DVD Rental Day

I watched a couple of movies this week and both are worth a rental. Both of these movies star mostly kids in there teenage years. Something that is becoming real common place in cinema these days.

A Guide to Recognizing your Saints: It took a little while for me to get into this movie about a boy growing up in Queens New York who is forced to flee due to the hardships and personal problems he is facing. He returns to find that everyone has turned there back on him because he left. This film tells a story over two different periods of time. One is when Ditto, the lead character, was a boy growing up and one as he is older. The unique thing about this film is it gives away much of the ending as you watch it. In fact it gives you hints throughout the film so you know the outcome, but the director does not care because the story and the interaction of these characters is what is so compelling. I think this is very refreshing, to many of hollywood movies are predictable, I dont think that matters if you can show that in a unique way. This movie has some very good performances and is a joy having this story unfold before your eyes even if you already have the ending figured out.

Alpha Dog: This movie is based on a true story of some wanna be gang bangers who kid nap a kid and hold him ransom over a bad drug deal. I will be the first to say that this is not a great movie and some of the acting is over done. However it is a very unique story and there are some very good performances by Bruce Willis and Justin Timberlake, thats right I just said a good performance by J-timb. I am glad I waited to rent this one instead of going to the theatres but it was definately worth the rent.