Straw Dogs
Synopsis
Everyone Has A Breaking Point
L.A. screenwriter David Sumner relocates with his wife to her hometown in the deep South. There, while tensions build between them, a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them both.
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It's unfair but necessary to compare remakes with their originals when they actually try to do something different with the material. In the case of Straw Dogs the most obvious difference is the setting, from rural England to the swamps of the Deep South in the US. The climate change plays quite a big part in this and changes the mood ever-so-slightly, even if the hillbillies are more or less the same, accents aside. Resulting are aesthetics that are a lot slicker and sharper than the rough cinematography from Peckinpah's classic. It may seem like an obvious update but the atmosphere of the film suffers from it, especially since this type of change is now common place in remakes. In…
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Son of a bitch got some man in him after all.
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If the idea of doing the remake wasn't bad enough, it's director and stars are people that seem to keep hitting the glass ceiling. Rod Lurie, critic-turned-director, has had a solid output of films ever since he made a splash with The…
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If you love the original Straw Dogs as much as I do you'll agree this is painful to watch. Not only is this remake pitifully unnecessary, it's really disappointing and difficult to sit through. Peckinpah's original, a masterpiece, should never be touched. There are some films you just can't remake, no matter how hard you try.
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This remake was never going to be able to compete with the Peckinpah film, the original’s troubling ambiguity was always going to be jettisoned in favour of a more straightforward thriller, so rather than get irritated by comparing the two I will try and review the film on its own merits.
Moving the story to the heavy and sticky South is a wise choice and it gives a suffocating feel to the film. The film also effectively captures the small town community built on rituals and intimidation. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the film based on the lacklustre central casting but they are all surprisingly strong in their respective roles. Marsden is a bit too chisel-jawed for the role…
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A movie made by people who hate Sam Peckinpah for people who would never understand Sam Peckinpah.
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A well made, but pointless remake.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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A well done, yet unnecessary remake.
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A well made, but pointless remake.
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It's unfair but necessary to compare remakes with their originals when they actually try to do something different with the material. In the case of Straw Dogs the most obvious difference is the setting, from rural England to the swamps of the Deep South in the US. The climate change plays quite a big part in this and changes the mood ever-so-slightly, even if the hillbillies are more or less the same, accents aside. Resulting are aesthetics that are a lot slicker and sharper than the rough cinematography from Peckinpah's classic. It may seem like an obvious update but the atmosphere of the film suffers from it, especially since this type of change is now common place in remakes. In…
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I didn't liked this very much. Just a few tension scenes and just that.
I need to see the original film! -
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Ridiculous remake. Kate Bosworth is awful, James Marsden is unintentionally hilarious at times and Alexander Skarsgard tries but is embarrassingly miscast. The film has none of the subtlety or intrigue that made the original work so well, though there are a few scenes of well done tension. The climax of the movie is so insane and mishandled that I honestly wondered if anyone involved with this remake A) saw the original and B) understood the themes/points it was trying to make. Woof.
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Pointless and tactless remake. Had to go the unbelievably cliche'd route of making the church-going south look disgusting and dimwitted. I've never liked Marsden either, even as Cyclops in X-men, he's a tool.
Lost all the intensity, alienation and isolation Peckinpah's had.
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One of those pointless remakes that tries to be extremely faithful to the original, but the changes it does make are beyond irritating. There's no sense of isolation like the original had, no foreboding sinister atmosphere, no nothing. Just a very cliched modern retelling of a classic that shouldn't have been touched.