. "Choke" is really not bad ... it's funny and entertaining and worth a viewing. But despite some intense subject matter (sex addiction, traumatic childhoods, dying parents) it all just feels really breezy. "Choke" contains the same wry, sardonic narration that "Fight Club" did, but lacks the power and pizazz.
Maybe it's really not fair to compare the two films, but I can't help it. Since both films are so undeniably Palahniuk, I can't help compare "Choke" to its far superior predessor and feel a bit disappointed.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Flight Club
Added 8/13/2009
Sam Rockwell deftly portrays Victor Mancini, a self-confessed sex addict. He supports himself and pays for his mother's stay at an expensive facility for mentally ill elderly ladies (?) by playing an Irish indentured servant in a cheesy historical reenactment village based on colonial America. He supplements this income by purposely choking in various restaurants. After a stranger rescues Victor by performing the Heimlich maneuver, Victor asks this person for money, taking advantage of the rescuer's sentimental regard for Victor. (Strange? Very.)
Angelica Huston shines as Victor's mother, Ida, who goes in and out of sanity. Mostly out. Often, she does not recognize Victor. She refuses to eat, creating a central crisis in the film. Huston does a great job aging thirty years after flashbacks from the eighties when Victor (Jonah Bobo) was a boy.
Sometimes it's a fine line that separates comedy from idiocy. A key part of the story is Victor's desire to find his father. Ida has only told Victor that his father was a traveling salesman with Tourette syndrome! I feel this film drifts into idiocy when it mocks some fundamental Christian beliefs during the search for Victor's "roots."
I have not read the novel on which this film is based. The author is Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote Fight Club. I suspect that Choke is an example of how reading the novel enhances viewing the movie.
Much of the film is very funny, but a lot of it just doesn't make any sense. Much of it seems to be awkwardly contrived, including the bits set in one of those tiny airplane restrooms. But there are a couple of nice twists at the end.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Books better
Added 8/12/2009
You can tell its by the same person who wrote "Fight Club", good movie but the book is better.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Atypical film
Added 7/26/2009
The Bottom Line:
Choke will certainly not be remembered much in five years (and if it is, it won't be for having an airtight plot) but it's an interesting film and its take on human sexuality is different and offbeat enough to make this black comedy worth renting, if not spending much money on.
3/4
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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INTERESTING OFF BEAT AND TWISTED DARK COMEDY!
Added 10/7/2009
For those of us who like strange cinema, this is a no brainer! Sam Rockwell gives yet another great performance as a sex addict with a mother who is mentally ill in a hospital. This film could have been played completely straight as the subject matter is depressing at times. What makes this film so interesting is how this works as a twisted dark comedy. This is the kind of film you don't want to know too much about going into it, but be sure of this; if you like little films that go against the grain, then you will probably like 'Choke'. It has some good laughs, drama, interesting characters and story...and a fair amount of nudity and sex to boot!
Mr. "Mackshire" you'll LOVE this one! ;-b
Oh! I see you already reviewed this film! :-D
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
When it comes to Chuck Palahniuk adaptions, David Fincher set the bar very high. With "Fight Club," he took Palahniuk's subversive, witty novel, and created a stylized, powerful allegory that was probably one of the turn-of-the-century's best films.
Fast forward a decade later, and "Choke" adapts another Chuck Palahniuk novel into a quirky indie film. "Choke" is really not bad ... it's funny and entertaining and worth a viewing. But despite some intense subject matter (sex addiction, traumatic childhoods, dying parents) it all just feels really breezy. "Choke" contains the same wry, sardonic narration that "Fight Club" did, but lacks the power and pizazz.
Maybe it's really not fair to compare the two films, but I can't help it. Since both films are so undeniably Palahniuk, I can't help compare "Choke" to its far superior predessor and feel a bit disappointed.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Flight Club
Added 8/13/2009
Sam Rockwell deftly portrays Victor Mancini, a self-confessed sex addict. He supports himself and pays for his mother's stay at an expensive facility for mentally ill elderly ladies (?) by playing an Irish indentured servant in a cheesy historical reenactment village based on colonial America. He supplements this income by purposely choking in various restaurants. After a stranger rescues Victor by performing the Heimlich maneuver, Victor asks this person for money, taking advantage of the rescuer's sentimental regard for Victor. (Strange? Very.)
Angelica Huston shines as Victor's mother, Ida, who goes in and out of sanity. Mostly out. Often, she does not recognize Victor. She refuses to eat, creating a central crisis in the film. Huston does a great job aging thirty years after flashbacks from the eighties when Victor (Jonah Bobo) was a boy.
Sometimes it's a fine line that separates comedy from idiocy. A key part of the story is Victor's desire to find his father. Ida has only told Victor that his father was a traveling salesman with Tourette syndrome! I feel this film drifts into idiocy when it mocks some fundamental Christian beliefs during the search for Victor's "roots."
I have not read the novel on which this film is based. The author is Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote Fight Club. I suspect that Choke is an example of how reading the novel enhances viewing the movie.
Much of the film is very funny, but a lot of it just doesn't make any sense. Much of it seems to be awkwardly contrived, including the bits set in one of those tiny airplane restrooms. But there are a couple of nice twists at the end.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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