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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sheep Review: Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs, directed by Rob Lurie stars James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard (from True Blood!) and James Woods is a remake of the 1971 film of the same name. However, it is my opinion that this remake is not an improvement on the original.

Plot:
David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father's death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), leading to a violent confrontation.

Straw Dogs is unfortunately littered with boring dialog, and generic forgettable things that don't make sense in the overall story. An example is the number 44 which was used several times and you'd think it would be important to the overall story arc, but by the end we still don't know why 44's important. Also the film asks the audience to believe that all Southern communities are redneck backwoods people, which is far from the truth. Have you ever heard of a Southern gentleman? Yeah, they're out there and Southern gentlemen are a far cry from the dip sticks portrayed in this movie. Deer hunting, Friday night football games and beer drinking do not represent the entirety of Southern culture.

The plot is slow moving for most of film with no real breakthrough performances. You do get a nice dose of blood towards the ending and some very creative use of hunting equipment. James Woods, while having a secondary role, felt like the only stand out during the whole film. James Marsden, whom you may know as Scott Summers from the X-Men movies, is forced into the role of a man with no backbone but I was unable to actually believe that. I know he can kick some mutant butt, nerd dud he is not! There was no real chemistry between the main characters who were supposed to be newlyweds, their performance came off in general as flat and uninteresting. And can someone please explain to me why anyone in there right mind would run barefoot through swap infested country side? Ultimately the blandness of the characters make it difficult if not impossible for the audience to get invested in the story.

Overall the movie is pretty average but with nothing all that new being added to the remake. You won't find yourself walking away with anything too memorable from this film. Note to audiences: there is a pretty sexually graphic scene that does take place about halfway through so be warned. Another bloody flick from Hollywood but at the very least the actors get some work if nothing else.

Getting 2 and 1/2 Sweet Tea drinking Sheep
KD


4 comments:

  1. what about Alexander? Does he look good? cause sometimes that is all that matters ;)

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  2. Oh for sure he looks good, had a pretty decent southern accent going on too. But I think he's times hotter as Eric on True Blood. A few nice scenes without his shirt on....*licks lips*

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  3. "... Deer hunting, Friday night football games and beer drinking .."

    OMG! it's rural iowa! ahahahahahahahaha!

    ReplyDelete