w_akeup This film was worth seeing. It tackled the issue of gun violence among youths head-on and was very witty and thoroughly entertaining. Cameron Van Hoy, as Stevie, puts forth a tremendous performance and has amazing presence in front of a camera, bringing to our attention the very real anger and emotion of this young, fragile looking boy. Rocky, a young Mischa Barton, is very full of wit and is very corrupt in her innocence as well, and their dialog is clever and amusing. Their relationship projects the idea that they have grown up too fast, which makes sense in today's world. The emotional connection that each of the hostages (who's individual characters are also developed very well in this movie) make with each other and with Stevie and Rocky is heartwarming, and the way this movie comes together is brilliant and shocking. Considering that it was so low-budget, i think everyone involved did a fantastic job. It even has Burt Reynolds. My rating: 7/10

emdoub Okay - let's dispel some misconceptions first. I have two teenagers, and work part-time at a high school, and the language/characterizations of the two leads (Barton and Van Hoy) were among the best parts of this. Yes, Virginia, young teens and tweens do overdramatize that much and use such language.The acting itself wasn't bad - I've seen Barton and Reynolds in better form, but let's face it - Sir Lawrence Olivier couldn't have done much better with this script.The idea was intriguing, and remotely plausible - for all I know, kids that young have tried bank (or at least armed) robberies - they do other violent crimes, too.So far, so good - fair cast, fairly well-cast, and while they often act irritating, it irritates, it does not cause disbelief.Unfortunately, that's as far as it went. "Daring", art-school camera angles, nihilistic vision, and remarkably absurd characterizations pretty much destroy this film. I mean, really - the frightened teller who is transformed into a happy-go-lucky jokester because someone blows soap bubbles, the FBI hostage negotiator who totally loses his cool repeatedly, the dozens of police who let a barely-pubescent girl walk out almost to the police barricades - and then back into the bank - if it was any worse, I'd believe that the writer/director uses a single noun as a name. Oh, wait - they do. Never mind.The audio is awful - much of the dialog is lost (and there are no English subtitles on the DVD). This would make a good study for a film-making class - finding the filmmaker's mistakes would be an easy yet worthwhile class project.Worthwhile for fans of Burt Reynolds or Mischa Barton, who trot out workmanlike performances, or those interested in Cameron Van Hoy - his character has a one-octave range, but he plays that range pretty well, and may do well with more multi-dimensional characters. Otherwise, this is best left to the terribly alienated artistic types who view the world in the same way as the writer/director, Ash.

kurdimurdi It´s painfully difficult to start describing what one might think of this movie. I can´t start giving out the reasons why you should go and watch it. I´d rather tell who shouldn´t see this movie. If you are an intellectual thing and looking for a mind puzzling show, if you are not in favour of happy ends, if you´ve been supporting the war in Iraq, if you don´t like the fairy tales and if you don´t like Misha Burton don´t watch this movie.

GorgonHeep I chose to watch "Pups" because I'm a fan of Mischa Barton and Burt Reynolds, but I do have to say that I was disappointed by this movie. The main thing that bothered me was that it's very loud! So loud, that it gave me a headache. Why is it deemed necessary that Cameron Van Hoy's character "Stevie" needs to shout every single one of his lines? It gets very aggravating watching this kid rant and rave for the entire film. I agree with some of the other comments too, that "Pups" just doesn't seem to flow together. It drags at points, gets repetitive, and tiring to watch. I also agree that these kids were presented as too filthy minded for kids their age. The point would have still gotten across, even if the kids were less vulgar with their speech and attitudes. I ended up rating "Pups" a "5" because it's far from the worst I've ever seen in film, but it was no where near as good as I hoped it would be. If you're a big fan of Mischa or Burt too, then watch it like I did just so you can say you've seen it, but don't expect that "Pups" will end up being one of your favorites.