1999: The First Rule of Fight Club is.........

Where "Office Space" hatched a plan to rob from the country stolen from Superman III and "American Beauty" had blackmail, Lolita like lust and drug use, neither pushed the envelope like David Fincher's "Fight Club."

"Fight Club" is a masterpiece on all accounts even on things having nothing to do with the film. This film caught all the right breaks at the right time from timing to studio backing. The money was there from Fox because you had Brad Pitt. Fincher wasn't executive produced to make mainstream film.

It is a film that isn't handicapped because it has to have a love interest. Marla Singer's part plays a pivotal role in the film. The timing of this film was brilliant, just two years before 9/11. With acts of vandalism and terrorism, there's no way this would've been released after that.

"Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk worked with the screenwriter Jim Uhls on the script. The source material wasn't just ravaged by hack screenwriters. The film cost 63 million and only took in 37 million. It made its money overseas and on video.

You have this incredible director, two of the best actors of their generation, a script and a studio willing to release it. As great as this film is, it still hasn't been seen by the masses like you would think. More people have probably seen "Office Space."

Then there are people who have seen it only for the fighting. Meatheads of the world, the film isn't really about fighting, it's about the male experience. It's about society. Our culture. It's about spitting in the face of all the expectations and norms we have.

In the film, Jack blackmails his boss like "American Beauty" and uses the money to start up Fight Clubs all across the country. Fight Club becomes Project Mayhem, a group who pulls pranks all over cities with their big goal being to blow up the credit card companies. The debt goes back to zero. Everyone starts over. The film is about ridding your life of all the stuff that doesn't matter. It's about human sacrifices that give rebirth. It's about selling women's cottage cheese back to them.

We had "The Sixth Sense" earlier but "Fight Club" caught us off guard because Tyler isn't a ghost. Turns out he's a figment of Jack's imagination. We've seen this device countless times over the last ten years to where it's standard, but in 1999 it was a jolt. Fincher has done some good films notably "Zodiac" but none of them have been a masterpiece. Brad Pitt has done a lot but will he ever get to play a counter culture character of this magnitude? Will Ed Norton get to have a character and story of this level that has a studio backing?

When asked about the miracle of how this got made, Slashfilm Managing Editor Dave Chen summed it up best.

“You have to accept that Fight Club was kind of a happy accident. You have an auteur director taking on a big budget film that’s virtually unmarketable.”

If a studio accountant looks at that equation, that is why we may never see a film of that caliber ever again.

1999: American Beuty...Look Closer

"American Beauty" also dealt with waking up to life in suburbia in a dead end job in a loveless marriage saying "We're not gonna take it anymore." Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham who gets little respect at work and even less at home. He feels he's lost something. He meets his neighbor, teenage Ricky Fitts who invites him to smoke some grass. Something more was lit than the joint cause Burnham trades in a Camry for a 1973 Pontiac Firebird, blackmails his boss and stands up to his wife and daughter. Where "Office Space" was rebellion against the corporate life, "American Beauty" was a rebellion against the American dream we've all been sold. In the directorial debut of Sam Mendes, this film went onto make out of the Oscars like gangbusters. Every performance is the peak for each actor and while Mendes has done some interesting work, nothing with the gravity of "American Beauty."

Party Like It's 1999: Have You Seen My Stapler?

The fall out from "Wall Street" wouldn't be felt for twenty years when the economy nose dived our 401Ks. The "greed is good" manifesto that yuppies and everyone from the financial sector to desperate housewives justified for their every indulgence seems to be finally catching up on us.

In the 80s, baby boomers went from peace sign smoking hippies to yuppies bent on decadence. "Greed is good" must've been the 80s investor's favorite movie line comprable to the 90s Swinger's line, "You're so money and you don't even know it." We had seen shades of the fall out of the Wall Street mentality in films like "Falling Down" but that was a little too psychotic. Who would deliver our first counter corporate film of 1999? The man who brought you Beavis and Butthead.

"Office Space" grossed ten million dollars in its initial release. The little movie that could is probably in your dvd collection because regardless of how much studios preach first weekend grosses, this film had legs because it was great. Even if it's not in your collection, you've probably quoted lines about "TPS reports" or "I wouldn't say I'm missing it Bob." "Office Space" stars "Swingers" alum Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a working stiff who one night after being hypnotized wakes up with a whole new attitude. Instead of being a slave to the grind, he comes in when he wants, cleans fish in his cubicle and tells efficiency experts how little work he gets done during the day. "Office Space" gives Ron Livingston his last great role and Mike Judge may have peaked with this one as well. This film brought us a true big screen adaption of "Dilbert" to the big screen.