ROUND 1: Meant as a sucker punch to the publishing industry and inspired in part by the author's own fistfight experience, Chuck Palahniuk's dark "Fight Club" apparently captured the cultural zeitgeist so well that reporters began calling him up to get directions to Fight Clubs in their area. And although the book was in fact a novel, at least one film scribe has reported seeing a group of guys duking it out with boxing gloves on their Long Beach, California, lawn in recent days.

ROUND 2: Old-guard critics don't know what to make of the film, with Rex Reed, for instance, calling it a "disgusting excuse for pro-Nazi propaganda." David Ansen decides to damn "Fight Club" with faint praise, describing it as "alternately amazing and annoying," "a mess," and a "movie [that] doesn't so much end as self-destruct." And Richard Schickel chides the film's "brutal, off-putting imagery." But wasn't the movie called... "Fight Club"?

ROUND 3: Young-turk critics, however, don't mind the violence; in fact, they're pumped up by it. Hell, the inherent contradictions of the film don't bother them, either. As Harry Knowles says, "I adore the contradictory elements of making a film condemning consumerism and commercialism by putting in one of the more bankable hunks around, marketing the hell out of it and stuffing it down our throats." Beyond that, Spin heralds "Fight Club"'s "incredible visual style" and a story that offers an "exhilarating temporary escape" from worker-bee-dom. The Village Voice cites the film's "outrageous sense of humor," calling it a "vertiginous, libidinous preview of the 21st" century and "a psychodrama for cyberpunks." Hmmm, sounds like the nineties version of "A Clockwork Orange."

ROUND 4: With pretty-boy Brad Pitt teaming once again with "Seven" director David Fincher --plus a central role for the always-interesting, often-excellent Edward Norton --the judges' final cards will likely show "Fight Club" scoring at least a technical knockout. At the very least, it's one of those rare films that demands that viewers take a stand.

Frank Sennett

Newcity.com affiliates put up their dukes about "Fight Club":

FIGHT OR FLIGHT
Why are mainstream critics afraid of "Fight Club"?

TALKING SMACKS
"Fight Club" takes the vague pre-millennial angst that has affected many of us, and crystallizes it into a dark, nihilistic fairy tale

FIGHT THE SYSTEM
As social critic and revolutionary, "Fight Club"'s Tyler Durden is the Charles Manson of our time

SPARRING PARTNERS
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt lace up the gloves and discuss "Fight Club"

BRUTAL ASSAULT
Love it or hate it, this scathing, violent, black comedy doesn't see the audience as passive viewers

THE BIG PUNCH-UP
Sweaty men get all worked up during the thin story of "Fight Club"

TKO
"Fight Club" finds caustic humor in a society ready to rumble

PRIZED FIGHT
As a macho homage to Ingmar Bergman, "Fight Club" can't be beat

FREE SWINGERS
Norton and Pitt, knocked out loaded

SUCKERS GET PUNCHED
"Fight Club" brilliantly challenges modern living, modern values and modern filmmaking

DOWN FOR THE COUNT
"Fight Club" fan and feminist author Susan Faludi contends that American masculinity has become just another product instead of an intrinsic quality

SPARRING MATCH
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt stay on bruise control in "Fight Club"

IKEA KILLS
Incendiary and psychotic, "Fight Club" is one of the most interesting film screeds to enter the ring in a long while

ART OF PAIN
"Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk specializes in the visceral

EVERYBODY IN BLOOD
Edward Norton's searing performance makes "Fight Club" a brutal experience

HIT PARADE
"Fight Club" undermines modern man's search for macho affirmation

FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE
Intense "Fight Club" isn't easy to watch, but it's an experience to behold

SCREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
David Fincher's "Fight Club" breaks through the glass ceiling of Hollywood narrative

PUNCH DRUNK
Director David Fincher takes a swing at the emasculation generation

FIGHTER BEWARE
Slick, fast-paced and entertaining, "Fight Club" offers a nihilistic bill of goods

A GOOD PUMMELING
"Fight Club" is dark, funny and full of explosive rage

OUT OF HELL
Meat Loaf rages back on the scene with a role in "Fight Club," a new album and an autobiography titled "To Hell and Back"

OCTOBER SURPRISES
"Fight Club" kicks off several months of interesting releases

FIGHT CLUB SOAP
And other movie promo items we'd like to see

SEE NO EVIL
Novelist Chuck Palahniuk follows up "Fight Club" with "Invisible Monsters," an off-the-wall transsexual tale