Hip teenage story, morally weak

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

On the upside, the directing and editing for this movie is quite good, totally deserving of the nominations. The "hip" titled camera angle is rather gratuitous, but overall the cinematography is a plus point. The music is interesting, but not outstanding. Now for the downside, this is meant to be an entertaining, feel good movie. Yet it contains one particularly violent scene that can be mood-snuffer. (Those who watched it know which one I'm talking about). None of the "good" characters in the movie are morally strong enough to the challenge the violence that they face. (Alert the police or something for Pete's sake!) I can't say more on this point without making this comment a spoiler. On the other hand, the children violence portrayed is worse than child-slavery, and I doubt it can exist in this day and age. Yet the film shows it for the sake of thrilling the audience. In my humble opinion, I highly disapprove of this. All in all, this movie is an achievement in the artistic point of view, but the morally weak story will not make the hype last long enough to be a classic. If Rocky (one of my favorites) gets 8.0 rating, I think number 7 is a generous rating for this film.