Jan 31 2011
Red Box Review– The Social Network #redbox
The Social Network (2010 — 120 mins) J. Eisenberg, A. Garfield, J. Timberlake
The Social Network A.K.A “that facebook movie” is among the front runners for many awards and has been touted as an amazing movie by many people. I’ll do now what I normally do at the end and say it’s decent but it’s not all that. Most people will want to see it b/c “OHHH that movie is supposed to be SOOOO good!” I am not sure if it’s b/c everyone and their great great grandmother are on Facebook, or if it’s b/c Jesse Eisenberg really IS that good as the supremely annoying Mark Zuckerberg (doesn’t hurt that we ALL hate him for being so GD rich as well as a dick), but it seems everyone is on that bandwagon.
The story is a fairly interesting one. In the last 20 years the information age has brought about so many people on the internet that the whole idea of social networking has taken off thousandfold. In the late 90’s the world got Myspace and Freindster but they were both so clunky, limited and not nooby friendly. One day a hacking geek and some buddies put together the king of the world to be, Facebook and made it what everyone wanted the others to be. Of course when you have a great idea and internet hit magnet you are bound to get a few things from it. You end up with tons of people trying to get their hands in your pocket like leech Sean Parker, he of Napster fame, and played masterfully by Justin Timberlake. Timeberlake is great b/c he has this quality that he can either be the funniest guy in the world who everyone loves, girl or guy a like, or he can manage to come across as the biggest A-hole around who you just want to slap the shit out of (Like Parker here). Then you get the groups of people who want to stake claim to the billion dollar idea to say it was their own and get some money out of it. This film has both of those.
The premise and “story” of it all is interesting and often pulled off with some decent humor. This is a combo that is pulled off partly from the script but mostly b/c we have grown to love Eisenberg’s geeky deadpan delievery from awesome performances in movies like ZombieLand and Adventureland. The thing that I didn’t like about the movie was the use of back and forth of seeing the parties fighting in litigation and the flashbacks to the origin story. It’s not so much confusing tho, as it is annoying. The whole thing I think they are trying to convey (IMO) is that no one is innocent here. Everyone is a leech and Zuckerberg while having a good idea is a socially inept A-hole himself, and not above screwing people just b/c he feels screwed himself. I think alot of this could have been conveyed in a story and delve into the litigation thing a different way. Again don’t let me deterr you TOO much from the movie b/c it is pretty good it’s just not the best movie I have ever seen by a longshot.
The whole thing does make you curious to try and find out how much is true and how much is fabricated by one side or another. But if you are like me you will think about that for a min or two then remember every one of thes ebastards are multi-multi-multi millionaire and I suddenly don’t care who is telling the truth they are all spoiled A_holes to me!
Verdict—> Like me most of you out there are prolly curious to see if this is as good as they say it is. Well it’s not THAT good, but it is good enough to warrant a viewing so you can make your own judgements on it. I would say a high second tier recommendation but if there are other things you want to see in the box get them first but def see it at some point.