The film portrays Zuckerberg as freakishly intelligent and hopeless awkward socially. His arch nemesis, the guys he's accused of stealing Facebook from, are twin 6'5" meatballs (2 meat balls with only one 'dick' head between them) who rowed for Harvard, and for America in the Olympics. They basically sit back and let themselves get ripped off because fighting back would look bad, a violate an unrealistic and antiquated set of Harvard standards that even the university president finds laughable. So while they're waiting for the world to turn back their way, Zuckerberg expands into dozen of countries and makes himself a shit load of money.
While he's at it he hooks up with Napster's Sean Parker, who is happy to encourage Zuckerberg the way the devil encouraged Eve in the old Testement. Parker is well played by Justin Timberlake, who manages to give Parker the right blend of obnoxiousness, pushiness, and sheer gutlessness. Parker sweet talks his way into Facebook after 2 failed ventures of his own by dazzling Zuckerberg with talk of revenge, sex, and eventual world domination. It's at that poitn that the film devolves into a kind of humourless Revenge of the Nerds type storyline.
The movie is good, but might easily have been so much better. Zuckerberg and Parker become smary smug scapegaots of the piece. They're depicted as over brained & under hearted assholes who carry a chip on their shoulders for not getting laid in high school. Yet everyone else in the film is some how complicit in Facebook's dubious success: like the college students who enjoy comparing fat chicks to farm animals, or rating co eds based on relative hotness (there's an algorithm for that!). The Meathead Twins don't come off looking very good. They supress they urge to slap Zuckerberg down because they don't want to come off as dumb jocks - a la Karate Kid. Then there's the slightly moralizing lawyers who none the less circle around for the kill.
So the movie might have looked at the social context of college, and society, that made Facebook not only possible but unbelievably successful. It might also have looked at how new information technology is re arranging the way the social game is being played. It verged on that but never write got there. What it did do is add some serious momentum to Timberlake's acting career by way of his impressive supporting performance. So it's a highly enjoyable film that's well worth seeing.
Now here are the official BO returns for the weekend. Not surprisingly Mr Zuckerberg is once again No 1!
Hot bad asses are always popular right? With that in mind Nikita is being remade once again. Here's a little preview on that!
Needs more gratuitous bondage, like CTV's Castle! Speaking of cartoonish hypersexuality and violence, guess who's making an appearance on Smallville!
Then of course there's CSI Miami!
Those aren't the only previews. Hot on the heels of a bogus UFO sighting in Montreal - this one was witnessed by a gynecologist; he's a credible witness 'cause he's used to seeing things - comes Gary Bell and the View From Space. This week's program centers on Imminent Disclosure!
So they're here already and the government - through mind games like predictive programming - are preparing your consciousness to accept the truth; which may or may not be true depending on the agenda in play. Just keep alert around the 13th, or the 31st, or which ever combination of numbers are Illuminati significant for more UFO news. If it's not actually disclosure then there's bound to be some kind of UFO related story in the National Enquirer, or on Youtube. It might even show up on NBC. It's just another small piece being added to an ever growing puzzle!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
