popcorninhell This film is very, very loosely connected with the book "The Anarchist Cookbook," a collection of do-it-yourself explosives, weapons and other violent tools which has since been disavowed by its author. Aside from featuring the book, the movie has absolutely no connection to it.The movie does connect to the life of college dropout Puck (Devon Gummersall), an intelligent anarchist who spends his days living in a commune of like-minded folks among them: Karla (Gina Philips), a man hating feminist, Johnny Red (John Savage) a peaceful old hippie and Double-D (Steve Van Wormer), Puck's dimwitted best friend. Aside from protesting "oppressive" government actions, everything is relatively calm on the commune as they wait for the revolution, that is until the appearance of Johnny Black (Dylan Bruno) a violent nihilist who dismisses their peaceful ways. Things start to spiral out of control as Johnny Black convinces the collective to take a more severe approach to anarchy.For a movie about questioning conventions, the script is pretty conventional. In fact, it's wholly unoriginal. Puck starts out as a lethargic, idealistic layabout who after facing the folly of his lifestyle alters his flaws and somewhat adjusts to adult life. This exact story seems to be lifted from 1998's "SLC Punk!" and while "SLC" delivered scathing satire, "Cookbook" only gives an occasional wink to entrenched hypocrisies. Additionally the pace of the story is very schizophrenic with some scenes being unbearably slow and others whizzing by. Maddening director choices like this completely fumbles the central point. Once the film closes by condemning violence in all its forms, it feels like putting a bandaid on a tumor.A movie that involves such a predictable character arch needs to be supplied with decent acting on the part of the lead, and though Devon Gummersall tries his best, he never seems to get his footing on the character. The supporting cast doesn't fair any better. Karla becomes obnoxious, John Savage seems to phone it in and the character of Double-D is nothing more than a caricature out of place with the presumably "developing characters".Jordan Susman made a lukewarm entrance into the movie industry winning a second place prize in 1997 for his short film "Sitting in Limbo" at the Montreal Film Festival. "The Anarchist Cookbook," released five years later has shown little improvement. Some scenes seem to have been shot by different types of cameras and lighting for no stylistic reason other than clear budget restraints. The editing is sloppy and everything seems to just not mesh at all.There is one bright light in the form of Dylan Bruno. Bruno manages to portray menace with such understated glee that he balances intelligence, cunning and meat-headed violence pretty well. Unfortunately even his character is a shadow of what could have been."The Anarchist Cookbook" is an ill-conceived mess. Neither funny or dramatically engrossing, it serves as a toothless and forgetful expose on a subculture that deserves more credit. Neither emotionally striking or politically resonant this film about anarchy simply lacks anarchistic spirit.http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/

shadowshavefallen This movie is a great representation of how nihilism is often confused with anarchism. People like to confuse the two of them and consider them to be the same. The Anarchist Cookbook demonstrates the differences between the two of them and manifests the ideals between two of the main characters: Puck and Johnny Black. Puck represents anarchy which can be nihilistic but does not have to be as it is often unstable. Puck is a fantastic representation of anarchist ideals used in good and bad ways from when he works with johnny to when he is working sixty hours a week and throwing surprise birthday parties for his co-workers. One of the biggest things he does is when he kills johnny black and all the skinheads that were working with him. The reason that this was so significant was that he was showing the distinction between governmental law abiding and vigilante good deeds. While murder is not a typical good deed he showed that there is clearly a grey area to kill a few to save many. In the end he was no better off than he had been but had learned and incredible amount from his experiences.

Finchy666 I Think this is a great movie and ill tell you the reasons why. it shows a story of self struggle and change of times. Also the mutiny that puck has to go through once johnny black showed up and created in sense a total hell for him. i think that this movie should be shown at schools but of course an edited version this movie showed me that you must help out friends and that you should be careful on who you let in to your life also you should also keep your eyes open on problems to stop them before they become worse. spoiler coming up ill have 5 slashes to tell you when I'm done spoiling. when double d starts to become crazy puck only thinks about himself he should of realized the problem before he passed and i was so happy when puck put all the bad neo-nazi's to sleep because he was standing up for himself. this movie also gave a good idea for and hitchhikers./////. this movie is definitely worth checking out whether you like it or not it shows a great message. thanks for reading bye

chmnig The Anarchist Cookbook is about the a college dropout who joins some sort of naturalist cult like team who join together thinking they are at war with society and the government. Though they are rebellious in nature they do not go over the boundaries of stepping out of line especially when it comes to the law. Everything seems to be well and doubt. A group of friends,living together in harmony discussing peaceful tactics against a government they disagree with entirely. Thats until a strange rebellion named Johnny Black enters into their lives and then their peaceful revolt and their world spirals out of control. It was a pretty OK movie. A bunch of 2000 hippie peacemakers who believe they can change the world for the better. But it wasn't anything big. I give a D+.