Fight Club – Blu-ray Disc Review

November 15, 2009 – 2:10 PM - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: Brad Pitt, Chuck Palahniuk, David Fincher, Edward Norton, FOX, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto, Meat Loaf, The Dust Brothers

has an average rating of 8.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
with NEW exclusive content & DVD ports
–
– 1999
– 139 Minutes
– FOX
–
This uses 31.8GB for the movie out of 43.2GB total.
Street Date: November 17th, 2009

Overall Verdict – It Packs Quite a Punch!

Buy it for $13.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is based on the book of the same title written by Chuck Palahniuk. The Screenplay adaptation was done by Jim Uhls and the film was Directed by David Fincher, now an Academy Award nominated Director for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” just this year. A decade ago Fincher Directed a great adaption of a very popular novel and the rest is, as they say, history.

The film centers around our “Narrator” (or “Jack” as he’s often referred to) played by Edward Norton. Norton‘s character is a 30-something guy that hates his job and also suffers from insomnia. Because of his insomnia he gets in the weird habit of attending therapy sessions of those with terminal illnesses and such, just to be able to cry and to have someone actually listen to what he says. As our narrator explains, the only reason he feels the need to do this is because when someone thinks that you are dying is the only time you know that they will listen to what you are saying and it is also for him to just cry and let out all of his issues that bother him without using words. It’s at one of these therapy sessions that our narrator meets a man named “Bob” (played brilliantly by Meat Loaf), who as our narrator says “had bitch tits”. The reason that Bob had developed over-sized breasts is because he was a cancer survivor that had testicular cancer and before that, he had been a body builder using steroids. As a result of this it left his hormones imbalanced or something of this nature and he had this unusual disorder. Anyway, its not just important why Bob had bitch tits but it is also important as to why Bob remains in this story. I can only tell you this, as the first rule permits me from going into detail, it’s because of a club that I’m not supposed to tell you about — a.k.a. “Fight Club“.

“Fight Club” comes into existence shortly after our narrator on a business trip meets another key player to this story on a flight. The man, “Tyler Durden” (played brilliantly by Brad Pitt) claims that he makes and sales soap. Our narrator and Tyler hit it off and exchange cards. It is important to remember this happens because when our narrator (“Jack“) returns from that flight he finds his apartment has burnt up in a freak explosion. I also forgot to mention, he lost his luggage when he got back so there you have him, with nothing left of his possessions and nowhere to stay. Edward Norton‘s character decides to first call this woman that he hates “Marla” (played by Helena Bonham Carter), whom he hangs up on as he reconsiders that choice. Next he calls Tyler, who doesn’t answer but does call the pay phone back. Our narrator explains what happened to Tyler and from there they go to having drinks in a bar. After they leave the bar, Tyler asks our narrator two things, first if he needs a place to stay and then to “hit me as hard as you can“. It is from this that “Fight Club” soon develops as a way to get out stress and anger through fighting other men. It all goes into something way, way more complex than just that in the third “act” of the film but I won’t go in to detail there, to avoid spoilers.

In closing, looking back on “Fight Club” now 10 years later, it’s safe to say it was a very influential film and undoubtedly is David Fincher‘s greatest Directed film to-date. Speaking of Fincher, it would seem he was pretty involved with this transfer to Hi-Def (via Blu-ray Disc) as you’ll hear me talk about below in the video, audio quality and bonus materials sections. This is definitely one of the most long-awaited films to come to Blu-ray Disc and now it does in a “10th Anniversary Edition” none-the-less.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. First thing you’ll notice in comparison to the latest released DVD version of this film is that this contains a perfectly solid black level, unlike those previous DVD releases. The amount of film grain is perfect and they have cleaned up the film print a considerable amount, removing scratches, dirt and such. This 35mm to Hi-Def transfer looks like “night and day” in DVD vs. Blu-ray comparisons, which you’ll find below. These, I think, speak for themselves in terms of how much more detail you are seeing now that you were not before.

DVD vs. Blu-ray Screenshot Comparisons

Further assessment to the video quality you’ll find that the color palette has been corrected a tad bit in comparison to that of which found on the previous DVD release(s). The fleshtones are accurate with great close-up shots like the one found in the screenshot slightly below this. Overall, I saw no signs of compression and no excessive use of digital filters such as DNR or EE. This has just been cleaned up like it should have been a long time ago, but it is only fitting now that it gets this treatment on its 10th Anniversary. “Fight Club” on Blu-ray Disc, in it’s long-awaited debut earns a very impressive “4.5 Star Rating” for overall video quality. It’s ALMOST as good as the Hi-Def transfer that “The Matrix” (another 1999 film) got. Fans will definitely be pleased with the visual presentation here and blown away by the audio presentation as you are about to hear me discuss below.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. Now I’ll admit, even the previous DVD releases and their THX approved sound mixes in 5.1 sounded great but this just blows them out of the water, so-to-speak. I’ll go as far as to start things off by summing it up in five simple words, “THE DEFINITION OF DEMO MATERIAL“. This sounds absolutely great, from the opening music during the title sequence and the other music throughout, done by “The Dust Brothers“. The music and even the film’s dialogue, sound effects and such get a great bit of rear channel usage throughout and contain a good amount of LFE, resulting in some loud thunderous bass. One great example of the 5.1 mix and its rear channel presence can be found when Edward Norton‘s character is finding his power animal in his cave. You’ll hear the echoes from the cave, giving you the feeling you’re in that environment and then when the penguin whispers “slide” you’ll hear it pan across the rear channels. It’s not just scenes like that, every scene has the perfect environment effects and you’ll hear echoes of sound effects, crowds roaring, rain falling, loud punches with a thunderous crunch and more, all of which are getting great use in the 5.1 soundscape. The punches themselves as Sound Designer Ren Klyce says are very important to the sound mix itself and they come across now in a whole new KICK ASS level in this lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix.

