Flakes

This is a movie that tries to be poppy and indie at the same time. There are lots of movies that do this, and they rarely hit the mark. There's enough quirkiness to keep you watching it, but not enough to really make you remember that you actually did watch it the day after. As amusing as the concept is of guys who buy black market cereal is, there's only so much you can do with the concept, and it ends up with a story line about a nice girl with a jerk boyfriend who really doesn't have the ambition to record his mediocre songs. It is nice to see New Orleans, and to see Christopher Lloyd dusting off his Jim-from-taxi persona one more time. It's the kind of movie you could recommend to your parents when they're trying to figure out how to set up their Netflix queue, unless they don't like swearing, that is. In the end, they probably should have just scrapped the whole idea of being edgy, and gone for the poppy movie thing.

Top 3 Reasons Not to See Flakes

1: Zooey Deschanel. She plays a terribly dressed, self-absorbed ditzy hipster named Miss Pussy Katz who runs around saying things like "you can't nurture your soul and accumulate at the same time" and ruins everyone's lives with her self-righteous drivel. For the first time, Zooey Deschanel loses that endearing balance between obnoxious and endearing and goes full on obnoxious. Don't watch it unless you're willing to run the risk of hating Zooey Deschanel forever.

2: The plot. A guy (Aaron Stanford) works at a cereal bar (it's just what it sounds like). Another guy opens a less dirty version of the cereal store across the street. They call each other names for 45 minutes, then hand out a bunch of flyers and make DIY t-shirts. Then the movie is over. Seriously. That was the whole movie. It grossed a whopping $311 dollars in its opening week.

3: Hipsters. There is nothing more obnoxious than listening to a bunch of post-teens waxing self righteous the "best" years of Cap'n Crunch and the bouquet and mouth feel of Fruity Pebbles like baby wine snobs. Except when they eventually switch topics to rip on "suits" and "consumerism". The dialogue does its best to remind us why we hate hipsters in the first place: because they're really just hateful little future conservatives dabbling in corporate sponsored "counter culture"...it's like Urban Outfitters started making people.

Michael Lehmann tells a charming little story about an aspiring rocker, Neal Downs, and an aspiring artist, Pussy Katz. Neal feels obligated to work fulltime at a cereal diner, Flakes, but his girlfriend Pussy Katz wants him to pursue his dream in becoming a musician. She even offers to take over his job, without payment. However, Neal declines. Meanwhile, a rival diner sets up in front of Flakes and in order to teach Neal a lesson, Pussy Katz takes up a job at the new cereal bar.

'Flakes' is overall a fun movie. While the concept is very appealing, the screenplay and execution are splendid. Although the pro-capitalist vs anti-capitalist theme is underdeveloped and the ending felt a little rushed, the comedy mostly makes up for it. The clever humour works brilliantly. I liked the art direction. The colourful sets looked very inventive and authentic. The cinematography is good too and the soundtrack fits well with the atmosphere and flaky surroundings.

Aaron Stanford and Zooey Deschanel form a likable and believable pair. They have great chemistry. Standford is competent as the scruffy wannabe rocker who's afraid of the uncertainty of a musician's future. Lovely Deschanel is a delight to watch. Her natural performance stands out, Christopher Lloyd, Keir O'Donnell and Izabella Miko provide great support.

The jokes made me laugh out loud. This film has heart and brain Positively flaky, fun, energetic and delicious, 'Flakes' at the very least brings a smile to the face. I'll definitely be revisiting this one.

I thought this movie was pretty good. Yes, It may be trying a bit hard and the acting may not be top rate but at least it has some originality to it which is more than I can say for most movies out there. Yes it is cheezy and far fetched but it leaves you with a good feeling in the end. Who knows why someone would open up a cereal restaurant across the street from another but who knows why TV executives throw the best shows on at the same time or why there are 3 million Starbucks or 7-11s half of which are on the same block.

This is a fun movie, Not great but good all in all. I wish I could give it an extra star to combat the negative reviews but I can not. Solid 6, and in my opinion worth watching if you have nothing better to do.

Cheers, -=db=-

Michael Lehmann's new film, Flakes, could have been a quirky comedy, centered on a new type of concept "cereal" bar. Instead, it tries too hard to be a romantic comedy with a quirky setting, and unfortunately, doesn't really deliver anything romantic or comedic. I mean, the setting really is great. And the overlying plot--young entrepreneur threatens to Starbuck over a local establishment with a local following--might have worked, if the film had been completely different.

But instead of focusing on the fact that these guys live, eat and breathe cereal, Lehmann decides to cliché it all up by introducing the same old, badly written girl-wants-slackerboy-to-quit working-his-dead-end-job-and-focus-on-his-aspiring-music-career theme. And because of this, we never really get to learn that much about cereal, or what great toys come out of cereal boxes, or really anything cool at all. We do get some slack-off acting and a shameful appearance by Christopher Lloyd. All-in-all, it's a waste of time and plays more like a badly written sitcom than an actual feature film.