The Social Network (2010) ***1/2

The Social Network is a very entertaining movie.  The inventor of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was an interesting young man.  Very, very smart.  I don’t think you have to be a genius to come up with an idea like Facebook.  I mean, there was already My Space.  I don’t have a My Space page, but I’ve seen it and I can imagine how someone would see it and want to tweak it to make it better in some ways.  Mark took the idea of a social network website, similar to what Facebook is today, from a couple fellow Harvard students who wanted to hire him to write the code.   Then, they sued him.  I think it was rather ballsy of them to sue him, when he did all the work.   Whatever… they got a lot of money by doing so… and it was a drop in the bucket for Mark. 

I think what I enjoyed about the movie more than the story itself was the performance and the character played by Jesse Eisenberg.  I’ve never seen an interview with the real Mark Zuckerberg, but Jesse’s portrayal of him showed him as one unique individual (that’s a little redundant, but it’s exactly what I wanted to say).  I don’t know anyone with Asperger’s Syndrome, but I’ve seen movie and TV characters with it and the character of Mark was a lot like that.  He rarely smiled.  He frequently talked down to others… even his girlfriend, who dumped him in the first scene which was why this whole thing started.  Jesse is a great actor.  I’ve seen him in  two other movies this year, Zombieland and Adventureland.  Those characters were a lot different than this one, but a lot like each other.  Even though Mark doesn’t seem like a very likeable person (kind of a prick, actually), I found myself liking him.

I want to see more from Jesse Eisenberg.  I also would like to thank Mark Zuckerberg.  I love Facebook!

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) **1/2

I love a good revenge movie.  That was the basic idea of this movie, for the most part.  That and a comeback for Gordan Gekko.  Other than that, all the stocks and strategy is way over my head.  Anyone who understands all that stuff AND likes a good revenge movie should enjoy this. 

I like Shia Lebeouf and Carey Mulligan.  I’ve mostly been on the fence about Michael Douglas throughout his career.  I think he’s a very good actor and has been in some terrific movies, but there’s something about him that makes me not love him the way I love some other great actors.  He was good in this movie and I’m really glad I saw it.   Sadly, it could be his last.  Being diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer, it seems unlikely he’ll be doing another movie for a while.  If he survives… and I don’t know much about survival rates for Stage 4, but I hear probability is slim… any treatment he has to go through would probably require him to lose his voice.  Even if he doesn’t lose it, he’d be foolish to use it more than necessary.  I hope he lives many many years and beats the cancer.  Regardless, I pray he has very little pain.  Cancer fucking sucks.

Sorry I digressed, but now I don’t feel like writing anymore of this review.  Go see the movie… it’s worth it.