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Alpha Dog is one of those movies I thought destined to magically appear on the shelves at the local DVD store. It seems like so long ago that I first saw advertisements for this. It generally isn’t a good sign to have ads appear for a movie and then disappear along with any hint of a release. In this case, time may have been on its side, I don’t think it looks half bad, not necessarily half good, but somewhere in between the two extremes. The trailers are back and the release date announced, the release is back on track.

The release date has been set as Janurary 12, 2007. Not exactly a strong release time. Generally, the early months of the year, January and February primarily, are the dumping grounds for lower budget films looking for a quick buck and for films that the studios have little faith in. They are usually blended with the wider release of films with Oscar potential that got limited runs in December for their eligibility. Enough sidetracking, back to the matter at hand.

Alpha Dog is based on actual events, but I am sure that they have been stretched, moved around, and dramatized to make them worthy of appearing on the silver screen. It is the story of a hotheaded drug dealer who is double crossed and ends up kidnapping his debtor’s younger brother and holding him for ransom. Of course, things spiral out of control for all involved until coming to some sort of explosive climax.

Included in the cast is Justin Timberlake, which would normally be enough to keep me away, but I still have some morbid curiosity. Perhaps this will finally be Timberlake’s big screen debut, it was originally supposed to be Edison (with LL Cool J and Morgan Freeman), but that was deemed to be unmarketable and dumped to DVD. This is his chance. Also in the cast are big names such as Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone, as well as Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand, Hostage), Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown), Amanda Seyfried (Veronica Mars), and Shawn Hatosy (The Cooler).

Nick Cassavetes directed and wrote the screenplay. He last directed The Notebook in 2004, which I hear was quite good, but this is also the man behind She’s So Lovely, which I really did not care for. Anyway, here’s hoping for the best. Hopefully, this will turn out to be an entertaining film.

Alpha Dog is set to be released by Universal Pictures and has been rated R. Be sure to check out the film’s official site to see the trailer and read some more about the film.