DVD Reviews

Since I've had so much free time lately I've been watching a lot of movies. Here are a couple of the latest ones I've seen.

Alpha Dog
This is based on the true story of a 15 y/o boy who is kidnapped by a bunch of low-level drug dealers. It actually happened in LA during the late 90s so many of you might remember it. The movie starts off badly. The first 30 minutes consist of these druggies telling each other to f--k off and is just really stupid, but I guess there setting up some background and letting the audience know that the characters are just a group of stupid, young, immature guys. They end up kidnapping this boy because his older brother owes the ringleader, Johnny Truelove, money and has been threatening and insulting to Johnny.

The story is really sad because the boy has multiple opportunities to leave, but he decides to stay because he's trying to be grown up and thinks it's a way to help his brother. JT is in charge of watching him and eventually sort of becomes this boy's friend. He's actually not half bad in the film. Anyway, I'd recommend renting it if you're interested. I thought it was worth the time even though parts of it are stupid and seem pointless.


War Tapes
This documentary uses footage shot by three American soldiers while they're on duty in Iraq. It's not the best documentary ever made, but it's very interesting. You see the soldiers risking their lives for the very obvious purpose of helping KBR/Haliburton (Vice President Dick Cheney's company) make more money. The soldiers become aware that that they've essentially been deployed in Iraq mainly to serve as security to the cargo trucks belonging to Haliburton. Haliburton basically has a monopoly on every product in Iraq from food to gas. One soldier described it as if each and every store in your community was owned and operated by one single company. Haliburton is even contracted to serve the food on the army base and charges the US government for every single item down to the paper plates. Haliburton is by no means the main focus of the documentary, but it's hard to ignore the fact that these soldiers are risking their lives and that Haliburton is making an ungodly amount of money because of it, not to mention that WE, taxpayers, are lining Cheney's pockets with more and more money every day that we're in this war.

It's also very interesting, and a little sad, to watch the soldiers progress. They definitely change as they're over there and become more cynical and jaded. When they return two of the three are visibly more angry, depressed and emotionally scarred.