Alpha Dog

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release date: Spring 2006

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster, Amanda Seyfried, Dominique Swain, Shawn Hatosy, Vincent Laresca, Lukas Haas, Vincent Kartheiser

Directed By: Nick Cassavetes

Writer: Nick Cassavetes

Premise: Johnny is a Los Angeles drug dealer. He comes from a good family, owns his home, several cars and enjoys partying with his friends. Johnny is 19. When his friend Jake welches on a debt, Johnny and his boys kidnap Jake's 15-year-old brother Butch and hold him as a marker. Even though Butch has numerous chances to escape, he doesn't. He's enjoying partying with them, losing his virginity and having a good time - until something goes horribly wrong.

[modage]

fake "Everything In It's Right Place"
its a white "Better Luck Tomorrow"

ah, it could be okay.  except that the end of the trailer gives you the epilogue of the film and immediately after telling you its a true story saying that everything has been changed.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

Reason for delay:

Coming Distractions
Justin Timberlake's ''Alpha Dog'' delayed by court battle -- Evidence leaked to producers may nix the true-crime story

When Nick Cassavetes (the director who ushered Rachel McAdams into stardom with The Notebook) debuted his latest film, Alpha Dog, at Sundance in January, it caught some serious buzz. Starring Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone, Dog retells the true story of the fittingly named Jesse James Hollywood, a suspected drug dealer (played by Emile Hirsch) who fled the country after eluding arrest for an alleged kidnap-murder in 2000. It's gritty stuff, and Dog's original studio, New Line, planned a limited, indie-style release — despite the movie's high-profile stars. Cassavetes, however, believed his film deserved a much wider spotlight.

Well, Cassavetes is likely to get his wish. Universal, which picked up Dog after the director and New Line parted ways, plans to release the movie nationwide on Jan. 12. But he also got something no filmmaker ever plans on: ginormous legal hurdles that could impact the entire ''ripped from the headlines'' genre.

In a California court, Hollywood's lawyers are arguing that Santa Barbara County senior deputy DA Ron Zonen shared too much evidence with filmmakers. Hoping that a feature film would be a great ''Wanted'' poster, the prosecutor gave the Cassavetes team reams of documents, including witness names and addresses. ''Of course I shouldn't have had access to this stuff,'' admits Dog associate producer and researcher Michael Mehas, ''but we needed it to put together a truthful story.'' (Cassavetes has no comment.) Ironically, Hollywood was captured in Brazil just as Dog neared the end of filming, but his lawyer still wants Zonen booted off the case. Declares the DA: ''Even if I had spent more time thinking about this, I still would have done it.''

A ruling is expected in the next few weeks, and that's when the trouble could really start for film and TV producers. Even though Dog followed the lead of most true-crime dramas by altering names and locations — Johnny Truelove for Hollywood, Palm Springs for Santa Barbara — a decision in favor of the defense could establish a precedent limiting any filmmaker's access to details behind the crime blotter. ''It'd be more difficult preparing movies such as this,'' says Laurie Levenson, a criminal-law professor at L.A.'s Loyola Law School. ''Prosecutors will be too gun-shy [to talk].''

And what of Dog's wide release? After seeing the film's indictment of his client — who, if convicted on murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy charges, could get the death penalty — Hollywood's lawyer may also attempt to block its release. Universal is undeterred. ''[Dog] is relevant to our culture,'' says Universal marketing head Adam Fogelson. ''It touches on issues that are compelling, sexy, and dangerous.'' And probably much more compelling than all this legalese.

[Neil]

aside from DMX playing in the trailer, is that bad that i want to see this?

[Mikey B]

No it's not. It's a wonderful film about young adults making really really bad choices. It's in the vein of the movie "Go" only a bit more intense. Nick Cassavettes has hit one out of the park. Not sure if his father would be proud or not. But Nick certainly has made it on his own.

[edison]

I wouldn't call it as being "in the vein of the movie 'Go,' but more like "Bully" mixed with "Kids."

[Mikey B]

Ya I can see that too.

[MacGuffin]

I wanted to like this film more, but it was so all over the map on what kind of film it wanted to be, scenes took away from others. At it's best, Alpha Dog is a great docu-drama and loss of innocence story. The use of indentifying witnesses, the interviews (Sharon Stone's final scene was amazing) and the timeline creates a nice true crime film. And the whole arc of Stolen Boy living a life changing experience over a couple of days is a great coming of age story placed in a seedy world of characters I wouldn't want to spend more time with than these two hours. But where the film fell flat was the events that lead up to the overall rivalry of the two leads. Once the setup is, well, setup, that looming danger is pushed to the back burner, and replaced by goofy druggies that cause tension to be lost.

[pete]

the jewish skinhead kungfu felt a little out of place.

[Stefen]

the jewish skinhead kungfu felt a little out of place.

I about died laughing when that cracker ass crackhead starting busting out the double side sweeps, and triple backlash front kicks off walls and shit.

I think some of the moves were even in slo mo.

Too funny.

Timberlake acted like a straight up androgynous male. Type of dude who's all "I know you didn't just step on my heels!" Little tattle tale in this flick, running away like "I'm telling!" while he's carrying his ball and going home.

Awful flick.

I read the an article about the true story in Rolling Stone a couple years ago and remember thinking it would make a cool flick. It didn't. It was in competent hands too.

Best thing about it was Bruce's haircut. That pomp was stellar.

[The Sheriff]

i liked it, and how everyone took themselves for cool thugs but had no idea what they were doing, or how serious a situation they were making for themselves, or let themselves be involved in. it was funny too and the eyes were really red the whole time. the interview stuff... kinda too retro yknow

[children with angels]

I enjoyed it too, which surprised me. I went in expecting nothing, but it managed to create a nice atmosphere of the fun, dumb shit that can go wrong when you're just young and dumb and fun-loving. I thought it changed its tone towards the end successfully too and managed to get fairly intense.

Having said that, all the frezze-frames and split-screens were unneeded and tedious, and there were about 10 or 15 mins at the end that had no reason to be there: if it had ended after Sharon Stone's big monologue it might have been pretty shocking and I might be able to say it was knocking on the door of very good. As it is, it was just surprisingly better than expected.

[Kal]

It was entertaining but the acting was god awful... Justin Timberlake disappointed me playing a retarded character. Every character, including parents, in this movie are rich fucking retarded people. Whats with JTs dad being rich and selling pot, Bruce Willis the same, the parents of the girl taking X in their anniversary... I mean it was just too much blah.

The Elvis dude was a pussy but I didnt understand why... I mean other than Truelove being the son of Bruce Willis, why the fuck they everyone kiss his ass like that? The movie doesnt really show how he was such an important guy and then he handles the kidnapping in a very stupid way from the beginning.

Well... whatever not worth asking so many questions about it...

[Stefen]

Sounds like you didn't like it at all.

I love reviews where people say the movie was awesome, but then go on to talk about how shitty it was. I'm guilty of these all the time because I'm such a bitter person trying to break out of my shell and bask in the sunshine.