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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Please don't judge the book by this movie.This could have been another masterpiece like Fight Club, but instead they made a stupid movie. I wonder if they thought it was supposed to be a comedy.In summary, it looks like a movie made in Windows MovieMaker putting together some homemade videos. (It's not dark, stupid jokes everywhere, stupid music and transitions/effects between scenes, etc). Even if you are a fan of Sam Rockwell, you wouldn't be able to enjoy it. They also changed the characters, in special Denny, that's a bummer.I think Fight Club is one of the 2 best movies I've ever seen. 10 out of 10. Choke (the book) is 7 out of 10 (It's very short), and this movie is 3 out of 10, just by the story. If not it would be a 1 or 2.

This eponymous adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel goes through the right motions, but loses track of its charm somewhere in the translation. The filmmakers probably loathe any comparisons to Fight Club, Palahniuk's most famous property, but with a similarly sarcastic tone, grim protagonist and writhing, unpredictable plot, it's difficult not to tie the two together in some meaningful ways. Choke barely holds a candle to its daunting big brother, sadly; it captures none of the character or idealism that made Tyler Durden's darker hues so palatable, and the dialog - though witty in a few spots - is largely lacking in conviction and flavor. Sam Rockwell's turn as Victor, a sex-addicted scam artist in the midst of a midlife crisis, is uncharacteristically dull and bland. It's tough to root for, or even identify with, such a despicable character, even as his journey reveals the details of why he is this way. The storyline, explained via a series of long-winded, single-minded monologues, branches off in so many directions, it's often difficult to determine what's the primary message and what's just window dressing. Over- ambitious at best, it's a mess of competing distractions with few resolutions and a cast of shuffling, murmuring archetypes. A disappointment.

At the center of Choke are two superb, veteran character actors - Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston - who hand in such powerful, passionate performances that it's very likely they thought they were making a much better film than Choke. It's quite possible, in fact, that the initial script they read was much more fluent and coherent than the final product, and that it was the editing that butchered the film. Maybe a director's cut, with 40 or 50 extra minutes, will one day prove that to be the case.As it is, Choke is a barely coherent mess. It apparently tries to (or pretends to) tackle some pretty large issues, like sex addiction, subjective morality, and nurture vs. nature, but it says nothing about any of them and the end result is merely a pretty tasteless dark comedy with lots of explicit sex scenes. Entire plot threads are left hanging and make absolutely no sense, not by themselves nor in any sort of meaningful relation to others. It's most likely that Clark Gregg really loved the book, but had no idea how to make a movie out of it. It feels like a series of short scenes cut from a much larger work; that and the strong acting is enough to make for a few entertaining scenes, but not enough to make a watchable movie.

Choke (2008)Being a huge fan of fight club, I was very excited to see Choke. They are both based on books by Chuck Palahnuik and I think they are both good, but very different. Fight Club is much better but I think it would have been interesting to see what Choke could have been with a bigger director or lead actor, and a bigger budget. (I think it might have been given a smaller budget because of it's slightly risqué topics, which I think is unfair.) With that aside I'd like to say I still think that Choke is underrated. It's a great story with a lot of good twists and turns and it best of all, its hilarious. I think it had a lot of potential to be more main stream but something went wrong with that. Clark Gregg isn't as big as a director as David Fincher (director of Fight Club) so I think it might have lost some momentum there. And with that, Sam Rockwell isn't a huge name either. Though neither are big names I still think they did a pretty good job and the rest of the cast did as well, mainly Angelica Huston. From what I've heard, if you read the book you are not going to like the film. I haven't read it so I don't know if that's true. However, if you haven't read the book I think you could really enjoy it. Its very funny, interesting and original. Don't watch it when you are in the mood for a full blown comedy, it is really funny but more drama driven. 8/10