The Social Network Review
This is the fascinating story about Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a sophomore at Harvard. It all started one fall night in 2003 when Mark’s girlfriend broke up with him at a bar. Very angry and upset, Mark went to his computer, and started venting on a blog about this girl. He ended up creating an online game throughout the university. After that, he was known throughout the school, and was asked by two fellow students to help make a campus-only social network. Mark took their idea, and made his own site, which initially was called thefacebook.com. With the financial help of his best friend, and the help of the founder of Napster (Sean Parker), within six months, Facebook became worldwide, with 500 million users. However, Mark’s wealth and success, eventually lead to personal and legal complications.
Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: January 11, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: Adults
Sexual Content: Excessive
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Excessive
Talking Points:
The movie was based on a best selling book called The Accidental Billionaire, which was written with the help of Eduardo, Marks friend and CFO.
The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the TV show West Wing, added a nice blend of comedy throughout all the drama. I liked the flashbacks and flash-forwards that were shown during the legal proceedings.
The acting was amazing, especially Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg.
I read that the “movie is based on real-world research, though it is a work of fiction.” In the movie Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as an arrogant, nerdy genius. I’m hoping that’s not how he really is, being a Facebook “friend.” I also wonder if this will impact Facebook.
Sexual Content: Excessive, There were many sexual scenes, just to name a few:
We see college girls dancing in their bra and underwear.
One women took off her shirt so people could snort cocaine off her body.
Mark and Eduardo, and their dates, end up in the bathroom stalls, we see pants unzipped….etc.
Profanity: There were a lot of swear words used throughout the movie.
I often mentioned a lesson or message from a movie, whether I like it or not, but I’m not sure there is one here, there’s not even a hero in the movie! But, if your teenager happens to see it, you could talk about the fact that greed and selfishness can destroy a person, and that money and material possessions aren’t what’s important in life. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history.
I found the movie to be very entertaining and interesting. However this is NOT a movie for kids. There’s a lot of dialogue and legal proceedings that kids may find boring. More importantly, with the heavy sexual, drug and alcohol content, I don’t know if parents would even want their teenagers seeing it. I do think that most adults ages 18 and up, will enjoy the movie.
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