Review of Straw Dogs (2011) by Kristijonas F — 01 Jan 2012

A mindless carbon-copy of the 1971 original, the 2011 Straw Dogs suffers from clumsy direction, scatter-shot acting and lacks even the slightest bit of insight into the nature of violence (which formed the foundation of Director Sam Peckinpah's original version).

If that isn't bad enough, this film makes so much use of heavy-handed melodrama (pretty much every interaction between the characters), outdated cultural stereotypes (the illiterate rednecks v. the witless Hollywood "intellectual") that it throws any bit of enjoyment out the window.

But what's worst is that this pile of incoherent rubbish completely fails to establish any bit of thematic build-up for the finale, so when the rednecks do finally come raping women, killing police officers and burning houses down, none of it is even slightly believable.

.. or worth watching, for that matter. To sum it up short, this film is equal in quality to Nicolas Cage's "The Wicker Man" reboot... yes, it is that thoroughly unlikeable.