Straw Dogs (7.5/10)

If you asked me earlier this year what I thought about this movie I would just have complained about them remaking an already great film. A month before it came out and I'd have said I got no intention of seeing it. Well a week before it's release is when I found out how faithful to the original this version would be. So seeing it wouldn't be a problem in my mind. Asking me what I thought walking out of the theater and I'd say "it's pretty damn good, see it if you get the chance". "Straw Dogs" keeps the story details while balancing  in some gruesome violence. A great remake. It's quite the well made product at the end of the day.

David (James Marsden) and his new wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) are moving into her childhood home in the deep south. He is a screenwriter (working on one about Stalingrad) and she was a TV actress he wrote some parts for. The town is the kind of place where everybody knows everyone else and to go against the norm is asking for some stares. Amy's old high school flame Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard) and some other men are hired to fix the old barn roof near the house. David is polite and warm to the men and the townsfolk, but he's not like them. Going into another culture is always a strange thing. David orders a round for the bar but doesn't stay for a drink and he skips out early in church. Somethings just do as the Romans would. Yet is he wrong? He's just a nice guy that has his own way of doing things. David's not calling them stupid or anything, but just has expectations from these people that just don't seem are going to be broken anytime soon. It's questions like these that make the film so fascinating. Well that and one huge plot development area that I think some people may debate on like they did with the original. The plot is wisely carried out and it makes from a satisfying and bloody finale.  It's a lot better than most will give it credit for. It's very entertaining.

7.5/10
Recommendation: You know all those "Last House on the Left" and other just redneck invasion films. Well this is their poison because it's actually so well done. It kicks their asses. I wouldn't turn it off if you got the chance.