ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Michael Ledo This is a well constructed documentary concerning the highly publicized shooting and killing of teen Jordan Davis by Michael David Dunn. This took place November 23, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida and had deep implications. Dunn claimed self defense under the stand your ground law as tensions ensued over the playing of loud rap music.The themes included seeded racism and distrust. Stand Your Ground is the new Jim Crow which allows whites to shoot blacks because they feel threatened by them and how can a jury determine how one feels? This documentary pieced together actual statements and trial footage. I don't recall any re-enactment. The testimony is done in pieces in order to present a chronological order of events. Dunn's side of the issue is also presented, but keep in mind the intent of the film was not to exonerate him."In "Race, law, and health: Examination of 'Stand Your Ground' and defendant convictions in Florida," researchers Nicole Ackermann, Melody S. Goodman, Keon Gilbert, Cassandra Arroyo-Johnson, and Marcello Pagano combed through data from a Tampa Bay Times investigation. They further examined the 204 cases in the state in which Stand Your Ground was cited as a defense against homicide or some other violent act and the results were, sadly, not surprising. The study found that in cases argued from 2005 to 2013, juries were twice as likely to convict the perpetrator of a crime against a white person than against a person of color. "These results are similar to pre-civil rights era statistics, with strict enforcement for crimes when the victim was white and less-rigorous enforcement with the victim is non-white," the researchers report." Guide: F-bomb.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In November 2012, a group of black teenagers drove into a convenience store parking lot in their red SUV to buy some cigarettes and gum. Whilst one of them had gone to get what they wanted, another car pulled alongside theirs and the driver, Michael Dunn, asked them to turn their music down. The driver complied, but Jordan Davis, a backseat passenger, kicked up a fuss and turned it back up. This lead to a verbal altercation between him and Dunn, which escalated into Dunn firing ten shots at their vehicle as it sped away, leaving Jordan dead. As the trial of Dunn plays out in the courtroom, and the verdict draws near, racial tensions in the US rest on a knife edge.In multi racial, gun happy America, a breeding ground has been served up for conflicting cultures to collide and for tragic outcomes to ensue. The case of Trayvon Martin a short while ago caused a national outcry at the time, but here, a similar case in the shape of Jordan Davis is documented, another casualty of the gun culture. The state where the incident took place, Florida, currently operates the 'Stand Your Ground' law, that allows a gun owner to operate their weapon in instances where they even perceive a threat, which this film scrutinises.Filmed in a crisp, pristine picture, the film sacrifices talking head perspectives for a straight out real life presentation of Dunn's trial in court (not legal as far as I was aware?) While this takes up most of the film space, it's the outside elements that give it its striking touches, with Dunn's phone conversations with his fiancé playing out over silent, eerie overhead shots of passing traffic with the sound drowned out, as well as the pain and loss of Jordan's parents. His more middle class background and upbringing is the most uneasy conflict with the stereotype his image presents, and its his friends, who all seem to want to break into the rap scene, who serve to challenge the predetermined mentality many may have of them, with 'thug' being the new n word, as one of them laments.This documents a tragic human drama, from which no winners emerged, but from which important questions were raised and vital steps were suggested to put things right. ****

natekowalskitattoo It is hard to review a documentary based around the killing of an individual. Considering film is almost always a form of entertainment it is hard to imagine being entertained by something as grim as this.With that said, this is a great documentary, it shows both sides equally and allows the viewer to form their own opinions on the incident that the film is based on. Too many documentaries are biased or create their own 'facts' when dealing with their subject matter. This was different. Go watch it!It is everything a documentary should be, an unbiased view at the world recorded through the camera that leaves the viewer with their own thoughts and ideas that are not the directors thoughts or ideas but original concepts that we have adopted through watching an honest piece of film making.

moonspinner55 The day after Thanksgiving 2012, four male African-American teenagers in Florida pull into a gas station for cigarettes and gum, but a 47-year-old white man in the car parked next to them outside objects to their loud music. Michael Dunn later says in his testimony that he thought one of the boys, Jordan Davis, had a firearm and he perceived a threat on his life, resulting in a shooting that left 17-year-old Davis dead. Most likely, what really set Dunn off was the disrespect shown from a teenager towards a middle-aged man...a generation-gap problem that has existed since the dawn of civilization. The director of this emotional documentary, Marc Silver, takes the racial aspect of the case and builds and edits his film around it. We see Jordan's parents grieving his loss, we see his mother praying and worshipping and setting up a tiny cross in the sand on the beach, but hardly any time is spent on Dunn's fiancée (who comes across as an honest, interesting woman in court)--we don't even get her reactions after the verdicts are read. Silver wants to keeps a stirred pot boiling, and he isn't fascinated enough in the case as a whole to be completely objective (he's convicted Dunn already). The verdicts in both trials (this a result of a mistrial called on one of the counts, which was then retried off-camera) are fair, based on the actions of a man who was demanding respect by force. Dunn's motivations in that split-second when he took out his gun aren't probed in depth; Silver wants to reveal Dunn as a liar (which is true) and as a man with racist attitudes (which is debatable). When you come out of a documentary with more questions than answers, perhaps the film hasn't done a succinct enough job examining the central situation. We understand that Jordan's family is devastated, that he was a solid young man just out for a good time with his buddies (each shown to be completely innocent of malice). The trial judge says, "There are no winners or losers here," though, sadly, I don't think anyone heard him. **1/2 from ****