I was surprised after just viewing this movie through Netflix to see the glowing reviews of this little known art-house style film. The acting was satisfactory, and the story had potential, but the pace of the film after the first 15 or 20 minutes became rather sluggish, and the characters behaved more like high school students than college kids. I must confess that I attended University from 1958 to the mid 70's, earning a doctorate, so I may be behind the times when it comes to campus behavior. Yes there was drinking and parties, (no drugs until the mid 60's), but I only saw one fight in all that time on campus, and none in the 2 years I lived on campus. I never saw Limp Bizkit, but I saw Fred Durst in an indie called Population 436, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and he acted quite well, so it doesn't shock me that he showed genuine competency in his directorial debut. Jesse Eisenberg may annoy some reviewers because he tends to play similar characters in many of his films, but he was the only male in this film that bore any resemblance to college students I knew. I won't restate the plot, as many others have covered it adequately. I didn't hate the film, but I did fast forward a few times using subtitles. And I am no fan of action movies, it's just that this one dragged and rarely came to life. I give it a 5.4 (so I don't have to round it up to 6).
Review of The Education of Charlie Banks