This is, as I started things off by saying, “THE DEFINITION OF DEMO MATERIAL” in terms of sound. This is a thrill-ride from start to finish and fans will definitely be pleased with this major improvement. “Fight Club” in its debut on Blu-ray Disc earns a perfect “5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. Major kudos go to FOX and most importantly Sound Designer Ren Klyce and the music done by “The Dust Brothers” for making this film literally “rock” so much.

Bonus Materials are presented in both Hi-Def (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) video quality with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound — unless otherwise noted.

• “A Hit In The Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club” (HD) is NEW and exclusive to this 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray release. It contains the following four scenes which you can remix with the help of this Oscar-winning Sound Designer who offers introductions as you remix the scenes. Keep in mind though, this feature uses Bonus View which requires the user to be on a “Profile 1.1” capable Blu-ray Disc Player. This also features a video Introduction by Ren Klyce which is very cool. Below you will find the names of the four scenes that you can remix.
- “Welcome To Fight Club“
- “Angel Faces Beating“
- “The Crash“
- “Tyler’s Goodbye“
• “Insomniac Mode: I Am Jack’s Search Index, Commentary Log, Topic Search” is NEW and exclusive to this 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray release. This lets you search the topics of the film in a very intense alphabetical order of words and then skip to those scenes mentioning that in the film. Also you’ll be able to activate a pop-up menu that will display real-time information about the topics being discussed in the 4 different Audio Commentary Tracks included. This is a very cool feature, being able to see talking points for multiple audio commentary tracks is a very innovative feature. Kudos to FOX for this.
• “Flogging Fight Club” (10 minutes – HD) is NEW and exclusive to this 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray release. This is a combo of excerpts from an awards show that “Spike TV” had and behind-the-scenes shot material before the presentation of an award to the film for something like “Guys Movie Hall-of-Fame” or something macho. Director David Fincher and stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are in attendance. We get to see them work on their speech for accepting the award beforehand in the behind-the-scenes footage and also get to see them backstage afterward. Speaking of which, Mel Gibson was hosting this. He totally recognizes the two other actors but acts like he doesn’t know who David Fincher is. Seems like to me after watching this now twice that he (Gibson) snubbed a fellow Director (Fincher). Considering Fincher was nominated for an Academy Award (“Oscar“) this year it would be hard to believe that Gibson doesn’t know what Fincher looks like, let alone WHO he is.

DVD ports:

• “Behind the Scenes Vignettes: Production, Visual Effects, On Location“
• Audio Commentary by David Fincher
• Audio Commentary by David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter
• Audio Commentary by Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Uhls
• Audio Commentary by Alex McDowell, Jeff Cronenweth, Michael Kaplan and Kevin Haug
• “Deleted Scenes and Alternate Scenes” includes:
“Chloe and Rupert” (0:53 – SD)
“Marla’s Pillow Talk” (0:35 – SD)
“Copier Abuse” (3:15 – SD)
“Tyler Quits Smoking” / “Jack Quits Work” (1:28 – SD)
“Angel Face’s Beating” (3:14 – SD)
“Walter” (1:39 – SD)
“Tyler’s Goodbye” (1:55 – SD)
• “Trailers” includes:
“Theatrical Teaser” (0:47 – SD)
“Theatrical Trailer” (2:26 – SD) features 5.1 sound.
“The Eight Rules of Fight Club” (0:46 – SD)
• “TV Spots“
• “Public Service Announcements” include “Jack’s” (0:29 – SD) and “Tyler’s” (0:37 – SD).
• “Music Video” (3:32 – SD)
• “Internet Spots” are hosted by “Jack” (Edward Norton) and include:
“I Know You” (0:33 – SD)
“Deliver Me” (0:30 – SD)
“Change Your Life” (0:25) – SD)
“Football” (0:29 – SD)
“Mona Lisa/Rel” (0:35 – SD)
• “Promotional Gallery“
• “Art Gallery“
• “Edward Norton Interview” is in text.

Overall the bonus materials are pretty worthwhile since they include THREE NEW features as well as the original DVD ports. Fans will be pleased with what they get as well as the little bit of fun that David Fincher has put here for them, which I consider a bonus material itself. You’ll understand what I’m talking about there when you get your hands on a copy come this Tuesday.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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