Rotten Tomatoes Logo Do you want to see ‘Alpha Dog’?

Alpha Dog (2006)

tomatometer

54

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 142
Fresh: 77 | Rotten: 65

A glossy yet unflinching portrait of violent, hedonistic teenagers. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone chew the scenery, while Justin Timberlake gives a noteworthy performance.

56

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 16

A glossy yet unflinching portrait of violent, hedonistic teenagers. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone chew the scenery, while Justin Timberlake gives a noteworthy performance.

audience

68

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 400,147

My Rating

Movie Info

A drug dealer moves on to bigger crimes in an effort to settle a score with disastrous results in this drama inspired by actual events. Though barely out of his teens, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) has already built a lucrative career for himself selling drugs -- he has his own home, a luxury car, and posse of friends who do double duty as his crew, including Elvis (Shawn Hatosy), Frankie (Justin Timberlake), and Tiko (Fernando Vargas). While life at Johnny's house is usually a constant party

R, 1 hr. 58 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Nick Cassavetes

May 1, 2007

$15.1M

Universal Studios

Cast

All Critics (144) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (66) | DVD (18)

Justin Timberlake has what it takes to be a genuine movie star.

February 5, 2007 Comments (2)
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Alpha Dog is no travesty, but I would trade 95 percent accuracy for, say, 25 percent insight.

January 13, 2007 Full Review Source: CNN.com | Comment
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Cassavetes starts to lose the plot at the precise moment he starts keeping exact track of it.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment (1)
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As uneven as the film is, those with strong stomachs will find it worth sticking with.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[Writer/director Cassavetes] never masters the tone and lands as many unintentional laughs as intentional ones. But he still manages, on occasion, to chill you to the bone.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Alpha Dog may have some of Larry Clark's territory, and even some of Tarantino's markings. But it's still a mutt. And no matter how much it marks its territory, it never finds its own way home.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | Comment
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This inspired-by-reality tale is essentially an emotional snuff film. It's the kind of misguided effort a middle-aged director indulges in when he wants to reinvent himself as edgy.

November 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | Comment
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Timberlake stars in fact-based drug drama.

July 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Cassavetes' film is pure Hollywood fiction and sensationalism mixed with some sense of reality, but hell I enjoyed it a great deal...

August 10, 2007 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment (1)
Cinema Crazed

A lackluster teenage true-crime tale.

June 25, 2007 Full Review Source: IGN Movies | Comment (1)
IGN Movies

Stylishly and thoughtfully directed by Nick Cassavetes, Alpha Dog is occasionally chilling, but always absorbing.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | Comment
Sunday Mirror [UK]

Its originality lies in the fact that it depicts white middle-class kids on the loose, calling their women bitches and listening endlessly to violent, misogynist and homophobic black rap.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

Nick Cassavetes' film combines an aimless ramble through juvenile depravity in the affluent suburbs of LA and a quite disturbing evocation of the true-life murder of an adolescent boy in 1999.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent | Comment
Independent

It's Beverly Hills 90210 on crystal meth as a gang of posh potheads lose the plot when a kidnapping goes wrong.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Sun Online | Comment
Sun Online

The movie may lose its way in the last 15 minutes but everything leading up to that point is gripping, edge-of-your-seat stuff.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | Comment
Daily Mirror [UK]

Lengthy and often off-hot topic, this is still a gripping saga with stand-out turns from Timberlake, Hirsch and kid-in-the-spotlight Yelchin.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

You know you're in trouble the second you take a look at Bruce Willis's fake liver spots.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

Overall though, it's a messy, superficial affair: it lacks focus, shifts uneasily in tone, and shoehorns in star names (Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis) to little effect.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

True, Alpha Dog is a film with no manners. But it has great nerve. What's truly impressive is how the splintered story is buried by individual performances.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Alpha Dog

Well a fantastic cast, great acting. Its a good movie, thats interestingand entertaining to watch. Its sad that its actually based on true events and you actually start to feel for justin timberlakes character Frankie, im nt to sure how accurate it is to real events but in the movie you start to really feel for Frankie

September 4, 2007
FiLmCrAzY
Film Crazy

Super Reviewer

one thing i do feel bit dreary over alpha dog is its usage of language, the scumbag profanity, and everyone here is a stay-home bum drifting places, getting wasted, and taking advantages of the social excess pimped by the amercian society. it's about the feud between two drug-dealers turning into a kidnapping case. the

July 17, 2010
groaningbitch
Veronique Kwak

Super Reviewer

    1. Jake Mazursky: This is just the beginning, bitch. This is lil shooter. You're dead, homes. You hear me, you fucking dwarf! I know where your mother lives I know where your brother lives, I know where your papi lives! You wanna play some games motherfucker!
    – Submitted by John D (3 months ago)
    1. Johnny Truelove: You ever have that dream: the one where you did something... You don't know why, but you can never go back?
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Angela Holden: So you're like... ransom.
    2. Zack Mazursky: It's ok. Its like another story to tell my grandchildren
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

Movies Like Alpha Dog

Latest News for Alpha Dog

March 28, 2008:
Exclusive: Anton Yelchin on Star Trek and Terminator 4
RT sits down with the star of Charlie Bartlett to learn more about his space adventures with J.J....

January 10, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Captain Jack and Captain Morgan Set Sail
For the first time in three weeks, studios will pack a Friday with plenty of new releases as four...

What's Hot On RT

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1

<em>Amazing Spider-Man</em>
Amazing Spider-Man

See the all-new action-packed trailer!

The Avengers!
The Avengers!

Five new Marvelous pictures

Total Recall
Total Recall

Unconventional Superheroes

Top Movie Quizzes

LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 18,505 taken
created 12 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 44,281 taken
created 15 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 27,060 taken
created 15 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 27,564 taken
created 15 months ago
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Blog | Developers | Mobile