"For every dark night, Theres a bright day...... So no matter how hard life gets, Stick your ch...
"For every dark night, Theres a bright day...... So no matter how hard life gets, Stick your chest out, Keep ya head up.... and handle it!” - Tupac Shakur
Member since:08.12.2007
Reviews:28
Members who trust:33
Directed by Nick Cassavetes. Released: 20/04/2007 Certificate: 15 Runtime: 117mins
DVD Features:
A Cautionary Tale: The Making Of Alpha Dog Witness Timeline Featurette Dolby Digital 5.1 / Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 Languages - English Subtitles - English Hard Of Hearing
Introduction:
This is a powerful film that focuses on the real life story of a drug dealer who kidnaps a young boy to settle his older brothers debt and makes his way to become the youngest person ever on the FBI's most wanted list.
Cast:
Sonny Turelove - Bruce Willis Johnny Truelove - Emilie Hirsch Matthew Barry (interviewer) -As himself Tiko Martinez - Fernando Vargas Frankie Ballenbacher - Justin Timberlake Elvis Schmidt - Shawn Hatosy Cosmo Gadabeeti - Harry Dean Stanton Jake Mazursky - Ben Foster Zack Mazursky - Anton Yelchin Olivia Mazursky - Sharon Stone Keith Stratten - Chris Marquette Julie Beckley - Amanda Seyfried
Story:
When drug dealer Jake Mazursky winds up in $50,000 worth of debt with his supplier (Jonny Truelove), and all attempts to borrow the money to pay off his debts fail he decides to try to avoid the situation and disappears.Things take a turn for the worse though when the Truelove drives past Jakes 15 year old brother (Zack Mazursky) whilst out searching for Jake, Zack gets beaten and kidnapped initially to be used as collaterol to ensure that his older brother pays up.
Throughout the film Zack gets lured into a false sense of secuirity and ends up smoking weed, drinking & generally partying with his would be kidnappers.
Review:
This was a really well made film which showed great performances from Justin Timberlake and all other actors involved which did surprise me somewhat, When i saw Timberlakes name on the cover of the DVD i was expecting a really poor performance and almost didn't watch it because of this but i am glad that i chose to ignore this and watched it anyway. Although it was a bit slow getting started as soon as it had got into the film i was finding it hard to look away and was kept in suspense until the end! One of my favourite bits in the film was seeing the reaction of Zack's older brother when he realises his little brother has been kidnapped and its all his fault which in turn made him go on a one man wrecking crew mission to find Zack.
Throughout the film i found myself questioning whether the kidnappers would let the kid go, kill him or If his brother would turn up and rescue him in a truely cheesy hollywood style and was surprised to be kept guessing till the end.
I really like the way that the potential witnesses were pointed out as soon as they appear on set it adds to the suspense as again you are unsure of the boys fate and who may come to his aid..... If anyone!
Some bits in this film could have been a little better thought out as it seemed a little stupid that they kidnap a kid then let him free roam around paying very little attention to him, which kind of made it look more like a holiday movie and lets face it if you were to go to such extremes as kidnapping you would probably pay alot more attention to where your subject is!
I thought the soundtrack was well put together with a good selection of hip-hop which does give the movie an overall middle america 'Hood Movie' feel.
Overall i think that this was a really well produced film and the interviews at the end of the film were are really good touch as they kinda made the whole thing feel a lot more real and gave it alot more impact. If you like Crime drama's and Hood movies then you will really love this film!!!
Price:
You should be able to grab a copy of this for around £15 from HMV and is well worth buying as it is a great film that could be watched again and again!
****This Review Can Also Be Found On www.dooyoo.co.uk****
Pictures of Alpha Dog (DVD)
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Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Carl Franklyn, Carl Franklin - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Renee Zellweger, Tom Everett Scott, Nicky Katt, Lauren Graham
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2007 - Drama - Director: Mike Binder - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland, Mike Binder
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
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