On the Couch

DVD Review

The Social Network*****
Directed by:David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer

RED****
Directed by: Robert Schwetke
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren

I have a bad habit. It’s a habit I think (I hope) I share with many others and I only have myself, and the extraordinary advances that mobile phones have made in the last few years, to blame for it.
While watching The Social Network, the David Fincher directer, Aaron Sorkin scripted film adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich’s account of the founding of Facebook, I checked for notifications. It only took a second and I missed nothing, maybe a bit of a montage or an establishing shot, but I still did it.
I blame the phone for the convenience it offers and the world’s most subscribed to social networking site for becoming such a part of daily habit that it can even interrupt itself on the big screen.
Starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, or Mr Facebook as he probably hates to be known, the film tells the story of the website, from the  acorn of Facemash, a site comparing the faces of Harvard University students that was devised as the result of an awkward breakup to going into business with his best friend, Eduardo Savarin (soon-to-be Spiderman, Andrew Garfield), to the site reaching its one million member mark and the business acrimony that plagued the company almost from its inception.
The main story of the drunken revenge of the nerd becoming the head of a multi-billion dollar internet sensation is told on the backdrop of Zuckerberg being deposed for two separate law suits, one being taken by the brothers Winklevoss over who actually owns the computer code that makes up Facebook and another by Savarin over being edged out of his rightful share of the building.
One of the most striking characteristics of The Social Network is how a somewhat convoluted story about computer programming and intellectual property law is rendered both fascinating and digestible thanks mainly to an excellently written script by Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing fame.
More famous for his brilliant, pithy dialogue, it is Sorkin’s artfully crafted structure that is the star here, allowing him to develop not always likable, but all strangely fascinating characters without needing to waste time on purely expositional scenes. It makes for enthralling viewing.
Of course all that elegant structure wouldn’t amount to much if it weren’t for some excellent performances from Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and (shockingly) Justin Timberlake who features as former Napster mastermind Sean Parker.
See it before the Oscars.
From a case of artful storytelling to something a little more… pulpy.
REDS is Robert Schwentke’s take on a DC comic book about ass-kicking OAPs starring some of the ass-kickingest members of Hollywood’s, ahem, older generation.
Bruce Willis stars as Frank Moses, a retiree with a simple, if somewhat lonely life. He lives in the suburbs, keeps himself fit and regularly tears up his pension cheques so he has a reason to call Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a customer services rep in the pension company.
When Moses’ past as a CIA black ops agent comes back to haunt him he avoids an early morning riddling with bullets and heads on the road to rescue Sarah from being killed in a similar manner and then gets some of his old friends, similarly threatened and classified as Retired: Extremely Dangerous, in on the job of finding out who wants them dead.
In the RED corner are John Malkovich’s LSD-addled kill-happy conspiracy nut, Morgan Freeman as the elder spymaster and the radiant Helen Mirren as the best assassin in the business.
(As an aside, you know how I said last week that Michael Douglas still has “it”? Well move over Mikey because if you can take your eyes of Helen Mirren for two seconds when she’s onscreen then you’re either blind, mad or the recent recipient of a punch in the face. She’s as beautiful now as she was 30 years ago and commands the screen with grace and menace.) 
It’s all grand craic to watch with a few decent one-liners, plenty of ridiculous gunplay and a few good twists along the way that bring Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox and Julian McMahon into the show for entertaining cameos.