JESSE JAMES - MOVIE REVIEWS: ALPHA DOG

MOVIE REVIEWS: ALPHA DOG

After the failure of court efforts by attorneys for Jesse James Hollywood to halt the release of Nick Cassavetes' Alpha Dog, featuring Justin Timberlake, the movie finally arrives this weekend. Critics are damning the movie as strongly as the attorneys for Hollywood, accused of ordering the murder of a teenager in retaliation for his brother's drug debt. Alpha Dog is reportedly based on the case. "Sordid" is an adjective used in numerous reviews. But many go far beyond that description. Michael Booth's review in the Denver Post is typical. "I truly doubt Hollywood will produce anything this year that bottoms Alpha Dog for offensively bad filmmaking," he writes. Yet, the movie also receives a handful of respectable notices, too. Writes Claudia Puig in USA Today: "Alpha Dog is a gritty, gut-wrenching and disturbing film." And Lou Lumenick in the New York Post surprisingly takes a middle-ground calling it "irresponsible, uncommercial but surprisingly watchable."

12/01/2007