Review: Alpha Dog

Based on true events, the story follows a bunch of spoiled rich kids in L.A.. Johnny Truelove, a mid-level drug dealer who enjoys all the pleasantries of partying up with his buds, smoking weed, drinking and the companionship of plenty of hot chicks. Life’s good, until one day Jake (one of Truelove’s clients) couldn’t pay his debt. Mayhem is unleashed as Truelove takes Jake’s younger brother as a hostage until he pays up.

I really wanted to like this movie, but man…what a mess! I can see why this flick has been in limbo for so long. It looked to me like they had to edit and re-edit this one over and over again in order for it to look good, and in the process, lost the whole essence of the story. There were way too many characters who were witnesses to follow and then they went nowhere within the storyline. There was no character development except for the kid who was the hostage and the funniest part of the movie was watching this kid live the good life while being held captive! (I love the swimming pool scene…Marco…Polo).

The main character, Johnny Truelove played by Emile Hirsh, was good, but according to the true events, he was supposed to be on the FBI’s most wanted list for this caper, however, this was never touched upon in the film at all. In fact, very little was shown of any police activity on apprehending him! Ben Foster’s character, Jake Mazursky, was outrageously funny…but I don’t think he was supposed to be. His entire dialogue was laughable and after awhile you started to feel sorry for the actor, not the character. Too bad, because he is a good actor. The only pleasant surprise was Justin Timberlake, who played Frankie. Is there anything this kid can’t do? He can sing, dance and you can now officially add “acting” to that roster. He was good and he played his character with loads of charm. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone didn’t bring anything spectacular to the plate and what the hell was Alan Thicke doing in this movie?!

Like I stated before, it seemed like they had to re-edit this movie a number of times. It felt like they removed certain plot points that could have been key to the progression of the film. Like, for example, Foster’s character was supposed to be an addict; however, this subject was never touched upon. It would have been nice to see that he was, in fact, using instead of acting like a total idiot in every shot he was in. It probably would have validated his performance more. I could go on and on, but there were many instances like this throughout the entire film. Too many holes and not enough follow-through.

I’ll say it again, this movie was a mess! Aside from the partying scenes and the super cute chicks, it basically went nowhere. It felt like I was watching the “O.C.”, but with swearing and more drug use. That actually doesn’t sound that bad, but it wasn’t enough to make ALPHA DOG any better of a movie. It’s too bad because they actually had a good cast, a good director and a great premise, so what the f*ck?

— by Tim
Goernert