SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Having somehow sat through this movie, the one good thing I can say about it is "well, at least the concept is original". The rest of it, though? Utter garbage.The film is horribly acted, the characters mumble and groan their lines in disinterested fashion, and Zooey Deschanel attacks her role as Miss Pussy Katz with the same dull, wooden lifelessness that she always does. How she is thought of as a good actress by anyone is beyond me.The writing is poor, and it tries way too hard to appeal to your typical hipster demographic, though the fact that it somehow manages to have more painfully faux-indie dialog than Diablo Cody's "Juno" is an accomplishment in and of itself. The two main characters are also absurdly named, reinforcing the whole notion that the movie is simply trying too hard. Calling characters "Neal Downs" and "Miss Pussy Katz" is beyond silly, and feels like it's been done sheerly in an attempt to be quirky.The message of "Capitalism is bad!" gets shoved down your throat from the start - Deschanel even quips that "you can't nurture your soul while sitting atop a pile of money" - and by the end, you're praying for this garbage to end, which it does, in the cheesiest, most predictable way possible, a shame, since you'd think a movie with an original concept might have an original ending.The "comedy" is virtually non-existent, and not once during the movie did I laugh, nor did I even spot many attempts at making a joke. May I just don't "get" it because I'm not cool enough.A dull, lifeless, 85 minutes (or thereabouts) that feels like twice that. Avoid it.

Watching this, i was not expecting much. I have to say i was pleasantly surprised. During the start of the film i was left in awe at how cool the actual set was, the cereal bar is a work of mise en scene genius. But even with an exciting set a film can still be rubbish.Flakes is not as quirky as it looks. It's dialogue is impressive and the performances are understated and all work perfectly with the story, see Skinny Larry and Winston. There are moments that made me laugh, granted it was more of a chuckle than a hysterical laugh. The thing that strikes me the most about this movie is how well the writers formulated their characters. All very well judged with good casting in them, the only role i was left wondering about was that of Strawberry as she was pretty pointless. Christopher Lloyd is awesome in this, i read on another comment that Christopher Lloyd does his usual but if you grew up watching him as Doc, this really isn't his usual.Good characters, good premise, original storytelling and the ever lovely Zooey Deschanel. This is worth a watch, it is not a groundbreaking concept, it will not blow your brains out, it will not keep you on the edge of your seat, however it will charm you and leave you thinking about it. Well it did for me at least.

The best compliment you can give to flakes is that you'll want to work there and believe me I did. The place looked fun and full of life. This film has a similar premise to Empire Records and in some ways I prefer this one as I found it quirkier and more indie. I love Indie films because they function in a way that is all their own. I don't mean that every single indie film functions in the same way, what I mean is one indie film is different from another. Much like Empire Records the subject (the shop in question) just looks like a fun place to work. As for the film, it was really clever, fun, warm, idiosyncratic and very much enjoyable from start to finish. Aaron Sanford shows he can act and of course Zooey Deschanel, picture perfect as always. The most impressive thing you can say about these two in both the writing and performance is they went beyond the chemistry of these two characters and took it to another place by having them have a dynamic. It was there in the writing and in the performances. Simply having the couple not let the work dynamic get in the way of their personal life and in a way does in simple subtle ways is a joy to watch and what I mean. The rest of the cast do fantastically well as well. It's nice to see Christopher Lloyd too.The other aspect of the film I loved was the set design and soundtrack which brought it to life. On the whole this was a superb film with heart and soul and brains to match.

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.