Choke

2008 "If this movie doesn’t touch you, go ahead and touch yourself."
6.4| 1h32m| R| en| More Info
Released: 26 September 2008 Released
Producted By: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A sex-addicted con-man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.

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Reviews

Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
nowego Being a bit of a fan of Sam Rockwell and Kelly Macdonald, this was a pretty easy movie to watch. It helped that it was also quite amusing and downright funny in some parts. The sex might put some viewers off, but for me it didn't detract from the movie. I haven't read the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, so I cannot judge whether it does it justice or not. I can only judge on what I just watched.Anjelica Huston and Brad William Henke do a really good job as mother and best friend respectively. Maybe a minor spoiler, look for the blond cancer joke the stripper inadvertently enacted, it made me laugh out loud, but some might not find it so amusing. An amusing movie right up there with some of Sam Rockwell's good ones, one of the few movies on IMDb in which I think the current rating of 6.5/10 is about right.
dynamicthreads I don't even know where to begin... The entire movie screams "Art Student final project" - right down to the boom mic making several guest appearances. The entire tone of the book was lost from the opening scene to the credits...The novel itself highlights several key scenes between the protagonist and his "best friend"... There are subtle, yet key scenes that the Director/Screenplay writer completely ignored between the two that culminated into a sincere and ironic ending in the book, yet were suspiciously absent from the film. Clark Gregg refused to focus on the human aspect of almost every single character, instead revealing himself to be the immature 15-year old in a 50-year old man's body that he is: All he focused on was the sex addiction of the protagonist, Victor. All choking scenes were slap-stick in the film, again, the tone of the book completely ignored...The colonial village was an afterthought, yet another tool to portray the sex-addiction and not to relate the friendship between Victor and Denny. Denny consistently ends up in shackles for breaking character, and Victor always approaches him with a handkerchief, simply saying "Dude, blow" so Denny can clear the dripping mucous from his face. Why is this important? The entire climax is built around this one line in the book. After being stoned to near-death, and the anal-bead being dis-lodged from his anus, victor lies in a puddle of his own excrement, presumably left for dead... Until Denny approaches him with a handkerchief and simply holds it to his face and says: "Dude, blow". Showing that at the end of the day, life goes on and your true friends stand by your side no matter how terrible of a person you are.I could go on but anyone who has good reading comprehension can understand why this film completely missed the mark.
Uriah43 I realize that this movie is based upon a book and tries to keep within the scope of the original story. That said, it stands to reason that if the original story is crude and vulgar then it should be no wonder that this film is the same. So what we have here is a movie that relies upon being crass in order to be funny. At least for the most part. Admittedly, some of the scenes are quite humorous on its own. But they're almost immediately followed by a barnyard sex scene of some sort which, in my opinion, lowers the level of the film. Now, I fully realize that some people believe that being tacky is the same as being amusing. And so this film accommodates them by devolving to the lowest common denominator. But I personally thought the sex scenes were terribly dull and the humor wasn't that funny. Likewise, I didn't care for the flashbacks because they interrupted the flow of the movie. Not only that, but I wasn't really impressed by the acting either. But obviously I am in the minority. At any rate, if a person likes a film that has raunchy humor then this is a movie they will probably really enjoy. To each his own I suppose.
oneguyrambling Choke is the ultimate "tweeny" film – too cute to be truly edgy and too edgy to be merely cute. This leaves it in the uncomfortable middle ground of not having either a core die-hard audience or mainstream appeal.But I'm not here to market the thing, I only want to give my opinion. Well it's interesting at times but I didn't actually think it was really that deserving a film. That might be more a reason for its lack of box-office than their prudish attitude to sex, after all flash some celeb tit or show liberal amounts of nubile teenage skin and you've got a hit on your hands.Sam Rockwell plays Victor – a sex-addict whose life is consumed with fantasy, physical contact and basically release, though he is never satisfied and is in fact afraid of true intimacy. His best friend is Danny and he suffers from the same affliction, they both work in theme park portraying US pioneer times, constantly looking for targets and boldly seeking encounters – however brief.Therefore we are then subject to numerous cutaways and flashbacks showing various encounters in true Rob Schneider fashion – albeit with less "hilarious" disabilities and in a far better (though still average) film. If we believe these inserts (pardon the expression) Victor gets more tail than a rock star and flips over more chicks than Alfie in a standard week.Victor and Denny both lament their affliction yet are ruled by its power. There is in fact a group session available featuring several others sharing their predicament but the allure of the flesh seems stronger than the desire for a cure and they rarely attend.But that doesn't seem to be the main point of the movie, although to be honest I don't really know what is… Victor also regularly feigns near-death experiences – hence the title – and maximises on the newly faked formed bond by cadging off his carefully chosen benefactor on an ongoing basis to supplement his meagre income.Victor's Mother is in a nursing home in need of special care. As she raised Victor from infancy – he never knew who his real Dad was – he has an ever greater than normal bond with his Mum and visits her regularly (though again he seems to have tried it on – and often succeeded – with most nurses in the hospital). The problem is that the facility is not for Aged care but for mental health issues, and it seems his Mum has always had serious issues in the upstairs department.In fact when Victor visits his own Mother doesn't even recognise her son, so he adopts a variety of personas including lawyers and Victor's friends in attempts to get through to her to spark frank discussions about his childhood and past.On one such unsuccessful visit Victor is told by a woman named Paige that Mum is destined to move into another floor, one with more dedicated and intensive care – a bad sign – and he resists, though he does do his darndest to slide his Way into Paige's Doctor's outfit, his attempts rejected… initially.The remainder of the film deals with Victor's conflicting goals: he starts a torrid affair with Paige that quickly loses momentum when his "desire" is waylaid, while simultaneously striving to get through to his Mum and uncover more about his past.Rockwell finally lands a lead and does his best to maintain our er… interest in an increasingly convoluted plot. I continually thought of him as more likable (as a character not a love interest) guy than a conflicted man rent asunder by desperation and addiction. Angelica Huston plays Mum as a loving but manipulative, selfish and deceitful woman, and Kelly MacDonald is convincing as a woman that Victor… might like to have sex with??? The film suffers from trying to inject too many damn ideas into the fray, many of them are never actually seen through to any satisfying conclusion which creates an element of dissatisfaction. The main example of this is the Choking thing which supplies the film with little more than a title.One vice I understand, another unnecessary quirk is a tougher act to swallow… in fact one might say this film Chokes on it… just a little at least.This is a film that falls victim to its source material, while a novel might have hundreds of page with which to introduce and follow through with ideas, a movie has but 90 odd (in this case) minutes to do the same. A little more judicious exorcising of some extraneous elements might have helped here… Or they could have just bought in more nubile young teens and asked them to flash the jubblies, that works too.Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. A film that doesn't know what it wants to do or what it wants to say.