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Synopsis Inspired by actual events in the life of Jesse James Hollywood, Alpha Dog revolves around a small time drug dealer in San Gabriel Valley, California, during the late 1990s, who becomes the youngest man ever to appear on the "FBI's Most Wanted" list. At 20, Johnny Truelove aka Hollywood (Emile Hirsch) is a young man whose home is a popular gathering place for his friends to do drugs and have sex. But all good things come to an end when one of Johnny's drug dealers, Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster), owes him $1,200. Jake's 15-year old half-brother, Zack (Anton Yelchin), is kidnapped and held as collateral to get the money. Zack's status is ambiguous--he's offered the opportunity to run at one point and turns it down, not wanting to get Frankie (Justin Timberlake) (the gang member with whom he's bonded most strongly) in trouble. He is held by the gang for several days, during which he parties, loses his virginity, and most significantly, is witnessed being held by Truelove's posse by upwards of 40 fellow partyers, drug customers and random bystanders. However, when the police get involved, things change for Johnny and his gang.
Story The film starts with Sonny Truelove being interviewed, we soon come to realize that he is being interviewed about past events involving his son, Johnny
Truelove. The film then begins showing us the story relating to the interview. Johnny Truelove and his entourage deal drugs and party hard (usually at Johnny's home). Jake Mazursky (one of Johnny's dealers and an addict himself) turns up and tells Johnny he hasn't got the $1200 he owes him, Johnny basically tells him that he better get the dosh or else. Jake goes to his father to try and the get the money but his dad and step mother refuse, this causes a family row as Olivia (Jake's step mother) doesn't want Jake around or want him to have any influence over Zack (Jake's 15 year old half brother). Jake then decides to take matters into his own hands and trash Johnny's house. Meanwhile Zack leaves home and Johnny , Frankie and Tiko kidnap him on the spur of the moment. Johnny leaves Zack and the care of Frankie but Frankie and Zack end up bonding and partying hard. Frankie offers Zack the chance to go home but he doesn't take it as he'd rather party with Frankie and co than go back home to his mum and dad. Meanwhile Johnny is begining to panic, not only have no end of witnesses seen them with Zack but he has also discovered that the maximum penalty for kidnapping is life. He now faces a dilemma over what to do with Zack. In between some of the scenes there are reconstructions of interviews conducted by Matthew Barry after the events have taken place.
Cast Sonny Turelove - Bruce Willis (Fast Food Nation) Johnny Truelove - Emilie Hirsch (The Girl Nextdoor) Matthew Barry (interviewer) -As himself Tiko Martinez - Fernando Vargas Frankie Ballenbacher - Justin Timberlake Elvis Schmidt - Shawn Hatosy Cosmo Gadabeeti - Harry Dean Stanton (Alien Autopsy) Jake Mazursky - Ben Foster (X-Men last Stand) Zack Mazursky - Anton Yelchin Olivia Mazursky - Sharon Stone (Bobby) Keith Stratten - Chris Marquette (The Girl Next Door) Julie Beckley - Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls)
My Experience I rented this film from an online DVD rental service. I didn't realize that it was based on real life events and I also thought it was about a drug related gang war, which wouldn't have been my kind of thing but I wanted to see it for two reasons: 1 Justin Timberlake (to see if he had any acting ability) 2 Justin Timerlake (cos he is just majorlly FIT) . When I started watching I actually thought 'this is going to be pants', all the ghetto speak instantly put me off, every other word had four letters started with an F and ended with a K, but even though it was pretty annoying the film still manged to suck me in. I suppose the ghetto talk just added to the gritty realism of the piece. There is a huge cast in this film but not many major players. Johnny Truelove isn't hard to dislike, he might have power and money and friends but but he proves himself to be a weasel when Jake turns his house over. The best characters in the film are Frankie and Zack , it was easy to believe that they bonded and strike up quite a comical and sweet friendship. The acting was a big surprise, I couldn't really find fault with any of the cast. Justine Timberlake was a big surprise I really didn't expect him to be any good but he was in fact brilliant. Sharon Stone is an actress i've never really rated and only has quite a small part in this but there is one scene where we really see the best of her acting abilities during one of the interview scenes, she is totally believable as heart broken mother and it's quite a powerful image. The best acting in the film however has to that of Anton Yelchin, I've seen him before in an episode of Criminal Minds and thought he was good but his performance in Alpha Dog is sheer brilliance and totally natural. I won't spoil the ending but it doesn't leave any loose ends and lets you know what happened to the main characters.
Overall If you can get over the annoying language (and that probably is how a lot of people speak) there isn't anything wrong with this film, it draws you in, keeps you interested, will make you laugh, shock you and make you sad. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Director: Nick Cassavetes (the Notebook) Runing Time : 120mins
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Alpha Dog is an urban drama following the self destruction of Johnny Truelove (Emile ... more
Hirsch) and his gang of friends. Living the thug wannabe's American dream of money beautiful girls and partying in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley - their existence i...
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Advantages: Great performances from Ben Foster and Shawn Hatosy. Disadvantages: A weak performance from Emile Hirsch and style-over-substance filmmaking.
afy9mab 07.01.2008 (07.01.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Alpha Dog (DVD)
Advantages: Great performances from Ben Foster and Shawn Hatosy. Disadvantages: A weak performance from Emile Hirsch and style-over-substance filmmaking.
afy9mab 07.01.2008 (07.01.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Alpha Dog (DVD)
Advantages: Good performances by Yelkin and Hirsch, follows story somewhat Disadvantages: Justin Timberlake, Cassavetes' handling of the material and story
eve6kicksass 15.05.2007 (15.05.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of AlphaDog (Wide Screen)-DVD
Advantages: Captures the spirit of these youths very well, great performances by most of the cast Disadvantages: A few bad performances, not a film people of a certain age will enjoy
Nov 16th, 2007
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