CHOKE Released In Theaters Today!

I went to see the movie yesterday at a prescreening in Orlando...It was amazing, however I was one of the only people laughing, and it turned out I was one of the only people who has actually even read the book, which was disappointing, but to hell with them, I LOVED it, I felt like the movie definitely did justice to the book, even if some things had to be removed, I say they just make a 12 hour movie or something and do the whole thing, but that may just be me!

Loved it, for real.

I was at the premiere last night, and the crowd ate it up. I missed a lot of lines due to audience laughter. It definitely hits the right notes at the end, mixing tragedy and humor. Go see it!

let's just get down to the nitty gritty here. How was the guy that played Denny in it?

i know this is off the subject totally but i didn't want start a new thread. i came across this movie at the store and here is the plot summury:

Nine strangers - a priest; a dancer; a designer; an aspirant rapper; a former tennis pro; a woman on probation; an unsuccessful composer and his wife; and a detective - are randomly abducted, drugged and locked in a house by a wealthy maniac. They are informed through a public address system that there are seventy-five cameras following them, and only one will survive and win US$ 5,000,000.00 to keep quiet. The psychological game begins, with fear and greed affecting the participants.

does this sound familiar?

There will be skeptics, but yes, Choke, the film, delivers. I read the book when I was too young the understand half of it, before High School, and it struck me as not only rebellious for it's content (I was in 8th grade, what did I know), but that such a topic could be the grounds for such a humane story.

Now that I'm a little older and not much smarter, I've watched the film and agree on Chuck and Clark's angles on the heart of the story, where it lays.

My problems with the film are merely technical. The frequent and once or twice oddly placed flashbacks are acceptable. Sometimes it's hard to cut things out of the story because we love it so much.

My favorite part of the story was also cut, but admittedly for the best. The stoning scene would have been awkwardly placed next to the conclusive ending with Paige.

Where the film soars is in it's acting, and I give Clark Gregg full credit for this as well as the highly talented actors. I feel every actor was given the chance to dig deeper into their characters than is normal and the added dialog proves this!

By all means, see this film.

I personally think the film ruins the entire atmosphere of the book for me. The book just seemed a lot darker and less humorous to me. And the film is completely opposite. I did like seeing Mr. Palahniuk in the airplane sitting next to Victor at the end. That was kind of funny. Another thing, the woman that played Ida, not very convincing for people who were expecting it to be like the book. She's a little big for someone who's so emaciated as described in the book.

dtb.

Here's my review...rather negative, though I did enjoy it, I saw a lot of wasted potential. For me, the killer was it took a great book and turned it into just a 'good' movie. There's a lot of 'good' movies, in fact most movies are 'good'. But just being good doesn't do it for me anymore.

Oh and cause everyone was anticipating it, I thought the guy as Denny was great. I was not happy that they cut out most of Denny's place in the plot though, ie, the entire ending! Whatever...Rockwell was good as Victor, but I found him in less control than I saw Victor being in the book, maybe more desperate. In the book, Victor seems more accepting of his compulsions, or maybe more joyful of them. Angelic Huston as his mother...she was ok, I thought she was maybe a little to character-like for the film, less realistic. They tried to compromise between serious film and Palahniuk creation a bit too much. And I know the film was rushed, on a budget, etc, but in all I felt the abbreviation of the book hurt its potential. Here's the more formal review I wrote:

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

Last night, I journeyed to a deep and mystical location known as downtown Sarasote. I’ve spent limited time here, but it is a mystical wonder all should experience once. If they live in Sarasote that is. Why not?

Before the show, I stopped at Publix and stocked up on SFlow Seeds and Pstache (Shelled of course…and that means in the shell, dammit! Just like bottled water is in the bottled, not removed from the bottle! But I digress, the perplexities and paradoxical elements of the English exchange are a matter for future discourse.

Upon entry I am greeted by a young ward, perhaps one or two years my junior, in full costume, accepting money for tickets. He says ‘8 dollars’, to my relief, I was anticipating 9. Upon further realization, I was granted a much lusted student discount. Still, 8 FRNs, garb. But alas, we all must pay our respects to The Palahniuk.

My expectations were high, but I was not expecting they’d be fully fulfilled regardless. Early into the feature, I’ve busted into my SFlow Seeds, spewing them about. Then came PStache. By act two, a small but sizable pile perforated at my feet. Due to the setup of this stadium seating arrangement, t’was visible from the entry of any newcomer, and a minor stroke of fear that a disgruntled worker would see this pile plagued me…but what were they to do?

For one reason or another, police littered the area with their authoritative presence. Downtown, Saturday night, what can ya do? But on with the film…

It was like watching a film where I already knew the lines. In some instances, I uttered mentally, “So this is the such and such scene?” It was less an engulfing film experience and more a viewing of how the book was set to film. Taking this into account, I had a natural bias going in. For example, when the audience discovered Paige Marshall was really a patient and not a doctor, I heard more than one gasp, from female audience members. Yet when I saw how they revealed it, I thought, “Oh, that’s how they did it…” So yeah, it am who am.

Much of the book was ‘abbreviated’ to fit to screen, where I felt portions of FC had added the film experience to make sense when translated. I don’t feel one can compare either adaption, because they are separate works, but it goes without saying this is no Fight Club 2. For example, the chapter in FC with Raymond K. Hessel would have been strange in the film as The Narrator, but works for film flow as The Durden with The Narrator sidelined. This abbreviation and lack of addition really killed the potential of Choke to at least match the book. The choking became just a subplot, Denny’s rocks became just a sub plot that never even came full circle, and the plot became Victor’s mother’s secret, which is so MacGuffinated within the story itself that it is not a driving piece. The second to last scene in the police station, with the anal bead does have the gradual lead up required in the book.

All in all, it was a nice try, but a choppy and slightly off target shot at The Palahniuk’s great novel, Choke.

Well, I considered putting a warning, but the movie ending is the spoiler that most of the rock stuff is cut out.

Cause I wrote a paper freshman year of college about sneaking food in, and I thought the teacher'd hate it and wrote 'see me after' on it, and when i saw her after she said I was a good writer and should get it published.

So yeah, if you're reading a review, it's not because you wanna hear just about the movie. I'm more interested in the author than the review itself, because its a totally subjective piece. If you wanna just see the movie, no review is required.

Roger Ebert sucks.

I saw choke at a free advanced screening in Pittsburgh. The theatre was relatively full, (as the firt person said) I felt like I was the only one laughing at all. Over all I think the movie was as good as a movie adapted from a book can be. Seeing the movie after reading the book is a completely different experience that just watching a movie.

Unfortunaly for me and everyone else in the theatre the movie theatre started flooding??? apparently water was leaking into the lighting, so the screen went black and we had to leave no more than a minute after Dr. Paige Marshall was "found out." While is sucked that i didnt get to see the end (and havent made it to the movies again to see the whole thing) I couldnt help but laugh a little because it did seem kind of fitting that something like that would happen in a Chuck movie.

Also a question, after seeing and reading fightclub...does anyone else have trouble ignoring the circles in the upper right hand corner where the film strips have to be switched or connected???? I never noticed them before, and now i can't watch a movie in the theatre without seeing them throughout the movie.