Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Social Network Full Review


Status: "Like" this movie

Nearly everyone laughed at the idea of making a movie about Facebook. As if people are running out of ideas to tell a story and come up with something ridiculous like a movie about the board games Battleships and Monopoly or about a computer simulations game, The Sims. We all thought it was going to be something wacky involving Facebook when in fact, we were all wrong. Helmed by David Fincher and written (beautifully) by Aaron Sorkin (not to mention composed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails), we later found out it was about the creation of Facebook, that extremely addictive digital time-waster that has gotten nearly everyone in the entire planet hooked into. And with this combination of talents, who knew that a movie about Facebook would be so interesting, compelling and riveting, if not a little bit exaggerated.

The Social Network (aka Getting Screwed: The True Story) begins with a breakup between young Mark Zuckerberg, soon-to-be founder of Facebook (Jesse Eisenberg) and his ex. Fueled with rage and alcohol, Mark creates a web page, along with best friend Eduardo (the new Spiderman, Andrew Garfield) that allows guys to choose between various female Harvard students in terms of hotness and thus crashing the entire Harvard’s network. This grabs the attention of high-class Harvard students, the Winklevoss twins (played by just one guy, Armie Hammer) in proposing to Mark in programming their website. Although Mark closes himself off from the twins to create his own social network venture which would become “Facebook” and thus follows the backstabbing, the screwing-overs and the courtroom dramas for this one single idea.

This is the one tiny problem I had with the film and it made the film just a shy away from being an extremely great film for me. When it comes to adapting a true event into a feature film, there is always a chance where the story will be more exaggerated, elaborate, operatic and dramatic ala A Beautiful Mind and Shine. And it’s no big deal because you have to make the story very interesting and exciting for the audience. You can’t watch a boring film, I suppose. But with all the drama the film produced throughout, to me it just lost its impact towards the end and you can realize that there was no sense of peril, risk or endangerment. That it all works out in the end, which makes all the drama the film had not pointless, but an insy winsy tiny bit. That said, it all just kinda summed by just one quote, making me realized how romanticized the film really is. Said by the female lawyer in Mark’s defence, “To you, it’s just a speeding ticket.”

Not to say the film is bad, in fact it is still amazing. What I highly praised about this film are the performances by the actors and the always sharp-witty writing of Aaron Sorkin. His writing is always that fun and sharp especially in his last project, Charlie Wilson’s War and his writings are greatly delivered by the performances of the actors especially Jesse Eisenberg as the complete assh*le you can’t help but adore. Jesse just steals the show with his nose-raising superiority ego and his ability to give such great comebacks with complete ownage. Andrew Garfield really hold it together and you really do feel sympathetic for him as the only good friend of Mark, as he is doing everything for him and to make his business work only to have him screwed. Justin Timberlake is now placing himself among the rare list of great music-artists turned great actors as he proved himself to just wow us over and over.

For a movie with a not-so-interesting subject like Facebook, this is kind of a must-see. There are great performances from the cast especially Jesse and Justin and the writing will keep you hanging for every great bits, not to mention it is also so damn funny. Though you'll find that the film is made something that is small very much exaggerated, you will be thankful that the great performances, the writing, the camera direction and the music came into play otherwise it would have such a hacked attempt. Add this to your Facebook's friends.

4 out of 5 stars

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Mini Reviews - The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.

Even though I'm not a fan of the animated series, I have seen some episodes of the show and it is brilliant and had so much going in it. That said, the film really did sucked. But I'll just say that the film is terrible, but it is not THE worst film this year. But boy, Shyamalan sucks really hard in this one. The problem with this film is that when the mythology and concept of the series is about martial arts with elemental bending skills (which is a badass concept), M. Night goes out of the way to make the film so much boring and dull with so little action and spectacles thus turning it into another bad Harry Potter knock-off. There is some nice story going on, but the narrative goes at a giant snail-pace and all the characters have to be melo-dramatic about everything. Not much we see Aang(the main character) get captured again and again and always slips away from badguys when they are NOT looking at the time! And there are so many pointless setups and buildups to everything that is so not rewarding to the audience. Shyamalan... maybe just stop making films for 5 years and take a loooong vacations, because your losing streak in films are getting worse and worse. But I'll give you a compliment...

Since this is not called "Avatar: The Last Airbender" like how it is originally called because James Cameron used it for his film, I'll say this:

The Last Airbender is a very terrible movie, but I don't hate it.

Avatar is a better made movie, yet I have SO MUCH hatred for it.

Shyamalan is spared from my pure fiery hatred.... for now...


1 and a half out of 5 stars

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Mini Reviews - Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson was a bachelor congressman from Texas who had a habit of showing up in hot tubs with strippers and cocaine. His "Good Time Charlie" exterior, however, masked an extraordinary mind, a deep sense of patriotism and a passion for the underdog, and in the early 1980s the underdog was Afghanistan-which had just been brutally invaded by the Russians.


Its a very well written and greatly performed film about the event that will end up biting on America's ass. What is really charming about this film is that it doesn't play it too serious and overly dramatic as it is provided by the humor and dialogue that keeps the film momentum really going. Even the ending has some little humor to it. Tom, Julia and Phillip are Oscar-winners and they showed how much of great actors they really are. Check it out.

4 out of 5 stars

Friday, October 15, 2010

Great Black Swan Posters

Its not a movie review or a long blog post, but these came to my attention especially I'm so looking forward to Darren Aronofsky's next art film, Black Swan. And if you haven't guessed it yet, it is a movie about ballerinas. Thats right, ballerinas! How could a straight-up guy like me take interest in a movie about ballerinas? Only a genius who brought you Requiem For A Dream and The Wrestler can make me that.

Along the way, the film brought us some brilliant classic posters. And I do mean "classic", as these designs and graphic really hawks back to the operatic ballet posters you see in front of an opera house. The use of abstract shapes and simplistic design does shout out elegance and epicness. Especially the typography gives a sense you are about to see a grand scale ballet play other than a film. Check these out, my favorite is the second one.





And if you really want to know what the movie is about, check out the trailer. It is just freaky.


Friday, October 8, 2010

Mini Reviews - How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon

Meet Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, heir of the Viking chiefdom, but a boy with one very big problem: a hero he is not. "How to Train Your Dragon" is the riotous story of Hiccup's quest to hunt down the fiercest dragon, bring it into submission, and-hopefully-pass his initiation. Instead, he ends up with the smallest, most ornery dragon - it's even toothless! Thus begins the hijinx of the world's most lovable, unlikely hero and a most reluctant "beast."

A surprisingly, sweeping and lush animated film of a boy and his pet dragon, especially coming from Dreamworks who are now learning a thing or two from Pixar. Even though I would complain about Jay Barucehl's annoying nasel voice and the not-so-subtle scene translation from humorous to sweeping epic, I still had fun with the imaginative designs on characters and dragons, the great orchestral score, good voice performance (san Jay Baruchel) and the thoughtful and well-written story. And its kinda funny that all the Viking kids sound very teen American while the adults sound stone-cold Scottish. Viking girls really do drop their balls.

4 out of 5 stars


P.S - Toy Story 3 is still better