I am Jack’s rave review. Movies like “Fight Club” are the reason reviewers try not to give anything more than four stars unless they absolutely have to. You have to save those stars so people will believe you.

If you run around giving out stars haphazardly, people think you will dig anything, and when something really impresses you, you have no street credibility, y’all.

Don’t walk, run to “Fight Club.”

I don’t know what we used to think was a good movie, but the ’90s have redefined “hip” and “cool” so many times that the next millennium is going to have to work overtime just to be average.

Edward Norton (“American History X,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt”) is Jack, our narrator.

Jack is a modern day Joseph K. thrown hither and thither by the insanity of modern life — not a life of Kafkaesque paranoia, but one of weighty western depression such as that conceptualized by Milan Kundera in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” He is the sum of everything he owns. He is the original IKEA boy. His condo is filled with furniture, dishes and exercise equipment that define who he is.

He is an insomniac and suffers from malaise. He cannot sleep and cannot find relief until his doctor tells him to snap out of it and go to a testicular cancer support group meeting to see some people who have real problems. From there on out he is hooked on encounter sessions.

He cannot sleep unless he has had a good cry. He travels from blood parasites to bowel cancer to sickle cell getting his fix. He is addicted.

Then Helena Bonham Carter (“Howards End,” “Mighty Aphrodite”) as Marla starts showing up. She is a support group tourist, no better than Jack. But he begins to obsess over how she is cheapening his experience and soon he cannot sleep again.

Then Jack meets Tyler Durden, played by the always surprising Brad Pitt (“Seven,” “12 Monkeys”), on a business trip. Tyler tells Jack that the things you own end up owning you and that only after you’ve lost everything are you free to do anything. “Self-improvement is masturbation. Tyler says self-destruction might be the answer.”

After the trip, Jack’s condo is blown up and having no where else to turn, he calls Tyler and the two go out for a drink. After the drink, Jack finally asks Tyler if he can stay with him. The two decide you can’t know anything about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight.

Fight Club is born.

It becomes a small cult where men, disenchanted with the soul-crushing boredom and drudgery of day-to-day life meet and put something real and visceral back into their lives by beating the holy piss out of each other.

But soon, Fight Club is not enough. Tyler begins handing out homework assignments to the members getting them to cause mayhem throughout the city, striking out at wealth and corporate hegemony.

Somewhere in all of this chaos, Tyler and Marla begin a torrid and loud affair which puts Jack off, but he sticks with Tyler.

As Fight Club turns into Project Mayhem, Jack becomes more concerned that things are spinning out of control. Then one day, Tyler disappears and Jack goes looking for him only to discover a truth so horrifying and ultimately hilarious that it must be seen to be disbelieved.

“Fight Club” scores high marks for originality. Remember how original we all thought “Pulp Fiction” was when it came out? Well, get ready to be equally amazed. The dialogue is so hip, yet actually meaningful that you and your buddies will be quoting it for years to come.

The characters in this film are lost in a world of crushing monotony and they look out at the audience and shout their disapproval of the world in such a way that you will never know they are preaching. But preaching is the right word. This film’s dialogue is like the greatest sermon you ever heard. It hooks you and keeps you hooked until the end when it just blows your mind.

There is not one time in this movie where the acting is anything less than over-the-top compelling. Edward Norton plays Jack with such ease that the pathetic, whiny, mewling of his earlier scenes is as intriguing as his later, more self-confident and mad moments.

Brad Pitt is glorious as Durden. Like many of his earlier roles, his hipness is real enough to not be off-putting. Pitt has a way of just moving on screen that makes his characters come to life. He is not just some pretty boy actor, he is the premiere rock ‘n’ roll superstar of the silver screen, and he is pure magic to watch for men and women both.

Helena Bonham Carter is subdued insanity as Marla Singer. She appears to be the crazy one, but later on we see that she is just reacting to the madness Norton and Pitt are throwing around on screen. She is talented enough to steal scenes from Pitt and good enough not to.

The violence is superbly realistic. This is not a movie about cinematic violence where Jackie Chan does things that you can’t believe. You will believe all of the violence, it is very realistic and that is the point of it. It isn’t cool, it isn’t sweet, it is real and masculine aggression at its dirty best.

This is Jim Uhls first screenplay but it definitely won’t be his last. He made Chuck Palahniuk’s novel come to life with the aid of director David Fincher, who did “Seven.”

“Fight Club” is dark, funny and hip. Don’t miss it.

FIVE STARS

---

Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs.