Twelve

I for one thought that the narration by Kiefer Sutherland was one of the better things about this movie. The narration throughout the movie is what makes it different from other films. It also explains some of the characters because there isn't enough time to show everything on camera.

I liked this movie. It's about college drop out drug dealer, White Mike, whose mainly selling weed to his rich high school friends in New York City. His supplier, played by 50 cent, commits a couple of murders, that doesn't play a major role except that most of the movies' characters know one of the guys. The other major plot is this kid, Chris, likes to throw parties at his house. He throws a party for the hottest girl in school, and things end badly due to his crazy brother. I just thought the movie was interesting as it told the tale of how rich white kids waste their money and have parents whom are never around.

FINAL VERDICT: I liked the narration and how it shows all the characters without getting confusing. I recommend it.

Twelve is the drug passed on several young hands by drug dealers White Mike (Chace Crawford) and Lionel (50 Cent). White Mike is the main character of "Twelve", a former college student that drop out his studies, his friends and his family after the death of his mother; and after that he deals with his suffering by selling drugs to other people that seems to have a pain just like him but what we see is a crowd of young getting high in parties, having fun and more fun, and some drama.

This story reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis book "Less Than Zero" where the relations between drug dealers and their rich young clients are presented in a giant wave of repetition where the lives of all characters seems to going downhill, and no one of them can't do anything to get out the vicious circle of drugs and dangerous pleasures. The difference between Ellis book and this film (adapted from a book written by Nick McDonell) is how both medias work with the theme and here in "Twelve" the tragedies might lead to a possible solution, sometimes positive, other times negative. But while you don't get there to the solutions you're gonna walk over and over the same dull routine of futile characters that is very difficult to feel empathy.

White Mike is the notable exception between these characters and the only who I could relate a little, despite his selfishness in dealing with everyone, turning his back to the world, selling drugs to several people but without using it. You can sense that he's there is this world to suffer and suffer again, but he doesn't release that he makes many other lives suffer too. Not only these characteristics must be appointed but also the fact that he didn't need to do this "job", he was a bright student, had friends and all, but the only thing he hasn't lost was his good looks and his fine clothes (which is quite unusual considering his line of work). Crawford builds brilliantly the only interesting character in the film, the one who gets you hooked in every moment he appears, and the only one who makes the world go round to all the other characters, who most of the time are dead, shallow, ignorant and whining.

And the main problem why we can't connect with some of the supporting figures is because we haven't got enough time to feel their pain, feel their tragedies (if there is one in the lives of rich teenagers who happens to have good education, good clothes and all their parents and their money can buy). They walk, smile, have good looks and are annoying and that's it (Rory Culkin doesn't enter in this list, he's quite good). The screenplay could have done so much better also in terms of presenting a more intriguing and thrilling story; the dramatic problem here is that we can't feel the pain and misery of everyone involved in a world like the one presented in "Twelve". It should have make me feel sad, angry, depressive for seeing how wasted these characters was; instead, it only give me repulsive and detractive feelings towards all of them. But the final message of living the best life that you can saved the film a little, but too little too late. It helps (specially if you consider to which character I'm talking about) but until we reach this moment the movie already lost its course.

It's more problems of a good screenplay than a direction problem, but Joel Schumacher should have interfered more with what had in hands, and exclude the annoying voice-over made by Kiefer Sutherland as the narrator who sees everything and everyone but he's not in the story. Another case of a expandable narration, we, the audience can figure out what's happening unless the writer is indifferent to the powerful use of images and needs to explain everything.

It almost got there in being a good film. There's some good acting (specially Crawford and 50 Cent), some good scenes (White Mike's past remembrances), also some dumb moments (the party's shootout at the ending with the blonde guy expecting a war and causing one). If wasn't for script problems, lack of empathy for the characters and a subtle drugs glamorization this film would be in my list of good films. 5/10

For all the people saying this should be like an 80s kid drug film, or the narrator was annoying. First of all, the drug scene has dramatically changed since the 80s. As far as the narrator, think of the film like a book, there is often an omnipotent narrator that knows more than the characters and tells the story. That's the way the film is done, and it actually works here.

An omnipotent narrator fills in the gaps, and that is exactly what he does in Twelve.

I'm more irritated that people think that the drug scene, in any city, is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago is crazy. Drugs change. Prices change. Kids change. Everything changes. Our entire American culture has changed. So, of course, drugs have changed.

I read the reviews on-site and many off-site before watching this and saw they were very polarized, so I even went through some European reviews, which treated it quite a bit nicer but which were also pretty polarized. I did notice that, as of this writing, 20% of the people voting here on IMDb gave it a 10, which is significantly higher than even George Clooney's latest film, "The American" received, although it has a somewhat higher overall score. The major complaint I read amongst all the reviews was about the ongoing narration but, I thought, it's only a dollar rental and if it's too intrusive I can always watch something else. So, I decided to give it a spin.

Imagine you are watching a young man in a room, alone with the open casket of his mother, who had just passed away from cancer. He's thinking that the wig the undertaker put on her, to hide her hair loss from the therapy, was unbecoming. He would rather see her for the last time as she really was at the end of her days, bald-headed. This is an important thought of his, which sets up a subsequent scene that would otherwise be totally inexplicable.

How can a film-maker express this thought? By introducing someone into the room with which the young man can have a conversation about this? No, that destroys the solitude of the moment. By having him speak this thought aloud to his mother's remains? Not very likely. By creating a completely new scene where someone is present and then create an artifice to have a conversation about it? No, that adds unnecessary complexity and bulk to wade through, confusing the storyline.

What Schumacher does is to use a narrator to give the viewer a short-cut directly into the minds of his characters at times - many times. This makes the film somewhat more like a visual book than a movie. It wouldn't do for most movies but it was effective here. (I got a good chuckle from the vapidity of the last thought of Sara's that we are exposed to.) It is a different approach but I, for one, enjoyed it. I most probably would not of enjoyed the book this film is based on, as I don't think there was enough plot substance here to make an enjoyable book for me but I do think there was sufficient substance for a film. 6.5 out of 10.

After making his abominations of Batman with 'Batman Forever' and 'Batman & Robin,' Joel Schumacher lost a lot of respect from basically all of the film-going community. However, to me, he has had enough solid flicks like 'The Lost Boys,' 'Phantom of the Opera,' 'St. Elmo's Fire,' and '8MM' to at least have some credibility.

Unfortunately, his newest film 'Twelve' is one more addition to the negative side of his filmography. It tells the story of White Mike (Chace Crawford), a young wealthy drug dealer in New York City whose already complicated life becomes even more problematic when his cousin is murdered and the prime suspect becomes Hunter (Philip Ettinger), White Mike's best friend.

Perhaps the most obvious issue about 'Twelve' that negatively affects the rest of the film comes from Kiefer Sutherland's constant narration throughout. It's a common mantra among screenwriters to "show, not tell," but writer Jordan Melamed decided to throw off those typical conventions and tell every single detail of every single moment through the voice-over narration. This contributed to the other problems of the film, including the stilted dialogue & awkward acting. It's hard to deliver lines well when the actor is being forced to randomly pause mid-sentence to let Kiefer Sutherland explain what is going on in the scene.

Ignoring the issues caused by the overdone narration, it's hard to find much to like about the film. Joel Schumacher's direction is interesting enough, and the cast is nice to look at, but that's about it. The story is nothing special and is easily overshadowed by other "drug-induced youth" films like 'Less Than Zero' and 'Holy Rollers.' For this reason, 'Twelve' will never be more than just a mediocre attempt at something that's been done much better many times before. I'd like to see Schumacher return to what he was able to do in the late '80s with 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'The Lost Boys,' but it doesn't look that will be happening anytime soon.

Final Verdict: 5/10.

-AP3-