Alpha Dog

Here's another movie I had no idea what it was about before I saw it. Turns out it's based on true events surrounding Jesse James Hollywood who was one of the youngest people on the FBI's most wanted list. He eluded the feds for five years before being caught in Brazil in 2005. The story goes that Benjamin Markowitz owed Hollywood $1500 or so so Hollywood and his friends kidnapped Nicholas, Markowitz's little brother, held him for five days, and killed him in the end. One might say I just spoiled the movie, but all this information is out there if you want to look any of it up since this is based on actual events. What really drew me in and kept my attention was the reality of the film. It seemed so real. A lot of times you watch a movie and know that what you just saw would never ever happen in real life. This story definitely seemed possible. I think the performances helped make this movie what it is. Directed by Nick Cassavetes, we have Bruce Willis, Emile Hirsch, Vincent Kartheiser, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Harry Dean Stanton and Ben Foster to name a few. I think I was most surprised by Timberlake. I've just always seen him as a fluffy person. I'm not into his music and he's always been around other people I consider fluffy like Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera.....and who can forget 'N Sync? This guy can actually act though. Another great performance from Emile Hirsch. I really like this guy. He seemed to almost be the same person he was in Lords of Dogtown. I mentioned to Liz that he always seems to play roles where he's a drug addict and a deviant. She then reminded me of some other roles like The Girl Next Door and Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Another interesting aspect was the time period. I'm almost the same age as Jesse James so thinking back about when this happened while watching the film made it a lot more real for me. I really liked watching this movie, but don't know if or when I'll watch it again. It's definitely worth your time to watch it once though. Let me know what you think if you saw this.