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.

I think this movie was totally worth seeing. It's shaped around one character who's entire life is centered around fitting in. Then the filmmakers take this concept of anarchy and throw this guy into the middle of it. He wants to just fit in but "how far will he go?". The story twists around his wanting to fit in and his conscience of what is actually right and wrong. The characters are by no means Abercrombie and Fitch, but more normal everyday looking people.This movie has depth that some people might not be able to see...and even though sometimes it might get slow maybe they did it on purpose for you to reflect or so you can say yeah I'm not just watching another mindless movie.Also this movie points at social issues like the 60's hippie movement. And how it's shaped us now, instead of hippies were anarchist. Or how were always trying to rebel against something. It's very interesting to see the "new age hippie" mixed in with the radical 60's hippies (who are now adults).So if you don't want to see another mindless Hollywood carbon copy this is definitely an interesting movie to see.

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+.

Every now and then a movie just plain WORKS. For me, this was one of those movies.Although the setup was a bit clunky at first, this movie ended up grabbing me by the gonads and did not let go until the very end. And what an end! The reversals of fortune were clever and literal.Thank god for the quote on the box about Animal House -- otherwise I never would have been able to quite categorize this film. But, yes, this is Animal House for a more lawless set of folks.A word too about the use of music. Without ever descending into music-video-land, this film made incredible use of music to move the story forward and propel the scenes. In fact, the scenes and the music fed off one another in a completely holistic way. Kudos to the director and his composer and music supervisor (and his editor!) for what was clearly a well-though out battleplan.