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.

Who doesn't love cereal? I had no idea what this movie was about and being surrounded by the "culture", I thought it was yet another movie about pot-heads. I was wrong again! Pleasantly surprised, Flakes dove me into a world of cereal that I have never imagined. A cereal bar! How cool is that? I would love to go to one and have my favorite cereal and listen to gossip from the town's folk. I have to admit that I thought that the idea of a cereal bar was just crazy and could never exist however, upon researching it I've found that there ARE cereal bars! I have to go to one and it is because of this movie! The actors did a good job of portraying regular (and not so regular) people doing what they have to do in a world where everything is so flaky (yep, intended :p). We all experience people that are "fake" or "zoned out" or "uptight", etc. Movies are a reflection of the world and although many movies create improbable situations, the characters that are in them have their real-life counterparts in our everyday, real lives and all over the world. There were some messages in this movie that I got such as the corporate America killings of mom-and-pop shops, the need for people in a relationship to pay attention to one another, the must for more assistance to be given to other's in need, and that cereal is indeed a culture all it's own. I had no idea.Flakes portrays a character that sells old and discontinued cereals to the cereal bar. That seems like a bit too much however, I do know that uncoated cereals can last for years and years without losing too much of their shelf-life. I personally would not try to eat such old cereal however, there are people that would and this movie caters to that. Bravo! I do have to admit, the part where Neal made that all chocolate concoction for the cussing customer made my mouth water! I paused it, made Coco Puffs and unpaused it!

Unfortunately, this movie, which to some degree was about staying true to yourself, was shallow and left me wanting. The characters were fairly one-dimensional -- either anti-establishment and cool or pro-business with a pocket protector and glasses. The main characters were fine, but fairly predictable. Christopher Lloyd played his usual role, and the guy from the OC appeared to play Randall Pink Floyd from Dazed and Confused. Ironically, although much of the plot was about not being fake, everything about the movie from the setting to the dialog appeared contrived. I can't say I laughed, cried, smiled or even thought very hard. It didn't even make me want to eat cereal.

Checked out this movie OnDemand last night on a lark - my girlfriend and I read the description and decided to give it a shot. I wish I could get my six bucks back. It was the kind of movie that looked like it was written and directed by a 14-year-old trying really, really hard to be "indie." I was shocked that Zooey Deschanel and Christopher Lloyd allowed themselves to be associated with this awful excuse for a film.The dialog was cliché at best, the acting was miserable, and the entire premise of the movie was ridiculous. How can you eat vintage cereal? I know the stuff is loaded with preservatives, but I'm pretty sure you can't open a box of cereal from the 70s and eat it.After about 45 minutes of watching this trainwreck of a movie, we decided we couldn't take it anymore and turned it off. The only advantage of watching Flakes was that it made the Arrested Development episodes we watched immediately afterward look like the most genius pieces of entertainment ever crafted.