Too much of everything

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a very nice update of Breakfast Club with a big enough budget to be in more than one room. It studies the community effects of one sociopath and one psychopath. It also moves the action from Shermer to New York City. This and the time change to 2010 comes with a commensurate increase in decadence, narcissism, and the meaninglessness of the young lives.Don't look for any kids hanging out at the library or studying for the SAT. Either they don't care or are legacies that can get into Harvard. You can see they would all fit in and would go on to function as successful finance types, real estate agents, and crony tycoons. This is the future of America, learn to enjoy it.The ending kinda surprised me. I assume it had to be a bit of a happy ending for the distributors to pick it up. The problem with the ending is that it implies that sociopaths can get better, whereas psychopaths are doomed. The exact opposite is true.The only character you can care about is Julia Robert's niece. That is a lesson in and of itself. You have to wonder whether she is as much an insufferable narcissist as the roles played by all the other characters. She does come off as "marry that gal" sweet. Heck, maybe sweet little Miss Roberts is the real sociopath in the movie, knowing exactly how to act to hurt people. Who is she to take away the chosen profession of Mike? He was a darn good drug dealer, despite being a sociopath himself. Maybe that's why Miss Roberts has to change him.Its just a delightful movie. After watching it you can think "God, I'm glad I'm nothing like anyone in this flick". The voice-over narration puts you in a Kafka mood, so it is perfect to look down on all these characters. Maybe that is the ultimate narcissism, that of the audience looking at this little slice of privileged Americana and thinking we are better than it.I do cringe a little at the narration. It would be a good film school project to suck this into Sony Vegas and edit out all the voice-over, replacing it with Chopin in one instance, and gangster rap in another, and then send it out for test.The movie also comes with its own ready-made remake. You could move the whole thing to Hollywood. Then instead of the mystery drug "Twelve" the addictive substance would be celebrity. Millennials say they would rather be famous than rich, so this should do well in the treasured young demo. The remake of this movie would be about the Hollywood casting of this movie. You can show every single character on the casting couch with Bill Cosby, trying to get a part in the movie within the movie.It works on so many levels. Instead of the psychopath buffed-out kid that resembles Martin Sheen you could cast the really crazy Charlie Sheen. Instead of indiscriminate murder, he could get the other actor's agents to drop them, which is pretty much like dying when you are in Hollywood. And in a nice tie-in, you can get Ashton Kutcher to play the sociopath drug-dealer, who did resemble him, after all. Its a bit against type for Ashton, so he would love to do it. He can bring in enough product placements to finance the whole project, so that's a big plus.To top it off, get the real Julia Roberts instead of her niece. Now you've got some star power going. And no mamby pamby happy ending. Have Charlie Sheen drop a dog off a parking deck. (I watched "What Just Happened" right before this.) But we do need to get some box office, so have him go into recovery and get better, or at least a little less crazy. Ashton can continue to hurt people, ultimately getting Julia dropped by her agency, sending her into a spiral of drug and alcohol dependency. With this combination of cynicism and star power, I'm thinking Palme d'Or, baby. The room, its electric. Send in the writers.

What is rich and self-indulgent teenagers of Upper East Side have in common with low-life ghetto scum? Drugs, of course. Particularly a recent, very addictive and expensive variant called "Twelve".The young peddler that brings together the two different worlds is White Mike (Chace Crawford). Mike was a normal kid until his mum dies of cancer. Unable to cope, he drops out of school and starts dealing illegal substances to high-society kids.Everything starts spiraling out of control in domino manner for Mike and his clients in one night of incident.His junkie cousin is killed and best friend Hunter (Philip Ettinger) wrongfully accused of the crime. Ex-school mate Jessica Brayson (Emily Meade) get herself hooked to Twelve. Preppy snowflake was a top student but now willing to do anything to score again. Jessica's friend Sara Ludlow (Esti Ginzburg) is the most popular girl in school and in her own words 'a shallow narcissistic bitch who manipulates everyone for everything'. She charms one of her many admirers Chris (Rory Culkin) to hold her 18th. birthday party at his parent's lush apartment. The gawky lad has his own problems especially with hotheaded druggie brother Claude (Billy Magnussen) who is about to go off the deep end. They are all connected tenuously to the new narcotic and matters come to a culmination at the party.There is no groundbreaking stuff here. Joel Schumacher takes the easy way out and chooses to concentrate on the obvious and clichéd aftermath of drug abuse but viewers will be turned off by the thin plot with unsympathetic characters. Wallows in preachy BS.Background narration by Kiefer Sutherland aimed at extrapolating the players is intrusive than anything else.

This is basically a TV movie drama that revolves around drugs, teens that are either addicted or superficial/materialistic or both. The thing is everything about this movie just seemed cheap, even the dialogue. None of the characters are likable and even irritating to watch. Cause the stupidity of some of the characters really does get annoying after a while. I know this movie is trying to show how stupid decisions can really mess your life up. But it sort of felt like a documentary showing how bad drugs are with a whole lot of drama thrown in. It might be a okay movie to show youngsters to stay away from drugs but it sure ain't a entertaining one to watch. I sort of liked the message of living in a fantasy or false reality when it comes to some these teens look to while being very judgmental shows how people like them can be easy targets. And how there actions to other people can lead to there own downfall. And how popularity isn't everything in life and by trying to please everyone you end up hurting yourself. So yeah I liked few of the messages but it all doesn't get put together in one coherent package. And the direction of it all is just boring to watch, maybe because it's over the top and doesn't come off as being all that realistic. Yeah, movies don't have to be realistic to be enjoyable but this one needed to be. It sort of comes off kinda comedic at times because it almost comes off as a skit. The only thing that stands out about this movie is the cast and that is about it for the most part.3/10

I didn't go to film school. I don't know much about film-MAKING. But I'm pretty good at knowing what makes a flick "good", "bad", & downright awful.In my humble, amateur, film-reviewing opinion, this movie was a nightmare from beginning to...well...I couldn't even finish it. I stopped it 25 minutes before the end.For me, what makes a movie good/great is BELIEVING THAT THE CHARACTERS ARE REAL. When I watch the actor/actress, I don't see THEM. I see, hear, FEEL their character.And what makes a flick "bad" for me is, well, simply NOT BELIEVING THE CHARACTER. Yes. I'm very green at writing reviews! This film seemed like it was trying to be an updated version of Less Than Zero. ?? Don't know. But what I witnessed was a bunch of young actors WHO NEED TO RETURN TO ACTING CLASSES.From the actresses who SEEMED to be trying so hard to come across as "Mean Girls" (Lindsay Lohan & Rachel Mcadams were Believable 'Mean Girls' to me) to the actors who -- I HIGHLY DOUBT HAVE EVER EVEN SMOKED JOINTS -- much less SOLD ANY (ANY illicit drugs), KIEFER SUTHERLAND'S VOICE was the only aspect of this nightmare that I sort of liked! SAVE YOUR MOOLA!