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1999, Claremont, California. Middle-class kids, in their 20s, talk trash, wave guns, hang out in a pack. Johnny Truelove, drug dealer and son of a underworld figure, threatens Jake Mazursky, an explosive head case who owes Johnny money; Jake responds by breaking into Johnny's house. On impulse, Johnny and a couple pals kidnap Jake's 15-year-old brother, Zach. Zach's okay with it, figuring his brother will pay the debt soon. Johnny assigns his buddy Frankie to be Zach's minder, and they develop a brotherly friendship. Zach parties with his captors as things begin to spin out of control. Group think, amorality, and fear of prison assert a hold on the pack. Is Zach in danger? So I enjoyed Alpha Dog because basically, it succeeded on so many levels. While it built suspense in moments, relieved us with comedy, then threw in some emotional moments which really hit us. So Alpha Dog is kind of slacking on a too original story and at times we know whats going to happen in the predictable plot, but we can easily get over that because of the story. This is not a teen drama film. Not even close. Its more like a movie about characters changing in terms of a situation. So when this group of people kidnap this kid, they think one intention about the kid. Then by the end of the movie we see that characters have changed because of the outcome. So we do get our bits of what seems to be teen drama, but its all done in a very real notion. At times I felt as if some of the characters were to mellow or to forceful in situations, but it kind of felt real because every character was different in his or her own way. Dont doubt me here, but this is an emotional movie. Ok, so the movie does have a comedy level as most of it is just natural talk or sex jokes and whatever, but the ending of Alpha Dog really hits us personally. I dont want to spoil it, but I have to say I saw it coming, I just didnt think it would happen that way. I also didnt expect to be impacted so much by the outcome of that situation. Nick Cassavettes does a really good job with building up the climax by changing some characters and having some jumps in the storyline. So when it did happen, it came at an unexpected moments. Also, Nick attempts to steer you in one direction right when you thought was going to happen was happening, but then again your wrong. This is a great skill which Nick has shown to us because it shows he does a good job with misleading the storyline and hitting us with an unexpected note. So there are moments in Alpha Dog where there is an interview type scenario with a few of the smaller characters. Bruce Willis is interviewed as Sonny Truelove, these moments help the film bring a documentary feel into it. In the end though, the scene with the supposedly real mother from the incident was both funny, haunting and sad. She cries, then she laughs and it comes out creepy because we see what is truly wrong with this family and how the situation had changed everyone in and around it. Alpha Dog is a great movie. It has a good story and it becomes both fun and emotional in the end. email this review to a friend
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