Review of Straw Dogs (2011) by Spencer S — 27 Oct 2011

Straw Dogs: When you go to a film, you expect to have your mind tested, you assume that what you are about to see is going to make you feel for the characters and get you engaged in the plot. But when it comes to the new remake thriller Straw Dogs, I just wasn't able to find a legitimate reason as to why the film existed.

While Marsden and Bosworth do an effective job portraying the trouble-stricken couple, they don't have the right amount of heart put into their roles. Yes, it feels like they love each other, but when Marsden's character is pitted against men who make him look like a school-child to protect the woman he loves, it feels like he is just going through the motions, putting on a mask just so he can make some money.

Skarsgard, who also plays in the TV show True Blood, does an exceptional job at playing the antagonist Charlie, who, while being generally an immoral person, still has a few smoldering principles left, definitely not enough to save him in the end, though.

Straw Dogs desperately tries to be a profound film about human nature, but in the end is just another modern day horror remake that revels in the violence it was trying so hard to examine. The violent third act is meant to shock the viewer when they realize how much this wimpy writer from Hollywood is actually capable of, not make you pump your first in the air with glee because you finally get to see some gore.

I give Straw Dogs a B.