Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

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

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

dworldeater Choke is a satirical dark comedy and film adaptation based on Chuck Palahniuk's of Fight Club fame novel.Written for the screen and directed by Clark Gregg, he did a pretty good job for his 1st time as a director, keeping a quick pace and staying on point with telling a cohesive story with a consistent tone. Sam Rockwell is the leading man in the film and does a good job portraying anti hero Victor, a sex addict and con artist who fakes choking in order to help support his mom(Angelica Huston) that needs caring for due to her Alzheimer's disease and mounting hospital bills. This is a good balance of drama and raunchy, black humor. While, I won't regard Choke as the best film of this type, performances were good and I found this to be pretty entertaining and funny. Cool flick.

OneEightNine Media Choke is a mildly entertaining film about a sex addicted trying to find himself while dealing with his mother's journey towards death. The problem with this movie is that it does not know what it wants to be. It tries too hard to be a drama with a twist of hard humour but doesn't deliver. If they tried it the other way around, making it a dark comedy with a bit of drama, then it could have worked. The story, and movie just try too hard to be as hip as Fight Club, this film is based on a book from the same author as Fight Club; I learned that during the end credits. I'm also just learning that Clark Gregg directed this film and this was his first time directing and I'm guessing he tried too hard to stay faithful to the novel. Whatever the case, the movie doesn't work. It is boring at times and drags on. It has no real conclusion, even though the characters do show growth during each of their journeys. I'm just giving this film a 6 out of 10 because the story itself isn't bad, just the execution ultimately ends up sinking the film.

brando647 When you combine one of my favorite actors (Sam Rockwell) and an adaptation of a novel from the man who wrote FIGHT CLUB, I expect great things. The premise is sound and promises the same great dark humor and slick writing, and the studio probably expected it to be as big a cult favorite as Fincher's film. But it wasn't and I'm not really surprised. Whereas FIGHT CLUB was a sharp ode to chaos, CHOKE never rises to be anything near as interesting. Based on another novel from writer Chuck Palahniuk, it follows sex addict Victor Mancini (Rockwell) who works full-time in a colonial recreation when he's not visiting his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother in a nursing home. To pay for the cost of her care, Victor likes to take advantage of the kindness of strangers when he pretends to choke in restaurants and milks money from his wealthy "saviors". Victor makes the best of his bad situation but what he really wants is to learn the truth about his father. As a child, Victor bounced from foster family to foster family, and each time his mother would swoop him and steal him away. Victor's never known normal life and all he wants before his mother dies or loses the last remaining piece of her mind is to find out who his real father is. A new doctor in his mother's facility may have found a way to restore his mom's mental health, and all it requires is for Vincent to do what he does best.I wish this movie was better. It's not a bad movie. It's funny and the cast does a great job. I just become annoyed with the fact that the story wanders its way through it's meager 92 minute running time. It never feels like the movie's trying to move you along a narrative path with a focused finish. It just bounces between Vincent's search for the truth about his father/his business with Paige (the doctor who informs Vincent of the experimental procedure for his mother) and Vincent's descent further into his sexual addiction while his buddy Denny progresses through his S.A. and improves his life. By the end of the movie, you expect a bigger finish as Vincent begins to overcome his addiction and learns about his father. Instead, the end just sort of happens. Sure, the plot is wrapped up for the sake of the movie but it doesn't really feel like it accomplished anything. What breakthroughs there are in Vincent's story are almost breezed through. I haven't read the novel, but I'm considering checking it out because all the ingredients are here for an awesome dark comedy/drama but I feel like the filmmakers gave us the Cliff Notes version. Maybe I just expected too much because the last Palahniuk hit had David Fincher behind the camera. Here, we get Clark Gregg (most famous as Agent Coulson in the Marvel movies). Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily. It's Gregg's first and only directing gig, and he did a decent job for what it's worth.I've already mentioned Sam Rockwell as one of my favorite actors (here and elsewhere). He guarantees an awesome job, even in the most minor of roles. So it's always cool when he's given the main role in a movie (e.g. CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, MOON). He's great as Vincent, equal parts cynical jerk and desperate man. The respected Anjelica Huston is Vincent's mother Ida and she can be pretty fun in the flashback sequences to Vincent's childhood. There's a good blend in the supporting cast with the highlight being Brad William Henke as Vincent's friend Denny. Very Seth Rogen-ish, he earns some laughs. And there's plenty of laughs to be had here. I loved Vincent's dealings with the mentally unstable residents of his mom's nursing facility. Kelly Macdonald is pretty amusing as the no-nonsense Paige, playing her just off-kilter enough to know there's something off about her but seeming confident enough to maybe believe the extreme scenario she brings to Vincent. There's a lot in this movie that almost works but doesn't feel fleshed out enough. In my opinion, we spent too much time hanging out at the colonial recreation where Vincent and Denny work. If you're condensing a novel to fit a movie, trim that stuff that isn't as necessary to the story to keep it moving. And watching Vincent lust over a milkmaid (Bijou Phillips) and bicker with his over-bearing boss (director Gregg) didn't really do much except give Gregg extra screen time. Or maybe it's just me.

puttputtk 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