1. Imagine a Larry Clark movie minus the constant alarmism, given a decent script and competent actors. I know, it's tough.
2. Director Nick Cassavetes should be commended for the unflinching manner in which he tells the story -- it packs a punch, although it lingers too long to be truly unsettling.
3. Alpha Dog may be more crass exploitation than an earnest attempt at laying out the facts of a crime, but it's exciting and watchable for anyone willing to romp in the mud for two hours.
4. Alpha Dog, like most of its cast, is posing.
5. Wants to be a horror story of sorts, but winds up being tedious and over-indulgent.
6. Nick Cassavetes' new film, Alpha Dog, has a compelling, ripped-from-the-headlines vibe.
7. Apart from the grim forebodings of tragedy, writer-director Nick Cassavetes seems to have modeled this ambitious docudrama on Larry Clark's kiddie-porn shockers, but he doesn't know what to leave out, and the movie becomes excessively complicated.
8. In his best film to date, Nick Cassavetes directs with ferocious energy, taking scenes past their logical stopping points and pushing his actors to, but never over, the precipice of absurdity.
9. Misses its opportunity to be a smart, investigative crime drama ... a frivolous and shallow affair about partying teens.
10. Alpha Dog operates without outrage -- not because the behavior of the people in the movie isn't horrifying but because the movie knows it is much too late to save those bouncing, happy kids we glimpsed in the opening seconds.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?
A glossy yet unflinching portrait of violent, hedonistic teenagers. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone chew the scenery, while Justin Timberlake gives a noteworthy performance.